4th of July Story: The Kid Who Got His Thumb Blown Off
The problem with 4th of July stories is that something really bad usually happens in them. If you tell a story about the 4th and nobody gets hurt or there’s no property damage, then the audience ends up disappointed. Keeping that in mind, here’s the 4th of July story that I wrote last year.
(image via wikimedia)
The 4th of July is a weird holiday. Not everybody gets the day off. We don’t exchange gifts. We don’t eat a big feast. We might go to a parade, but we pretty much don’t do anything until it gets dark, and then we watch a giant fireworks display.
Back in 1976 when the United States turned 200 years old, I lived in a rural area where we’d have to drive about 20 miles to see the county’s lame fireworks show. In our community a lot of us were pale and had necks of red, and people with necks of red don’t like watching somebody they don’t know (like an outside entity hired by a community leader) shoot off fireworks, no matter how impressive the display is. Most people with necks of red would rather control the fireworks themselves, even if it’s just a bunch of firecrackers…
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Dysfunctional Literacy 