a redneck 4th of July

i wouldn't go so far as to say there was moonshine...but pretty close!

didn't do much patriotic celebration during the day, but i was invited to join a group from the young professionals sunday school class to one girls house in the evening for fireworks, bonfire, pool, food, etc. some of the people in this class are youth leaders so i got to know them at camp and other events. they've invited mark and i to several various gatherings and i've become aquainted with this particular group of people.

i couldn't decide whether to wear shorts or pants to this event so i wore shorts and brought pants and a hoodie. Callie said she lived out in the sticks. this was an understatement. the street she lived on was not marked. thank goodness for gps! i arrived at the house which was rather unkempt from the front but very neat and normal-looking inside. i was greeted at the door by guy with a ponytail, a bandana under a trucker hat, and a jean jacket who called himself Bo. he asked me if i was "frum around these parts" and i said no i was from michigan, but interning here for the summer. he asked what i was interning for and i said youth/worship. i majored in worship and music at school. he said that he played the "GIH-tar" and then proceeded to produce said "GIH-tar" and play an original song for all who were present in the room.
bluegrass music at it's finest.

i found Callie in the kitchen making homemade ice cream. good sign. started talking to two other girls until they mentioned the tarantulas they saw on their way in...

i'm terrified of tarantulas.
terrified.
i can do small rodents. snakes. even daddy long legs.
but large hairy spiders.

n.o. w.a.y.

past nightmares started flashing back to me.
i started freaking out.

Callie assured me that they wouldn't be in the yard because they'd cleaned it out and there would be too much movement and blah blah blah it made no difference. those spiders had been seen "just in the ditch over by the road". i looked around and it didn't seem to me that there was much of a "ditch over by the road". in fact it looked like there was some grass, the road, and then the yard. not much division between.

more people started to arrive (with their trucks) and the guys begin to set up fireworks at the end of the driveway. they park 2 pickups in the driveway and spread out the fireworks and sparklers and poppers and other explosive things in the beds of the trucks for easy access. i walk out of the house to observe just in time for them to spot a tarantula on the side of the house. a guy named raymond was walking up the driveway with his buddy saying "where's your shotgun? i wanna shoot something!" i told him to shoot the spider.

i went back inside.

i was wearing shorts and flip flops. if we were going to be sitting out in the front yard...i would have to change. i found Callie and asked to borrow some sneakers and then changed into my jeans. i felt a little better, but not totally.

i went back outside. the sun was rapidly descending and the guys could no longer wait to light something on fire. the fireworks started going off. i can pretty much guarantee these fireworks would not even be available for purchase in michigan. they were quite big.

a few minutes later someone found another tarantuala a few yards away from us in the grass. i immediately stood up from my chair and moved away while they beat it with a shovel.

the fireworks continued for a couple hours. the sun finally dipped completely below the horizon and with no moon out, the stars twinkled clearly. a great night for fireworks. when they started running low on explosives, a guy named larry said to raymond, "you got any electrical tape in your truck? i wanna make a bomb!" another guy whose name i think was vern had his cowboy hat, boots, belt buckle, and moustache. he was pretty quiet, but talked with a THICK southern drawl and spent most of the time perched on the side of the truck bed. i half expected him to pull out a harmonica at any moment. the general conversation ranged from topics of obama being a terrible president to funny racist videos on youtube to where to get the best chips and salsa.

when it was all over, it was deemed that it was too windy for a bonfire. mark said he was a little aprehensive to go over to a bonfire anyway since it was going to be set up around some tall grass (where the snakes and tarantulas live). i agreed. we cleaned up all the debris and headed our seperate ways. as i was walking to my car i saw Bo get into a truck that was parked in the yard (a truck that i had originally thought was a piece of junk just sitting there). it was rusty and had some big metal contraption in the bed and had a giant pair of texas longhorns attached to the roof. shocking.

all in all it was a surprisingly enjoyable night. aside from holding a few sparklers, i mostly just observed everything around me...and stayed wary of tarantulas. there were some good laughs and i was glad to have the chance to experience the 4th of July in a little different American way :)