113) I NEED a 4th of July

Georgeo from The Ticket described 4th of July as one his favorite holidays.  He LOVES fireworks and loves the idea of being outside with his family grilling food and celebrating Merrika!  My 4th of July outlook is much different.  And lame.  For me, the 4th of July is a long weekend and nothing more.

In my 35 previous July 4th's I can only remember 1 of them.  It was a summer I spent in Pampa, TX where a group of kids (I cannot remember any of them) bought a bunch of black cats and M-60's and set them off outside another kids house in the middle of the night.  And by middle of the night, I mean middle of the night by kid's standards.  We stayed in a trailer where the kids had free reign to do whatever.  We snuck out, took the golf cart around to pick up our friends in the subdivision and then we ended up at our destination around 11pm.  We parked down the street and snuck up to the kid's double wide.  We each stood under a window in the front, counted to 3 and lit our black cats and M-60s.  We dropped them and ran behind cars in the driveway, where we snickered loudly at our master plan to scare our friend.

What we did not count on was our friend's dad.  The firecrackers went off, lasting about 25 seconds of ear busting explosions from all directions, and the dad stormed out of the trailer hollering how he was going to find us and kill us!  We were so scared that we instantly sprinted in all directions, leaving the golf cart parked down the street.  I ran toward the back of the trailer where it was much darker and easier to hide.  I could hear the dad chasing some of my friends, and eventually he caught one of them.  He carried him back to the double wide and for a minute I was horrified.  However, I learned a few moments later that he was only messing with us.  He thought our trick was funny and eventually invited us all to come inside to watch Nightmare On Elm Street 3.

Incidentally, Nightmare on Elm Street 3 was the first horror movie I had ever seen.   It scared the crap out of me, and kept me from falling asleep cleanly for like the next 3 years.

I tell all of this because I think it is time to find a 4th of July tradition that gets me excited about this holiday.  Not sure what that could be.  My brain may be tired from work, but the only things I can think aren't much better than the forgettable things I've done the last 35 years.  Any thoughts?  Anyone?