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Okay..Here's a true American Holiday with Beer, BBQ and Fireworks.. Let the horror stories begin. How many things have you burnt down?

Bit late in the day for this, the day's half gone....

I meant to post something for you guys on this earlier but I got pulled away for something else.

So is 4th of July fun?

Well, it doesn't really begin for most people until after sunset..

And the fun factor depends on how drunk you are and how many fireworks you have.

OK, I'll bite...

How drunk are you going to get and how many fireworks are you planning to set off?

Yes, how drunk indeed.

It's a bad thing...

Is it? Even on the 4th of July?

Well the 4th isnt as dangerous as it used to be after they outlawed Cherry Bombs, and M-80s. Those were almost as powerfull as blasting caps. They made the fun much more fun! (even if you couldnt hear afterwords or blew your hand off )

And She's right, it's not even close to heavy drinking and fireworks time yet. I'm giving it another 2-4 hrs before I start. The big displays dont start till 9pm then you go out and have your own little displays of pyrotechnecs.

By which time most of use euros will be asleep.

great day for the kids to! and queeq is that a shrubbery that looks nice and is not to expensive. any way i love independence day. happy forth of to all us yanks.

Um, your a Texan, not a Yank.

(Texas joke for you Brits)

you are all yanks.(to us you are)

They're all immigrants.

What do the REAL Americans do on the Forth?

Well, Texans always feel that they are just visiting the US.

It must have something to do with the fact that they are the only state that was a republic before a state. Also alot of the origonal Texans went there to get away form the US. Imagine their surprise after the Texas revolution when they joined the US.

AS a side note, Texas is the only state that can fly their flag at the same hight as the stars and bars. They also have the ability to divide into 5 other states. They are also the ONLY state that can succeed from the union without reprocution. If that were to happen Texas would have the 3rd or 4th highest GNP of the world.

THus Texans are not Yanks. (especialy if they are baseball fans )

yanks

OK, Ive known people from the rest of the US that traveled over to you end ,and they were Yanks till they said they were from Texas. Then they were Texans, and no longer Yanks.

It must have something to do with the old Cowboys and Indians thing in the movies. Or it's just that they have a diferent attitude (ego?) than the rest.

I guess I have to say it was to the euro's not just the Brits.

Immigrants!

Explain RC.

The way I see it they are extrovents, twice removed. *smart guy mode*

Well, unless they are decended from American Indians, then your average "American" is actually from immigrant stock... Can't escape history.

Well, alot of the origonal Texans are not from the US but from Mexico. Up to 1/3. Alot of the US imagrants are not from Britan, but several other countrys.

Also the Texans married alot of the natives that were her making most native (several generations) Texans as being there for thousand of years.

ANd yes I have alot of relitaves in Texas. Thats why I know.

Well I was referring to ALL non American Indian Americans.

I may be wrong, but I think that the percentage of Brits in the mix is actually quite small. A lot of dutch, french, belgium, danish and germans in there.

As well spanish and mexican. Diversity is a good thing though.

Well, you were right, sort of. (did I say that!?!)

But they had been here for generations before they became Texans. That makes them no longer Imagrants.

There were 5 other nations that ocupied Texas before they were part of the US. French, Spanish, Mexican, Texan, United States, And the south. Is who ocupied the area.

You could say the same thing about England, but it happened over alot longer time and it wasnt the same countrys.

Hmmm, there's a whole, VERY contentious, issue there about the history of the US that I am not going to get into.

But, I did correct myself in latter posts to say Immigrant Stock.

Let me just add, before someone pulls the racist card out of the pack, that this is not a racist comment, just stating facts.

HEY, NO! I Never thought it was a racist comment. Just a bit Eurocentric.

Its a bit right but, not the whole picture.

Just like some of the other debates that all of us are having.

Debates? We have debates?

"It must have been love, but its over now" - some swedes
slaps myself over the head for those words.

Admit it, you love Swedes. Search your feelings, you know this to be true.

Eurocentric. Hmmmm, apart from all the Americana discussions you mean.

Swedes are ok, not quite as cool as Norwegian but like 0,5% so

Where is Normway anyway?

On top of Europe

Finti has a point there, RC.

The Dallas Cowboys stink and thats about all I have to say about Texas. No offense intended of course.

We went to the neighbor's for July 4. Did the chicken and brats on the grill thing, the potato salad thing, and the ten tons of other food to go along with it thing, the football in the pool thing, the fireworks thing and the continuous drinking thing. Any questions class ?

Dallas Cowboys is my team

Da Boys!

But it may be till 2010 before they will be good again. It makes the winning that much sweeter though.

2010????? They can grow new players by then.

Well, they gave away all their draft choices so they cant get any good rookies till then.

They might be good this year, but I doubt it.

maybe they should clone

Yes, then you'd have no problem when key players get injured. They're ALL keyplayers.

boba fett as quarterback

I don't know..I just read that Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio were all named in the Top Ten Cities in the US.. I think there's more to it than The Cowboys.


As for holiday drinking...I had one drink with dinner and it put me under..it must be my medication or I'm getting old.

I'd like to see that. I guess the closest you can get for now is the Madden 2001 game.

And Dim's right Texas has 4 of the top cities, they also have some of the largest markets outside of NY and LA in the nation.

Alot of dot coms and other siliicon valley co.s are moving to the Austin, DFW and Houston area. Cause no power problems, few days of snow, and the only thing DFW and Austin has for natural disastors is tornados, and those are rare. Even in tornado alley (from Texas to Nebraska)

Yes, Jameous, keep plugging Texas.

Well, I may have to find a job in Austin or DFW soon.

"There's nothing left for me here."

But unlike Luke I still have family there.

Big place, Texas.

Next stop on the journey?

Jameous, do you really want to move to the big city? It's so nice where you are. Of course, eating is better when you have a better paying job.

If Sam Houston wanted to be part of the States, then who are we to argue with him?

By the end of the century I guess.

I'm sure they do that a little faster than that.

Probably. Well, remember the Alamo, either way.

Why?

As for Sam Houston, they argued with him about that and alot of Texans have regretted it ever sence.

At The Alamo 118 Texans (mostly from other states and from Mexico not alot of actual folks that had lived here before the war) took on one of the largest standing armys (Mexico) and fought off sevevral divisions of that army for 13 days. They ended with a kill ratio of over 20 to one. Before They were rushed from all sides.

That battle was used as a rally cry for the Texans in the rest of the War. But it was unnecessary because the Mexicans had already massacared innocent civilans at Goliad and executed the captured troops at Fannin several months before.

So if Travis and Bowie had listened to Sam Houston and SF Austin and left the Alamo before the Mexicans got there, we would say remember Goliad. Bowie and Travis would have survived and Crockett might have been elected President of the US after the Texas war. If that had happened he would have forgivin Texas' war debt And Texas would be its own Republic.

And Keo, Ive always lived in a town of at least 25,000. The nicest place I ever lived scenery wise was in east Texas at the Stephen F. Austin University in the middle of the Sam Houston national forest. But I like being able to go to other stores than Wal-Mart and Downtown hardware stores. (Quaint as they may be)

Some towns of 25,000 are small and quaint when measured against places like Dallas itself. When we lived on a farm in south central Missouri, we lived 3 miles from town, a bustling town of 80 people, and that included all the dogs, cats, and deceased in the cemetery. now, that's small.

Yep there are several of those kinds of towns in east Texas. They are kinda nice, but theres nothing to do for a night life (Except for cow tipping) and its hard to find anything new. Those towns are always 5-10 years behind the times. There are also those towns all over Texas but thats the way it is with all the States in general.

there is no night life in those tiny towns; you hafta make your own night life, called house parties. They roll up the sidewalks at dusk.

So when is Texas planning to be an independent country again?

This just turned into the Texas Tourist Thread.

Sorry, I kept getting asked questions.

How about this... Last night we blew up a bunch of fireworks that were left over from the 4th.

It was a blast! (Pun intended) we shot them off for 3-4 hours. My friend had a bunch left over and he treated us to them.

A bunch? For four hours????? Must have been a BIG bunch.

We started to go to the fireworks at the fairgrounds here, but they must have started them early because of bad weather we were having and they were already going up as we were headed in, so we just pulled off the edge of the road and watched from a distance. It was very humid and the smoke hung in the air. After a while you could hardly see them anymore. Rather frustrating.

In the end, I always come to the same conclusion when I look at US history:

Big place, Texas

And lots of steers.

Everything's bigger in Texas...

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII... wouldn't know.

No comment Dim...
Queeg, there are as many steers and cows in Texas' back yards as the British have castles or knights in their back yards. They are still around but not everyone has one and some still havent even seen a steer.

And yes my friend knew the owner of a fireworks stand and he was able to clear out most of the leftovers. We had close to 100 bottle rockets several roman candles and lots of other missles and explosives.

We launched about one a minute and my other friend's kids did most of the lighting. (thats the fun part of being a kid).

It was the most I've launched in a long time and as I said before it was a blast.

That sounded like fun. Glad you folks didn't start any range fires with all those fireworks.

This is America ya know. I dont even know where the closest range is. We were in a field, but the worry was setting a neighbor on fire. But that was still very far and impossable to hit from our distance.

It also wasn't as dry as in the past few years, otherwise it might have been a definate fire hazard.

My brother and his next-door neighborhor (about 20 years ago) used to fire bottle rockets at each other if one of them was out on his riding mower. Everytime one of them went out to cut the grass, they were fair game.

EVERY Englishman has a castle and a knight in their backyard. I don't get your point.

I wanna castle with a knight...how do I get those things???

As soon as I figure that one out, Dimmy, I'll let ya know, babe.

Time travel I think.

I think I'd be happy with harsher punishment for parole violators... and world peace.

Marry an Englishman, Dimmy. And find that knight on shining armour. He's there, if anywhere.

(mutters to self) If only Mel Gibson were English.....

The man who starred in Braveheart AND the Patriot?

yeah neither a Scot or a Yank, man this world lack heroes

Mel IS a yank, BTW finti.

why so many sad faces, darling ? You're polluting the forum with blue.

Queeq, that's the dumbmest thing you've said in a while.

Think she's had enough of English men.

No, it's true. Everybody thinks he's Australian, but that is wrong. He was born in the States, he is an American, he just grew up in Australia and started his acting career there. He is still a yank, though. Go and check, I am right on this one.

Freeq (??) is correct. Mel Gibson, my almost namesake, was born in New York in a place called Peekskill.

Hehehe, almost name sake. Still not giving that one away then.

Pikachu is a girl named Mel. Okay, another clue.

So that was NOT dumb, RC.

You sure? I still haven't been convinced.

You seem very sure Mr Freeq. OK, my name is Mel but it is short for something.

Melanie.

No, afraid not.

Melissa. Mellina. Mabel.

No, no and uh no.

All female names, you so sure now aren't you.

Melba.

What's the big secret ?

I think this is similar to when queeq would not tell us where he lived...

OK, the only male name I can come up with is Melvin.

Mellow?

Mellow is a state of mind not a name...

Oh dear, oh my.

Melinda, Melody, Melville, Melvin...

Melcott, Mellard, Melbert.

uh, ok...

You start feeling how great you are, how all board members love you and that you should be the one to rule this board? I know the feeling.

Yes, delusions of granduer do leave a warm glow..

Ah, the voice of experience...

I'm ignoring that

Well, someone did get it in that mix mash of names.

But I'm still not telling.

Actually, all this attention could go to my head.