Happy 4th of July

I miss the 4th of July. Not in a sense of the historical significance or the sacrifices that soldiers old (me) and new have made to protect the document this day is so celebrated for but in a sense of missing the things that make the 4th so American.

Growing up in Seattle, you could by fireworks at any of the multitude of rickety stands that popped up the week before the 4th where you could buy anything from sparklers to big pre-packaged boxes for families. I lived in a cul-de-sac and every 4th everyone would come out and for a big BBQ and cherry stem tying contests, egg tosses, sack races, just pure Americana. There was the prototypical drunk dad, sobbing mom, one bottle rocket setting off a whole box of fireworks on accident.

As an adult we would all go to the big festivals that all the larger cities put on. One year I sat on the hill at Gasworks park in Seattle. One year I spent watching the Gasworks show on my friends dad's boat who was the pier Marshall. We were so close, the spent fizzle rained down on us. The last year in Seattle, 1998, I was in my kayak parked a hundred yards from the fireworks barge with some friends.

In Phoenix, you can't light a fart without something catching fire. So you can't buy anything, anywhere. Oh sure you can go illegal, but trust me I have blown up more things than you could ever imagine when I was in the infantry. Once you 'accidently' blow up a building with the wrong sachel of C-4, everything else looses it's luster. Oh it only cost $30,000 for the Army to replace the building but having the envy of an entire fort-priceless.

As I have gotten older my desire to sit in traffic for an hour just to get to the freeway has diminished. With the Mighty Mo and his whole thing, we don't fee like sitting in 110 degrees all day for a 30 minute show. I watch it on tv and that's about it. I am not big into crowds for long periods of time, triathlons swims notwithstanding.

Whatever you do today, do it with spirit. We are the only country in the world that can focus the beginning of its nationality to one specific day, one moment in time, July 4, 1776. Every other country became what it became due to population shifts, technology over time or geographics. America became independent on July 4th because of a concept, a willpower to be free. Let freedom ring.