So what is Independence Day like?

[The Curmudgeon]

Not the movie, although I've heard the sequel sucked.

I've only ever seen it on TV (Friends, Simpson's etc... the WWE pretty much rams it down your throat the entire show) and I now get bombarded with it on Facebook etc. But what exactly happens on the 4th of July? Is it like on TV? Everyone gets together and eats for some reason? Do you get days off work? Is there anyone who doesn't celebrate it? Is it as unflinchingly patriotic as its made to look?

[trashcanman]

It's the only day of the year it's legal to light your own fireworks in America. That's all you really need to know to picture it. Ironically, most of the fireworks people are lighting are still illegal and they start setting them off a few days early so it's still against the law. Not a good day to be an ER doctor or nurse, I reckon. My neighborhood sounds like it's in the middle of a war zone as soon as the sun goes down. My childhood was filled with buying legal fireworks, emptying them of their gunpowder, and making improvised projectiles by wrapping up the powder in balls of duct tape with a fuse and stuffing the ball into the mouth of Gatorade bottles. America! FUCK YEAH!