Weekend Assignment

Weekend Assignment 118: Share some favorite memories of July 4th. You can do it by telling a story or showing some of your favorite pictures of the day -- or both! Pretty simple, because, after all, all of here in the US have lots of July 4th memories.

For those of you in Canada, your favorite July 1st memories will do just fine.

Extra credit: Note your other favorite historical event that happened on July 4th (here's a list). Birthdays/deaths of notable people count as well.

Firstly, as you can tell, I rarely do these anymore (I used to do this every weekend). Now, onto the memories. (I've got two of them. Sorry, I couldn't pick just one.)

1-We always go to the same fireworks, even when we lived in a different town (half an hour from this one). It's a two day celebration (but we only go to the July 4th celebration, not the July 3rd-no fireworks at that one). There's bands and food and games and then, July 4th, fireworks. :) I have ALWAYS hated dancing in front of people but every year, without fail, I was dragged up out of my comfortable seat on the blanket, snacking on some thing we'd brought with us or on fried dough ::salivates:: Either my grandma or my mom would drag me up to dance with them to the covers the band was playing. (Never any original music. Ever. Just covers of songs you could dance to.) I'd barely move. I was so scared that everyone was looking at me that I couldn't dance. I didn't know how to. You see, I never had that carefree childs view that allowed me to just *dance*. I've always been too self-conscious. (Seriously. At my grandma's wedding reception, I cried because my mom made me dance.) But regardless, after a little while, I'd relax a bit, if I didn't sit back down, stubbornly. I still hate dancing but my parents never fought on the 4th of July. Not that I can remember. I'll always remember spreading out the blanket, eating those stupid snacks we brought with us, and being forced to dance. Until it got dark and Mom and I went to get fried dough. To this day, I *have* to get fried dough on the 4th and to this day I never finish it. That was longer than I expected.

2-One year, it kept raining off and on. It was a crapshoot if they'd still shoot off the fireworks. So we went home and got out *our* fireworks. Now, I live in New York. Where all fireworks are illegal. Sofirst we got out the sparklers and us kids (it was my family and my mom's best friend's family-my auntie Lori) played with them for a while til they were gone. (I, stupidly, touched the end of mine and burnt my fingers. Never made that mistake again.) Once it got dark enough, we took the larger fireworks out in the "back 40" (the unfenced in part of our yard) and Dad and Dan (aunt Lori's now ex-husband) set off the fireworks. They nearly set our neighbor's tree on fire too! After that, we went back inside for a bit. The cops kept coming by so we'd have to run inside. Finally, we decided to let off some more but this time women and children stayed on the porch (looking through the windows) while the men set off the fireworks. It was probably one of the most fun Independence Days I've had. It was also the year my dad picked on Jon for having an earring.

That's all I'm going to share.

Extra Credit: I'm a New York girl. I gotta pick the start of the construction on the Erie Canal in Rome, NY in 1817. What can I say? When some of your earliest memories include feeding ducks on the canal, you gotta pick it. Second favorite? NY got rid of slavery in 1827. :)