July 4th memories. Please share.

[WILCO]

The nanny state was crying on the evils of the sparkler this morning on the radio and I was reminded of the time when I was a boy and we'd go out to my uncles farm on the 4th of July. Before my uncle started his fireworks display, all of us children would be given a sparkler to run around with in the dark! We knew that thing was red hot and nobody wanted to get burned. It was great fun to write in the air and make a light trail.
Heck, we even through them up and watched as they'd land in the cool grass. Knowing to pick them up at the right end. The best was when you were given two at the same time!

What are some of your July 4th memories?

[Trey45]

Going to the beach with aunts, uncles, cousins and other family and friends. Cooking out on the beach! Try that now and you're going to jail. Sparklers, catching fireflies, watching fireworks, falling asleep in the backseat of dads car on the long drive home.

[popper]

Holding on to a Black Cat too long.

[WILCO]

Holding on to a Black Cat too long.

Did that with a Lady Finger. Spread my thumb and index pointer wide and straight to numbsville.
Same uncle yelled at me saying "See! I told ya so!" and that was the last time I did that.

[Sensai]

Went from Virginia during a heat wave to New Rockford North Dakota during a "cool spell" to celebrate the fourth one year. I dang near froze to death!! Thank goodness those ND folks have lots of antifreeze, and know how to use it. They know how to do cookouts and fireworks displays too.

[buckwheatpaul]

While I am not happy where this country is going....I pray daily for a change in the heart of those Fed. Govt Senators and House Members. I pray that common sense and doing what our Founding Fathers intended prevails.... instead of serving their own self interest and feeding their hidden agenda....God Bless America and the Great State of Texas!

[elkhuntfever]

In the most recent years, my family will get together at The Pond. My sisters house in Mt Pleasant Michigan, which is about 2 miles from the Soaring Eagle casino. We set off our own fireworks but we can hear those at the casino and it sounds like a war over there!!
I come from large family (12 brothers and sisters) which is spread out from Alaska to Florida, Maine to California. 4th of July weekend is reunion time.

[rockrat]

At Grandads farm, shooting off fireworks and other stuff.

Remember a 4th here, shooting off stuff and it getting cold just before sundown, then white flakes falling. Next year it was 100+.

[Janoosh]

In or around Coventry, Conn. Going to the local VFW clambake......hot dogs, great corn, clams, running around like crazy with the rest of the guys, first time i ever ate a raw clam, fireworks,........ i was somewhere around 9.

[waksupi]

Sparklers make dandy bombs. Bundle them up, with one reversed for a fuse. Tape them tight with electrical or duct tape. Light the "fuse", and get away! My neighbor kids set them off this time of year. They are a half mile away, and it still rattles my windows.

[daniel lawecki]

Shooting off fireworks with Grandkids cooking out with friends going shooting. But this 4th will be spl were taking out a Colt saa in 45 1876 this is the real deal. The grandkids will tell their friends when school starts about everything we done the whole summer.

[Springfield]

My grandfather taught me if you hold the firecracker by the very end with your nails it won't hurt you..much! Wasn't brave enough to do it until I was 10. My father just laughed when I said my fingers were a bit numb, and told me his father was crazy. His memories of the 4th were his father getting all bloody after lighting all the fireworks, he did some crazy, stupid stuff. Me, when I was little we used to light all kinds of fireworks off in our driveway, loved to run around with sparklers, till they made it all illegal. Used to blow up model cars with firecrackers, that was always fun! My kids have never even seen a firecracker.

[shooter2]

I guess I am a bit older. We had sparklers, but also black cats, hammer heads, cherry bombs and M80's. To the best of my knowledge no one was ever injured. Great memories!

[km101]

I guess I am a bit older. We had sparklers, but also black cats, hammer heads, cherry bombs and M80's. To the best of my knowledge no one was ever injured. Great memories!

Yep, we had cherry bombs and M80's too! I still had a couple of M80's until a couple of years ago, when I set them off to show my grandkids what "real" firecrackers were! LOL

My favorite memory of the 4th was: my dad taking me to see my first professional baseball game on the 4th when I was 6 years old. That started my love of the game!

[41 mag fan]

My memory of the 4th is/was doing everything that the general pansy public thinks is so so so horribly wrong now.

[elk hunter]

My maternal grandmother loved picnics. One forth-of-July in the early 50's we drove up the local river to a place called "Meadow Camp". While my Grandmother, mother and my aunts were getting everything ready, it clouded up and started to snow. That didn't mean we were going home, no way! we were there and grandma was going to have her picnic. I can't drive past the turn off to "Meadow Camp" without thinking about my Grandmother and her forth-of-July picnic all those years ago.

[27judge]

The morning of the 4th of July 1959 I came home from a 2 year tour of duty in North Africa on a 30 day leave U S Navy. Wow that's a long time ago tks KEN

[Idaho Mule]

Our whole family would gather at the ranch on Jenkin's Creek, Weiser, Idaho. Big cook- out and picnic.Lots of fireworks but we had to light them in adult approved places as things were pretty dry. We never burned the place down but we sure blew alot of stuff up. My dad and uncles would always go up the creek in the evening to our upper orchard and return with a few fresh mule deer to hang in the cooler. Just the way life was back then. These days we are all gathered at my place, the little ranch near Viola, Idaho. My brothers, sisters, cousins, a whole herd of kids of all ages. We will enjoy a feast of pulled pork later today, some fire works, some shooting and visiting with each other. It's good to see them all.
God Bless America. JW

[Dale in Louisiana]

1976 - Baumholder, Germany: Our armor battalion was in the middle of the gunnery phase of the annual training cycle. We took a break from slinging twenty-six pound projectiles at 3850 FPS to go sit with families for an Independence Day celebration. The Army had fireworks, but they didn't stir nearly as much adrenaline as popping the cap on a high velocity 105.

dale in Louisiana

[WILCO]

Great replies! Keep them coming!

[Outpost75]

“The role of government and its relationship to the individual has been changed so radically that today government is involved in almost every aspect of our lives. Political, economic and racial forces have developed which we have not yet learned to understand or control. If we are ever to master these forces, make certain that government will belong to the people, not the people to the government, and provide for the future better than the past, we must somehow learn from the experiences of the past.”

Bernard Baruch, presenting his papers to Princeton University at the age of 93, as published in The New York Times, 11 May 1964.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/pricepaid.asp

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2355434/Rarely-seen-photographs-capture-Americans-enjoying-unalienable-rights-enshrined-Declaration-Independence.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0104/Could-you-pass-a-US-citizenship-test/Who-signs-bills?cmpid=sectionpromo&nav=89-csm_category-secPromo

[Outpost75]

“The role of government and its relationship to the individual has been changed so radically that today government is involved in almost every aspect of our lives. Political, economic and racial forces have developed which we have not yet learned to understand or control. If we are ever to master these forces, make certain that government will belong to the people, not the people to the government, and provide for the future better than the past, we must somehow learn from the experiences of the past.”

Bernard Baruch, presenting his papers to Princeton University at the age of 93, as published in The New York Times, 11 May 1964.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/pricepaid.asp

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2355434/Rarely-seen-photographs-capture-Americans-enjoying-unalienable-rights-enshrined-Declaration-Independence.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0104/Could-you-pass-a-US-citizenship-test/Who-signs-bills?cmpid=sectionpromo&nav=89-csm_category-secPromo

[Char-Gar]

4 July 1958 found me in a hospital recovering from knee surgery to repair a sports injury and my mother brought me a cake in the shape of a firecracker. It cheered me up considerable.

On the downside, my wife's son was killed on this day in a motorcycle accident (1986) and the back of the Confederacy was broken at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863. I think I can still hear the wheels of the 17 mile long wagon train carrying off the Southern dead and wounded and going south from Gettysburg. The Federals has a mountain of corpses to deal with as well. Awful, awful time for this country.

[gandydancer]

The 4th of July TOWN celebration in my home town CALAIS MAINE. lots of food. music. dancing. free Beer for the grown ups. root beer for the kids. parades.our sister city across from Calais ST Stephen new Brunswick would celebrate with us.town fathers running around in silly costumes.Band concerts at the park.and the parades. the 1st one I remember was 1946 my mom took me. first there was an old Maxwell car(no top on it) in the back seat was two civil war vets in their uniforms. next some Spanish american war vets. then a whole lot of world war 1 vets. then world war 11 vets. Canadian vets from both wars. and then the north west mounted police. in their red uniforms ON HORSE BACK, about fifty of them all in perfect step with one another.and this would go on all day and all night. It was the most magnificent event I have ever been a part of for so many wonderful years. it stopped around 1976. it was nothing like it used to be. I loved it all.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO YOU ALL. Tom/Gandy

[slide]

In the small town I grew up in everybody went to the public park on the 4th. Fireworks popped all day. Nobody cared. It was good. The last time I went it is now a king sized flea market with too many drunks stumbling around. Things change. Sometimes not for the good.

[MT Gianni]

I remember my son and his friends sending all the neighborhood dogs into hiding more than once with their homemade fireworks. My BIL remembers it as the last time he had two eyes 40 some years ago. He lost one at a city fireworks display that went into the stands. Stay safe.

[David2011]

When I was a kid my brother, sister and I stayed with our Grandparents for a few weeks each summer. We tried to always make sure we were witht eh set of Grandparents that lived in Carlsbad, NM for Independence Day. The Pecos River runs through Carlsbad and is dammed for a little hydroelectric generator that was in place back then so the river was more like a small lake. There were tons of festivities at the park alongside the river at the beach. The first time I saw a radio controlled airplane was there. It had to be flying with a tube type radio and big 90 volt batteries. Most R/C was flown by ham operators in the early '60s. Of course, the highlight was the fireworks over the river. There is something special to me about a body of water under the shellbursts. As an adult I lived on Clear Lake in the Houston area and the communities surrounding the lake funded a huge display which had sound synched through local radio station. The sight of thousands of boats anchored out, grilling and partying, the fighter jets making low passes at hair-on-fire speeds and the huge fireworks display over water were memorable. I think that was the only day of the year some boats left their slips. It was easy to tell by watching them try to anchor.

My boolit casting/ reloading/ gunsmithing mentor left this world on July 4 a few years ago. He wa such a patriot that it was fitting for him to go to his reward on this day. I miss him terribly but am fortunate to be surrounded by the things he taught me to use. Before he died I bought his lathe, mill, drill press and all of his reloading and casting gear. I will work for a while today setting some of that gear in my new workshop. After that I will enjoy some fine American spirits and watch the city fireworks from my back yard.

God Bless America and help us hold onto our Republic!

Happy Independence Day to all,
David

[historicfirearms]

Sparklers make dandy bombs. Bundle them up, with one reversed for a fuse. Tape them tight with electrical or duct tape. Light the "fuse", and get away! My neighbor kids set them off this time of year. They are a half mile away, and it still rattles my windows.


Awesome. I thought sparklers were boring. I've got a 5 year old and a 3 year old and bought them a pack of sparklers yesterday. Dad will have to save a box of them for himself this year. The things you learn here...

[10-x]

Vietnam, 1972, Company cook out with COLD beer, burgers and hot dogs. Later at dark, some .50 cal tracer rounds were "modified" into "fireworks". Many good times since but never the same feeling.

[MT Gianni]

Awesome. I thought sparklers were boring. I've got a 5 year old and a 3 year old and bought them a pack of sparklers yesterday. Dad will have to save a box of them for himself this year. The things you learn here...

A dozen of them taped tight will clean out a culvert. You can also extend one 3" or so for a fuse.

[Beau Cassidy]

My coolest experience was about 4 years ago sitting on the end of the flight deck of the USS Midway in San Diego Harbor. There were no less than about 6 really good fireworks shows at once.

[rush1886]

Of course the fireworks! Store-bought or homemade, it was all good! Don't know how many of you ever tried to make homemade firecrackers, using a roll of caps, like for the toy guns we used to be able to play with, a little masking tape and string soaked in candle wax for a fuse. You really couldn't produce a lot of them in a short time frame, but they were LOUD! More noise than some store-bought.

My favorite memory though, is that the 4th was generally the first occasion of the summer, to make homemade ice cream! Using of course an ol' hand-cranked bucket, alot of ice and even more, seemed like anyway, rock salt. And many tired, sore arms! No matter the flavor, ours was usually vanilla, strawberry or banana, store-bought just never tasted quite so good!

[MakeMineA10mm]

When I was really little, dad always volunteered to work the OT shift for the Fire Dept., being on the crew of the truck at the fireworks. So, I got to watch them from on top of the fire truck -- not much better for a 5-6 year old. (Every year he also was given all the seized, illegal fireworks by the police, "for disposal," which we usually did when we got home that night. :) )

When I was 18, my shooting/handloading mentor (who happened to be an FFL, lived on a few acres in the country, and was the father of my best friend) introduced me to an acquaintence in May. I learned he was a chemistry professor (Ph.D.) at the local university, and his latest professional interest was making professional-grade, home-made fireworks. Cardboard mortar tubes, #8 shot, a chemical mixture thought to be too risky to be trusted to me in my youth :/ , and wrapping some shells, and we were in business. Actually got a permit from the county and FAA and that was a spectacularly fun July 4th!!

The best ones, though, have been watching my daughter enjoy the fireworks over the last few years. This year, now that she's the right age, we got to talk all day about why we celebrate the 4th. What the Declaration of Independence says, why it was and is significant for the whole world, and why we must be careful and guard its principles.

[pmeisel]

As a young'un, I remember my dad always took the time to take us to the fireworks. It was one of those special family things. Funny, my kids didn't like them until they were teenagers.

[Love Life]

I think watermelon.

On the 4th of July my grandfather would buy a huge watermelon. He would cut it up on news papers and we would eat it on news papers on this large granite slab table he had in the back yard. After we ate the watermelon we would walk to the town square and watch the fireworks.

[twotrees]

Thomas Jefferson said that the 4th of July was a day for ringing bells and shooting of guns. When I lived in SW Pa. I took him at his word. Early on the 4th I would load up a lot of guns and ammo and take all the neighborhood kids (That had parents OK) in my old pickup truck and went to the gun club (CrowFoot R&GC). Since no-one else was there, I would take each kid out on the line, go through the operation of the gun they had selected, and let them fire 5 rounds. This went on until everyone had tried what they wanted to fire. Then, Everybody would select the one gun they liked and we would all move to the line together. At my command they would all open fire with as many rounds as their gun held. Then they all would have to show me their gun was safe, before they could retire from the line and pack-up their gun. Back home the wife would have a picnic lunch ready for us. I got to unload and clean all the guns, after lunch. The whole town would go to the High School football field for the town's fireworks display. Try that today and I would be in Jail for child abuse or some other charge.