This is my second 4th of July as an American living in England. Last year, I don't think I did anything. This year, however, I've discovered that the local Hard Rock Café is giving free beer to people who can present an American passport. Free beer! Woo-hoo!

Posted by: Graham at July 4, 2005 10:26 AM

I love that story, Wil. Have fun with your family, HAPPY 4TH. :)

Posted by: Quincey at July 4, 2005 10:33 AM

Thanks for sharing this story again Wil...I loved it in the book and I loved reading it again here. I'm picturing your great-great-great-aunt laughing hysterically right now! :) Happy Independence Day to you and your family! Freedom rules!!!

Posted by: zeelv at July 4, 2005 11:03 AM

wil: thanks for the reminder of your 4th of july story...even if you hadn't mentioned it...i still would think of it...because a really good story like that doesn't just get written down on paper...it also gets written in your heart...happy indepedance day to you and your family...and to all WWDN'rs.

Posted by: d. burr at July 4, 2005 11:57 AM

Always one of my favourite stories of yours, wil :-) Happy Independence Day.

Posted by: tim at July 4, 2005 12:33 PM

I enjoyed reading that story as much this year as I did last year when I first started visiting. Happy Independence Day to you, and the rest of my neighbours to the south.

Posted by: Heccubus at July 4, 2005 02:59 PM

Unfortunately I'm spending this Fourth home sick in bed (just got up for the first time today). While I appreciate seeing the fireworks piece again (Fourth of July traditions rock!!!1!) What really made my day was the Dave Alvin/X reference right at the beginning of the post! Nice touch Wil, thanks!

Posted by: Punxking at July 4, 2005 03:19 PM

*snorts with laughter* reminds me of the 4th of July that my nephew Kody and I almost set one of our trees on fire with a Roman Candle (not the dynamite kind, the firework kind)....come to think of it, that was the year that Kody lit a sparkler off of a Roman Candle...*shakes her head at her crazy nephew*

Posted by: shewhobeatsass at July 4, 2005 06:55 PM

Now I every year on July 4th I will be wondering if Ryan and Nolan are being forced into lawn chairs, watching you light groundflowers. That and I'll never be able to keep a straight face whenever someone mentions lawn chairs.
I miss fireworks. When I was little my dad used to do a small display for the family at our house on Guy Fawkes Day. But then fireworks became banned by the government. Then we moved to Australia (from New Zealand) and in Australia they don't have Guy Fawkes Day. So now the only fireworks I get to see are on TV on New Years, and for stuff like the Olympics.

Posted by: Zkid at July 4, 2005 07:40 PM

Happy Interdependence Day Wil!  :P

Last year was not good for my family since my mother was rushed to the emergency room due to enstrangulated intestines. (NOT a great topic for the 4th of July.) Sadly there was a lot of decay, but the surgeon did a great job of cleaning and removing most of the damage. This year is the one-year anniversary of the survival of that awful event. I agree with you that "4th of July" is about family (along with "Throughout The Years").

It's important to be grateful for the family and friends we have. It would be nice to count you as a friend, but we have never met. I had moved from La Puente years ago because our neighborhood (at that time) was going to hell in an express elevator due to the surrounding violence. I miss California and its upbeat pace. I use to work in one of those "offices" in one of the homes NORTH of Sunset Blvd. I've worked for the same business next to Venice Beach. (I used to go to the Juice Bar and have shots of sweet wheat grass juice.) It was always a pleasure to return "Home" and enjoy the neighborhood I grew up in. That too, is now a vacated history.

We Americans take a lot for granted (Places, things, people, et cetera) and we forget about those who fought for the privilege we now have. We get indignant at a drop of a hat when things don't go "Our" way. But luckily, I have found a class of people that I care about. I have found people who actually have more ACTIVE than REACTIVE minds. They are drawn together by a flame that has good ideas, ideals, and heart. These people I consider my extended family who are your peers and YOU are the flame. Yes, many times things don't work out for you. Yes, occasionally you suffer from "Foot In Mouth" disease (and who here hasn't?). You are passionate for just causes and willing to humble yourself when you are responsible for things that go awry. Not many would bare responsibility for BOTH their credits and their faults. (But enough of the accolades.)

The individuals who visit your Blog and AudBlogs (and more) are independent thinkers who share their ideas and passions with you. I have seen countless times where people come here because of your NAME, and STAY because of your IDEALS. As for me, (and this is RARE of me to use "expressive" language), I don't give a RAT'S ASS about Celebrity Titles, or stardom. Everyone has different strengths, educations, skills, and jobs. In all these things, no one is BETTER than me, because I consider them my equal. I tend to shun people who believe that they are ABOVE me. I am glad that you are not one of those people. I consider you an EQUAL and there is no greater compliment that I can currently give. If people don't say this to you enough, then let me say THANK YOU. -Dusty

P.S. I miss the metal rod sparklers.
P.P.S. You are overdue for an Audblog!  ; )

Posted by: DustyTymes at July 4, 2005 07:59 PM

Happy Fourth of July to you Wil!

I hope you and your family had a great 4th! I'm with you on what the 4th of July means. We live in a great country and we should all appreciate it more. Your right, spending it with the ones you love means more than anything. The best to all of you:)P.S. Can't wait to hear about Just a Geek!!

Posted by: JCade at July 4, 2005 08:07 PM

As usual, a great piece of writing! I hope you and your family have a great Fourth of July!

Posted by: Random Amy at July 4, 2005 08:26 PM

Thanks for reposting that. I read it just a few days ago thanks to the link in your Salshdot interview - it still cracks me up!

Posted by: Ben at July 4, 2005 09:24 PM

I love that story... reminds me of nicer times, like last year's Fourth of July. We had some really nice fireworks, and my friends and I got to light them in our field for everyone else. It was all muddy and there were mosquitoes everywhere, and each time we'd light them, we would follow our motto: "Light them and run like hell!"

Anyway, sorry, I got on a tangent there. Totally sorry. Have a nice Fourth, Wil! (Or at least I hope you had one, because it's rather late...)

Posted by: Sangri at July 4, 2005 09:27 PM

I never get tired of that story, Wil. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Happy 4th to you! Hope you and the family had a good one!

Posted by: LolaGabanna at July 4, 2005 09:58 PM

I love this story. This was the first one I ever read and it made me smile and it's the one that hooked me on the site.

I reread this one in your book constantly and I never get tired of reading it.

Good job.

Posted by: Devyn at July 4, 2005 10:33 PM

I LOVE that story! I think I'm going to go to that chapter and read the WEHOLE story!

:)

Happy 4th everyone! May we become independent from Bush some day!

Posted by: Scott T at July 4, 2005 11:09 PM

To some it's about blowing shit up, for others it's about celebrating freedom... For me, it's about family...

(D) All of the above

Got to teach my almost-2-year-old the word "boom" and how to laugh and smile about colorful fireworks rather than crying and burying his face.

THAT'S what it's about to me.

Oh yeah, and the 4,000 duct-taped sparkler sparkler-bomb. That was rock-star-style heat.

Posted by: jslicer at July 5, 2005 09:38 AM

This story made me spit my glass of milk halfway across the room. Totally funny! And your poor great-aunt! That's what really makes it funny. My husband and I have a joke that EVERYTHING is funnier on fire. Older relatives are no exception. I hope you tell this story every 4th of July for years to come.

Posted by: porkerella at July 5, 2005 03:34 PM

Loved that story the first time I read it - Been a reader of yours for years.

Just wanted to let you know that July 4th now holds a special place in this Canadian's heart, as my wife gave birth to our daughter late Monday night.

We live in a bordertown, so now every 4th when the fireworks go off, my little girl will get a special treat for her birthday.

But I'll thank you not to light the fuse around her. haha.

Posted by: Derek Brown at July 7, 2005 05:40 AM

This is totally off topic of your post. But a strange congruence of events. As you say you are a Type A I believe you will read this, which is cool, and cannot reply personally, also cool. It's just a ... very strange coinkydink.



You see, last weekend I hijacked from a good friend's house [he is in Italy for a month, the bastard] the entire ST:TNG series on DVD. Basically I had just watched DS9 all in a row for the1st time, all 7 seasons on DVD [also borrowed from him], and was bereft when it was over. I had never seen DS9 before. Didn't like it when it came out as it was too different from TNG, and I missed Picard. But when I watched it now, as a 30-something, I was entranced. And I missed Starfleet after 7 weeks of immersion. So I borrowed the TNG DVDs and I have been watching them, a good 3-4 eps a night in a row, consecutively, for the past several days. [I am not a TV watchin' loser, ok? I have a huge cross stitch wedding gift to finish up and I like to watch DVDs while I stitch... and this thing is seriously overdue and needs to be worked on every spare moment. So, yay! DVDs!]. This experience of re-watching TNG is a bit different, bc I had never watched DS9 at all, but I *had* seen all of TNG when it came out, on TV, watched it faithfully and loved it. [Plus saw the movies, I admit it, whee!]



In fact, I just last night finished up the ep where Wesley kisses the shapeshifter chicka. I am such a Trek geek these days I found myself thinking, "that's odd, there are shapeshifters in the Alpha Quadrant??? But no Founders? What up wit dat???"



This would make one believe I went looking for a TNG site online but NO! That I did not! That's the weird bit. I *was* just posting in my own blog [elsewhere] about how Cmdr Will Riker is my secret boyfriend, and how I threw a needle puller at my TV last night bc HEY YOU STARFLEET HO QUIT FLIRTING WITH MY BOYFRIEND BC I AM FROM THE 'HOOD AND I WILL KICK YOUR ASS I SWEAR TO GOD...



ahem...Anyway, I was posting this in my blog to my friends' amusement, my current fantasy/obsession [yes, I'll admit it, it's a sexual thang] with Jonathan Frakes *rowr* and I was also reading a blog I regularly check out called Everyday Goddess, and looking for something else to link to that slavering fan grrl post about how HAHT Cmdr Riker is and ROWR and does anyone know of a site where I could buy a holographic Will Riker bc I swear to god I will take out a 2nd mortgage to buy one... when I saw the name of this site as one of EG's fave blogs and...and... whoa nelly... could it be?



And it is and here I am. And it is and there you are!



I am not a prof writer and I know I am not conveying how incredibly odd/cool/surreal this moment is, but perhaps you will understand if I reference your page on going to Pasadena and it's throw back to an earlier time, and earlier you, and how you once again become that teenager when you meet up with your TNG co-stars ...

Bc, as I was posting in my blog [which led to some cool comments/discussion about who we wanted to bang on TNG when it first came out, and are you a Picard girl or a Data girl, or maybe a Worf girl??? and how that prefence may be different today as we are all older and wiser] when TNG came out I was only 19. And I was reflecting that altho Riker was and is "my type" at the time of TNG I was nursing my first seriously broken heart. I was chatting with -- yep, a college friend who had been right next to me on the Delta couch avidly waiting for the premiere of TNG, a mother of 2 who was a serious Data-freak and even married a guy named Brent [not just for that reason, ha ha!]-- and she called me by my old college nickname which was, embarrasingly... *winces* Squish-O.



And hers was Tree-O. And Murph-O, Dan-O, etc etc. Maybe you do not know what the name refers to but Gord-O and Vern-O would know. Bc that was our favorite movie, played over and over in the DTP lounge, so often that we all quoted lines from it... and I had completely "forgotten" the connection between Stand By Me and TNG until I saw your site, which I stumbled across accidentally and...



Like I said, strange coinkydinks in the air today. that are all pointing me to the girl I *used* to be.



Okay short story LONG here...thank you for your work on such a cool show. Thank you for all the wonderful hours we spent glued to the TV, ignoring our Chem homework and that paper due on game theory in Indonesia.... and for one of my favorite movies of all time...and for this site where I can actually say thanks... and for how I can watch a DVD tonight and feel, once again, like that 19 yr old girl with her whole future spread out before her, no mortgage or job or student loans, just a broken heart and worry about doing my poly sci reading for tomorrow and dammit who drank my beer??...and for making this dratted cross stitch a little less boring today!



Oh and by the way if you DO *happen* to know of a site that will sell me a holographic Cmdr Riker or even a Jonathan Frakes ~sans~ hot uniform, can you let me know? there's a 36-yr old single chick in Chicago who would really super appreciate that!

Posted by: Mariah at July 13, 2005 05:20 PM