Independence Day

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I hope everyone has a great Independence Day today.
I will be spending 7 hours at work then come home and the wife, daughter, and I are heading to the range. I can think of no better way to celebrate than by exercising a basic right recognized by our founding fathers.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I blew off the parade this morning.
I might go shooting later today, we'll see.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
When I was a kid, fireworks were still legal and we would have enough to keep us busy for an hour or so. Plus, Dad had a naval line-throwing cannon that had something in the neighborhood a 50 to 60mm bore. He would drag it out into the alley behind our house, load it with modest charge under some rags and fire it off. All the neighbors loved it.

Baby backs, Tri-tip and lamb chops going on the smoker in another hour.

Happy Independence Day everyone. Wish I was celebrating somewhere where it means more; like in Arkansas.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Fireworks illegal? Oh yeah, CA. Well, everything else is illegal there so . . . Not here, just drive into town and buy almost anything ya might want from several different outlets. :D
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
We're visiting my 95 year old FIL, former WW2 fighter pilot in small town central Fla. We went to the
Lions Club for a blueberry pancake breakfast, then watched the town parade this AM, had hot dogs,
brats and burgers on our grill with all the trimmings, then home-made peach cobbler and ice cream.

After lunch we went to the local car show (pretty thin!) where a ultra-jacked Chevy PU swamp buggy with a
huge tube frame 3 ft below the main frame and axles from a Deuce and a Half front and rear was the
main attraction. We then went to the town ball field for the annual "Battle of the Barrel" where the local volunteer
fire departments challenge each other to move the swivel mounted beer barrel on a pulley on an
overhead cable with their fire hoses. I used to be on the town team about 44 years ago, and our town
won most of the matches then and now. FIL was Fire Chief for years, too.

The local veterans have put up a real nice memorial in the town center for the local young Marine
who won the Medal of Honor in VN. Reminded me of the memorials for my nephew in his
home town, another fallen Marine in another war.

The local VFW marched with the flags and Garands, and all was great fun with many folks calling out
"Happy 4th" and "Happy Birthday America". A small group with bull fiddle, fiddle, steel guitar, guitar and more
on a trailer was in the parade, with a pair of women singing "America the Beautiful" in two part
harmony, very well sung, too.

If you ever get frustrated with the crazyness that is on TV, going back to small town America for the 4th
of July is a wonderful antidote. Smiles all around.

Happy Birthday America!

Town fireworks tonight! I used to work on those, too, many decades ago.

Bill

Oh, yeah. ALL "exploding or flying" fireworks are illegal for normal folks in Fla. Yet, there is a huge fireworks
tent selling it all in the middle of town and folks were setting them off all over this afternoon
with the cops just leaving it alone. Cool!
 
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Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
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Not much better than range time with the kid. Now if I could only get her to cast bullets for me.
 

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smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Right about that Brad. Got to schedule a range trip with the kids. Hey wait, that can't be you; no sombrero.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I only wore that on a different site.
No photos of the wife, she shot the CZ 75B and the camera.

We killed some clays, fired 500 rounds total, and brought home around 35 pounds of range scrap. Not a bad afternoon after a day at work.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Raining heavy here all day... Doing some 18th C gun work in my shop....George Forman was the only grill used! Then topped our "early night" of watching "American Sniper" ( My wife picked it out...She is a keeper!)
Will be in bed soon Maybe a range day in the morning if the rain stops!
 

carpetman

Active Member
I have friend that owns a car wash. I watch it for him when he goes out of town. He is in South America, so had fun day at car wash.
 

carpetman

Active Member
Maybe write a song--one of the worst songs in the world, not including all rap which is not songs, was about someone shooting a juke box. Hate that song.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
well I got jacked err over rode on the shooting thing.
ended up in the little tourist tra umm town where littlegirl lives.
we had to leave earlyfor some unknown reason and had 3 hrs to kill when we got there, the wife went for an iced coffee while we were talking to the ace hardware guy out watering the flowers, so me and the boy cut through the alley and into the back door of the bar there.
the boy only knew 4-5 people in the place [he knows everybody in a 40 mile radius] so it wasn't too crowded,
I flipped the TV over to the nascar race and took a seat.
best part was it took the wife over an hour to find us, then she stayed for another hour drinking coffee since someone had to drive home and it wasn't gonna be me.
we finally hooked up with the girl, her husband, his brother, and injun Joe [no that's his name really.... if you know him]
and I took them all over to the local diner and bought them dinner. [10% discount for the locals]
they had some great specials going, but I yelled back at the cook on duty [Rusty] and asked what was good? he just said dinner will be out in 20-25 minutes.,, so we skipped the ordering part and got a soda from the fountain.
[this part mystifies the tourists every time]
sure enough prime rib for me and the wife, littlegirl and her hubby and chicken fried steak for the boy's appeared at our table in about 20 minutes :D
we walked out just in time to see the fire works start on the mountain, so we grabbed a table in the city park and watched the so-so fireworks show. [it's hard o complain about free]
we cut out at the finale and headed for home via the back road to avoid traffic on the highway.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Sounds like a good 4th for most of us. Not sure watching the car wash would be
a lot of fun, but never having done it, will reserve final judgement. :)

Bill