O America

Okay, we didn't do all that much for Canada Day. I mean, we didn't even manage to get the flag out until the day after, but you can't expect much for Canada Day in Texas. Sadly, we didn't really do all that much for Independence Day either. I did manage to get the flag out before the day we were celebrating passed us by, at least.

In fact, we've had it up every day leading up to Independence Day as well.

I try to practice proper flag etiquette, including bringing the flag in at night, since we don't have a light on it, and bringing the flag in during inclement weather. That last one is really hard here in Houston, however, because rainstorms come almost daily, and they appear out of nowhere. It can be a beautiful sunny day with a sky full of fluffy happy white clouds and 11:00 and a booming thunderstorm downpour by noon. If I'm not paying attention, the flag gets soaked, and then it's better to just leave it out there so that the wind can dry it off, and minimize the possible damage.

On the day before the Fourth, also known as the third, we had some friends over for a barbecue and pool party. However, we had to pull the flag down, and cancel the pool party part because another storm came rolling in. Seems like we've had rain nearly every day for the last two months. It would be nice if we could share it around a little with the drought stricken areas of the country.

I still had to cook our chicken on the barbecue. Luckily, the rain let up just enough that I could get that done without getting soaked. We ate inside rather than on our patio furniture. We sat around, hung out, and had a good time.

Our dessert was pretty cool. My wife made a fruit pizza...that is a big sugar cookie with a cream cheese topping, and pieces of fruit on top if you've never heard of such a thing. It was a very patriotic presentation.

We even managed to get a little swimming in...the little kids did, anyway. They ran out and jumped in the pool during a lull in the rain, and had a splashing, screaming good time.

At the end of the night, my wife and the older girls, decided that they would watch Calamity Jane, the old Doris Day movie from 1953. My friend, a firebug if there ever was one, decided that the rest of us could spend the evening getting the last of the fireworks we were going to buy for the next day...well, he could do that, I wasn't planning on getting any. We were thinking of going to the city's Fourth of July celebration rather than buy any of our own fireworks.

My son and all of the younger kids wanted to come and pick out fireworks, so we piled our big group into the car, and drove around, checking out the various fireworks booths that seemed to be everywhere. I tried to steer my son clear of insisting on buying any fireworks, but at the last fireworks stand my friend said he would pay for $5 worth of fireworks for each kid. My son latched right on to that idea.

He started picking fireworks, and I helped guide him in his picks and then paid for them myself despite not originally intending to get any. I wasn't going to let my friend pay for my kid, even though I suspect he fully intended to. We wound up with $20 worth of our own fireworks that we would have to set off at some point.

Before they left, our friends made sure we understood that we were invited over to participate in their fireworks show. They always buy tons of fireworks, and we had witnessed last year just how crazy their show could get. I knew that my son would like that the most, but I was a little nervous, because I wasn't sure about whether fireworks were legal in our area or not. It seemed safer to just go to the city celebration rather than risk a fine if the cops came rolling up.

When the actual Fourth arrived, we didn't really do a whole lot. We sat around the house for most of the day and watched a lot of TV. We had a barbecue in the backyard, eating some hamburgers, then sat down to watch a movie.

We still didn't know if we were going to the city fireworks or our friends' fireworks. My wife had heard that morning that the city celebration might get canceled because of rain, but so far there hadn't been any rain all day.

Because of watching Calamity Jane the night before, the girls were all in favor of another Doris Day movie. Doris is not a big commodity these days, I suppose, because we couldn't find her movies streaming anywhere. We wound up picking Top Secret instead, which is one of those hilarious movies by the same guys who brought you Airplane! and Naked Gun. The jokes may be pretty juvenile, but I still enjoyed them, and since they were so juvenile even the nine-year-old got most of the jokes...and the ones he didn't get were the ones he shouldn't get, so that was good.

As the movie was coming to an end, I texted our friends to see if they were doing fireworks. It was getting pretty dark. Everybody seemed fine about just sitting around and doing nothing but watch TV, but I couldn't do that myself. It seemed like a big waste to do nothing on the Fourth of July.

I didn't get a response from our friends, and they didn't pick up when I called either. In the end, we figured we would just go out in the front yard and do our $20 worth of fireworks. The boy was most excited about doing the sparkler that was in the shape of a sword, which I can understand having been a nine-year-old boy once myself.

We went out and lit up the sword, and he waved it around. I handed my wife my phone so I could have my hands free to light the next firework, and she saw that our friends had responded to our text, and told us to come over, because the fireworks had just begun. We all dashed inside to get shoes and chairs to sit on, then drove off. 

You wouldn't believe some of the fireworks you can buy in Texas...at least if you grew up in a place like I did in Sacramento. The fireworks available are the opposite of safe and sane. I had friends who would buy fireworks in Wyoming on their summer vacations and bring them back to California. That was the only way you could get bottle rockets, roman candles, or firecrackers, but the fireworks available for purchase at the local fireworks stand put all of those erstwhile illicit pyrotechnics to shame. Look at this one, for example:

That is two mortars shooting off. That's right, mortars. My grandpa's generation was using them to shell Nazis, now we celebrate Independence Day with them.

Look at this one too. It makes me think of what comes out of military attack helicopters.

Considering the fireworks I could have as a kid, it's hilarious that when that particular firework came to an end, folks complained that it was too short. My friend did not find it to be worth the money he had paid for it. I can understand that, I guess, but that's why I've always preferred to go watch the city's fireworks. A) Less danger of your hand blowing up, and 2) absolutely free (aside from the taxes collected to put the show on, which would be assessed whether I attended or not).

I always complain about how hard it is to get decent fireworks video at work to use for B-Roll in July, so I decided I would get a bunch more video of fireworks. Some of it is of the wimpy fireworks that my son and I bought, and others is of the Unsafe and Insane fireworks that my friend bought. You can check them out if you like below. It'll almost be like being right there with us in the driveway watching along.

Yeah, that last one was mine, obviously.

In the end, we had some fun. I'm really glad I went to my friend's house to watch his show instead of chickening out because of nebulous legalities. We'll see what we do next year. Maybe we'll go to the city's fireworks for real, or maybe we'll be at our friends' house again. Either way, I'm going to be certain to make the decision earlier.

Happy Fourth, everyone. Let freedom ring.