4th of July is a Big Day here where I am, although I’m convinced it’s less patriotism and more partying + licensed pyromania!
I got off work just in time to go watch the parade, and the Independence Day parade is not something to be taken lightly.
It’s more than an hour of glaring sunshine, screaming kids, and the most eclectic mix of floats you can imagine. Everything from the Seal of State to Scottish bagpipers to the local casino float goes by, throwing candy or water balloons or cheap plastic frisbees. And this is Wyoming, so don’t forget the horses; the huge drafts pulling wagons, the tiny little ponies pulling a two-person cart, the ranch horses we know by name. The parade must be a very strange day for them, but I’ve never yet seen one bolt when a stray firework went off.
The best part is the end, when the firetrucks come, sirens wailing and hoses deluging the street. Run out in the street with everyone else, shrieking with delight in the cold spray, and in thirty seconds you’ll be soaked to the skin as thoroughly as if you jumped in the pool.
After you go home and change into dry clothes, catch your breath and tax some candy from the little kids, because the day’s only just begun. It’s basically imperative that you head off to a neighborhood party to visit, devour plates and plates of alarmingly red-white-blue food, set off fireworks, and generally celebrate. You can take your pick from any of the half-dozen going on at the same time.
Evening draws near with a rattle of guns and finally crashes over the horizon with the boom of canon-fire –
Wait. Never mind. That’s just the fireworks.
If you’re going to the rodeo, you might as well stay and lose any hearing you had left to the deafening fusillade they put on. But if not, you have choices!
Are you going to set match to gunpowder yourself, quite literally, and satisfy man’s age-old longing (for huge, colorful, but ultimately pointless explosions)? Or would you rather hang out on the back porch and watch several thousand dollars of other people’s money go up in literal sparks and smoke?
Personally, I advice dragging an old mattress up the nearest hill you can find, and sprawling on that to watch the barrage. Shrieking siblings are totally optional. (But they come with an extra step of “And then watch your siblings nearly get set on fire by their own fireworks”. Exciting!)
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And, of course, I did some handlettering to celebrate the day.
First concept sketches:
Base drawing:
And the final thing:
I really wish I’d taken a little more time on the “of” so it didn’t come out so wobbly, but… oh, well. I’ll take notes for next time.