January 4th - Fourth of July

3:00pm

It seems like such a strange thing to be working on the Fourth of July.  This is the first holiday of this month long project where I would normally not be working (yes, my place of employment would require us to work on Labor Day), so it is definitely throwing me off.  But the show must go on, as they say (who is this “they” anyway...they seem to say a lot), and I won’t let the feeling that I should be chugging my 4^th PBR by this time get in my way.

The Fourth of July, or Independence Day, is the quintessential American holiday (unless you want to get cynical and say that the uber-commercialism of Black Friday says more about American culture than anything else…ok yup, I’ll say that too).  It commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the day that we stood up against alien invaders…

 

Growing up, the Fourth of July was incorporated into a festival called Heritage Days.  Bath, Maine is a city that is big on its history, so this celebration was always a huge town event.   It was an encapsulation of summer, where bike rides and swimming in ponds were the only activities on the agenda.  There were craft fairs, bands, a triathlon, and a fair that nestled itself under and around the Carlton Bridge (and later the Sagadahoc Bridge).  This would later become our high school late night hangout spot, where we would mindlessly cruise up and down the street,  trying to figure out where to find alcohol. Ohhhh the memories.

The Fourth of July parade is what I miss the most about the Heritage Days, because it is one of the biggest in Maine.  I actually got a chance to march in it in sixth grade with the Bath Middle School band.  I played the flute…because my parents figured that middle school wasn’t going to be awkward enough.

 Our hero and his little brother enjoy the Fourth of July Parade (circa when I wasn't fat)

Like with every day in this project, I’ve started thinking more about why we make such a big deal about our nation’s day of independence.  Why is it such a huge part of American culture to remember an event that took place 236 years ago when we can barely control ourselves when our phones don’t load fast enough?  How can we hold to that kind of tradition when we dub something obsolete the instant something bigger, faster, and shinier comes out?

I think it’s because the Fourth of July represents something that is often missing in today’s society.  Yes, our Founding Fathers were patriotic and learned and ideological.  But they were also ballsy.   On one side, we had a group of people who were underrepresented and underfunded.  On the other, we had an empire on which the Sun never sat.  To stick a middle finger in the air in defiance of that is something that requires a steadfastness of resolve and a belief of purpose that is well…ballsy.

We used to have that in this country.  We used to make things (not money, THINGS) and we used to do things.  We used to say what we mean and mean what we say.  And while we may still live in a country that is the greatest in the entire world, that doesn’t mean that we’re always the greatest that we ourselves can be.  And I think the Fourth of July, beyond gallons of beer and miles of hot dogs, can remind us of the fact that we can be better, to those around us and to those on the opposite end of the country.  It can remind us that this nation was built, not on differences, but on the commonality of belief that freedom and liberty were not catchy buzz words but were in fact ideals worth fighting for.

And, it reminds us that George Read, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, John Morton, Benjamin Rush, George Ross, James Smith, James Wilson, George Taylor, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Lewis Morris, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, William Floyd, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe, Thomas Nelson, Jr., William Hooper, John Penn, Joseph Hewes, Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Thomas Heyward, Jr.,  Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Samuel Huntington, Roger Sherman, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, Charles Carroll, Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, and William Paca all had something more in mind for us when they signed their names to the document that proclaimed our freedom.

They had such high hopes for us.  And as we all know, the worst thing that your parents can say is “I’m disappointed in you.”  That, and “Sorry, Lars, but we’re still not taking you to Disney World.”

I ran into my own kind of tyranny today while attempting to celebrate our nation’s b-day.  My building manager refused to allow me to shoot off fireworks in my office, and she put her foot down about bringing in my grill to have a cook-out at lunch.  I was able to get over the first hurdle in this way:

10:39pm

After a successful round of trivia (Team Watson got 2^nd place), I wanted to come back to make an update about the Fourth of July Cookout (in January).

 Tonight's cookout was cooked on only the finest of grilling apparatus (George Foreman makes a mean grill)...

 

A couple of dogs with Mrs. Campbell's Chow-Chow (why they made a relish with a dog food name, I'll never know), some chips, a PBR tallboy, and a Christmas table cloth...yup, that's the Fourth of July in a nutshell...

And soon, it was time for sparklers...I'm pretty sure every time is the time for sparklers...

...I believe Amiss thinks so too...