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I have never, ever, ever in my 42 years of life been a fan of 4th of July. And make fun of me all you want, but the main reason I don’t like it?
I’m afraid of loud noises.
There, I said it. I’m afraid of the insanely loud BOOM! noises that accompany fireworks on 4th of July. I feel the same way about unexpected Ka-BOOM! thunderclaps, too. Don’t like ‘em. Loud noises make my heart race, and when I was little, made me cry.
When I was pregnant with Ryan in 1996, we moved into a new house on July 3rd. We moved out of an apartment on the second floor of a quiet complex into a neighborhood that was populated by a whole lot of “we don’t give a crap what you think of us” kind of neighbors.
So, here I was, 6.5 months pregnant having just spent two days moving from the apartment to the new house. And what was my introduction to my new next-door neighbors?
The night of 4th of July, they gathered in their driveway which was practically right underneath my bedroom window, and spent two hours lighting off firecrackers. I closed all the windows, I turned a fan on to “high”, I kept telling myself it would be over soon.
It went on and on and on. Finally, I got up and went downstairs at like 1:00 AM and introduced myself to my new neighbors. In my maternity nightgown. With my ankles that were swollen to the size of telephone poles. “Hi”, I said. “I was wondering if you would be done soon, I have to work in the morning and I spent the last two days moving and as you can see, I’m 6.5 months pregnant so I don’t sleep well as it is”.
The kind, understanding reply I got from the mother of three who was my new neighbor? “We’ll be done WHEN WE’RE DONE. It’s a HOLIDAY.”
In the nine years we were neighbors, we never got along.
Anyway, so that’s my unpatriotic secret- I hate 4th of July. And tomorrow, Chris is forcing me to go to the neighboring township where I grew up and watch fireworks. Something about making special family memories or whatever. And I’ll GO, and I’ll put on a happy face, and I’ll take pictures, and when the fireworks go off, I’ll try not to cry.
Ka-BOOM!
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Marie N 
Selene M. 
Omally 
Pzannucci 
I hear you… I grew up in Hawaii and firecrackers there tend to be of the crazy Chinese 10,000 loud explosion variety. They go off all night and when it’s all over and the smoke clears, the streets are literally flooded with singed red paper. The 4th of July sucks but New Year’s is usually even worse. And of course the constant booms make all the dogs whine and howl. Ugh.