American Independence Day

horseless carriage said:
Britain doesn't have an Independence Day, because everyone else got their Independence days from Britain.

Did you know that that any day of the year has a 1 in 7 chance of being celebrated as Independence Day from the British? 61 colonies have gained independence from the UK with 52 unique Independence Days.
Click to expand...
See the full list of countries that were once part of the British Empire here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...e_gained_independence_from_the_United_Kingdom
 
horseless carriage said:
And what if it was a mistake from the start? The Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, the creation of the United States of Americaā€”what if all this was a terrible idea, and what if the injustices and madness of American life since then have occurred not in spite of the virtues of the Founding Fathers but because of them? The Revolution, this argument might run, was a needless and brutal bit of slaveholdersā€™ panic mixed with Enlightenment argle-bargle, producing a country that was always marked for violence and disruption and demagogy. Look north to Canada, or south to Australia, and you will see different possibilities of peaceful evolution away from Britain, toward sane and whole, more equitable and less sanguinary countries. No revolution, and slavery might have ended, as it did elsewhere in the British Empire, more peacefully and sooner. No ā€œpeculiar institution,ā€ no hideous Civil War and appalling aftermath. Instead, an orderly development of the interiorā€”less violent, and less inclined to celebrate the desperado over the peaceful peasant. We could have ended with a social-democratic commonwealth that stretched from north to south, a near-continent-wide Canada.
Click to expand...
An interesting perspective. And in retrospect maybe right, who knows.

I do believe the Revolution kick started our move to greater freedoms, even the eventual (way too slow) liberation of the slaves, I think it also inspired more democratic governments in other countries. And it is possible that without our Revolution the British would have been slower to give independence to other colonies like Canada and Australia. And slower to adopt their own movement to a more democratic government and freedom for their people.

As to freeing slaves sooner, you might be right, however no part of the British empire was as dependent on a well developed slave economy as the US southern states. Some of the Caribbean might have been, but populations were smaller and the collapse in sugar prices, coupled with Haiti's slave revolt helped end it there.

Who knows, but it is always interesting to think about alternative history.

I am proud to be an American and always celebrate the 4th. I know our history is not perfect, but compared to a lot of the world it is pretty good. I am happy to be a part of!
 
Last edited:
main-qimg-0e54d67f134c07f18ca1bde254d49669
 
Y'know, I missed posting my little annual 4th of July story

So

I'll jus' slip it in here;


Ribs and other Bones


Thereā€™s nothing like a good meal for a get together,
and the good meal is a barbeque.

Being a northerner that spent some years down south, I can say those boys down there know barbeque.
Ribs, fallin off the bone.
Chikin, smoked, from wood, not wunna those fancy pellet rigs, but by an olā€™ guy raised in a ā€˜grease houseā€™, from a pit the size of a horse trough.
Beans, I didnā€™t know beans could taste like that. Odd things, strange herbs, spices, homemade sauces, a bit a fat meat, marinated for hours. They were a meal all by themselves.
Tater saladā€¦M-M-M-M, none like it.
Sweet tea, steeped in a gallon jug in the sun.
Beer, Lone Star or Falstaff, didnā€™t matter, both tasted like mop water from a juke joint, but did their job of cleansing the palate for the next bite.
Sip, rib, sip, chikin, sip, beans, sip, salad, guzzle the rest.
Made ya just fall down and scream.

Houston
Down the street, Telephone road, was wunna those grease houses.
An old black gent lived there with what seemed like three generations of family.
Everbuddie's grampa, even mine for awhile.
Everyone called him Chili.
Bib overalls, white butcherā€™s apron, leather baseball cap was his eternal uniform.


Had a high pitched, raspy voice, and always a smirk on his olā€™ mug.
More often then not, youā€™d find me sittinā€™ at his dilapidated picnic table after work, watchinā€™ him toil over the pit.
Nuthinā€™ attractive.
Tin lean-to roof, pile of wood, ol' white fridge that made a humming sound laboring in the heat, vats and jars, brushes, large forks, and the huge pit with a homemade steel lid, that once he was satisfied with how things were goinā€™ heā€™d drop down and come out to talk to meā€¦..talk about storiesā€¦old day storiesā€¦..bone chilling, horrific stories.

Naw, nuthinā€™ attractiveā€¦.. ā€˜cept for the rich savory aromatic fragrance emanating from that glorious pit.
Iā€™d sit there, sweating like a pig, drool stream gathering on the table in a puddleā€¦

ā€˜Chili!
WTF olā€™ man!?ā€™

ā€˜Boy, you know itā€™s not readyā€¦.Iā€™ll tell ya when itā€™s ready.ā€™

It was worth the wait.


Fourth of Julyā€¦or as they say down there JOOOlah, everyone barbequed.
Po foke, rich foke, middle class foke, all had their pits goinā€™.
You couldnā€™t walk two steps without getting hit upside the head with the aroma of the gods.

One fourth, me and my lady were flat broke.
Iā€™d come off a month long stint in Brownsville, inspecting oil field pipe, big job.
Tuboscope laid some folks off after that, so I volunteered for some time off myself.
Took most of June, just me and my ladyā€¦nobody else.
Ran outta moneyā€¦rent was paid, car was maintained, just brokeā€¦.food crumbs in the fridge, empty bottles piled in the corner of the carport belowā€¦sittinā€™ on the couch smokinā€™ a partial Iā€™d dug outta the butt can.

ā€˜Iā€™m goinā€™ back to work.ā€™

ā€˜Itā€™s the fourth.ā€™

ā€˜Ohā€™

Chili and family had gone somewhere.
It was hot.
Most neighbors had headed to Galveston.

Our guts were eatinā€™ guts.
Hadnā€™t been so hungry in a long time.
A friend invited us to a company get together.
The park was filled with heavenly flavors.
Kids, old folk, parents, all had plates heaped with goodies, goodies that tempted me to follow ā€˜em, floating on the fragrant waves.

We strolled over to the tables.

$3.50

$3.50??!!

I had 37 cents.

On the way back to the garage apartment I swore Iā€™d never put myself in that position againā€¦especially on the fourth.

I think wunneezdaze we need to head back down south for a spell.

Something about the word ā€˜brisketā€™ that just sounds savoryā€¦
didnā€™t know what it was ā€˜til I landed in Texas.
 

Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top