Clay Clan 4th July Celebrations

I was excited to be spending my first "4th July" in Stigler, Oklahoma. Amanda promised Pennie and I a blast and that is exactly what we got. It seems Independence Day is celebrated by blowing stuff up. At the centre of all the fun was Amanda's Dad, Tony and his brother David, they used the children of the family as the excuse but they had the most fun. Thanks to Tony and David I now know how to operate a potato cannon. Fill the tube with hairspray, seal and ignite through a small hole and aim. Pennie and I tried to be offended by the target, a home made Red Coat, but we desperately wanted to see what would happen when the potato was fired at the target.

The drive to Stigler, over the flooded Eufala Lake

I had mentioned to Pennie and Amanda how I really wanted to fire a gun while in the States and had been planning a visit to a firing range when I reached California. Why California you ask, well duh, that's where Mel Gibson visits a firing range in Lethal Weapon.
Amanda said, why visit a stuffy firing range when her Uncle had a few guns tucked away at home. The quote of the trip has to be Amanda in Walmart, "My Dad's at the back of the store buying ammunition".

Tony teaches me how to load a rifle, do I look like I'm having fun?!

Firing the 9mm

Tony and the Red Coat Target

So we headed out to a large deserted pond and I was carefully shown how to load a rifle by Tony. It felt very surreal to be loading a gun, we made targets of the empty can's floating in the water. I've always felt quite strongly that if you want to lower the number of deaths from guns in the States you have to do something about licensing laws and I still believe that. But hypocritically I loved the feel of firing a gun and can see why so many people choose this as a hobby.

I have no idea what I'm "holding", but it was brilliant fun!

The fun really started when David brought out his semi-automatic 9mm, wow. It's such a loud gun, when you pull the trigger it's actually hard to stay on your feet. After I fired it I found I was balancing on my heels. After Pennie's go she let out a little "ooh" noise. I don't think we could ever play bad cops in a movie! As our aims improved the sun came out and began to bake us so we headed back into Stigler.

The Potato Cannon

Amanda's family are all very close, her grandmother lives across the road from her Uncle David and his family and her Auntie Judy (who kindly put us up for the night) lives just a few streets away. But not everyone lives nearby, but they had still made the journey to spend the day together. Everyone made me feel very welcome. David and Paula fed us all, but also everyone seemed to have brought their own dish to share. I particularly enjoyed Amanda's apple pie with her Aunt Judy's homemade ice cream.
After we'd eaten, an archery target was set up and I had another go with a deadly weapon. Eventually the bow and arrows where turned to face the poor Red Coat and he took some more punishment.

With bow and arrow.

Then it was time for the "Marshmallow Guns", new to me too. Acting like a blow gun, but the ammunition is marshmallows! This was fun until Tanner, Amanda's cousin's 4 year old son started eating the "used ammunition".

Brits with the first strike! Pay those taxes!!

Pennie having fun.

Earlier in the day Tony explained his big project to me. This was to provide the finale for the fireworks at the lake in the evening. Tony had built a boat out of polystyrene and with a large arsenal of fireworks and some good old fashioned gunpowder, had it rigged to entertain us all.

Tony's Finale Fireworks,

Pennie and I load up on Fireworks

Around dusk we headed out of town to a lake, because so many of the local lakes are closed due to flooding, this particular lake was really busy. Families were settled in all around the lake letting off fireworks and having a good time. It's only legal to sell fireworks in the US for the two weeks before the 4th July. All along the highway out to Stigler we had passed Firework Stands. Unlike in the UK the packaging is aimed at children and some fireworks are as cheap as 50 cents. We bought a bag of fireworks to add to the arsenal everyone else already had. We thought the "Iraq Attack" helicopter with small tanks was a little distasteful so we bought one. Apparently they were even selling fireworks from the back of an ambulance as a fund raising drive!

Holly and Ally fire Roman Candles over the lake

Fireworks on the lake

I can't think of a better way to be introduced to the tradition of Independence Day, I only wish we English folk celebrating St Georges Day on the same scale. I suppose we'd have to be given the day off first and relax the laws on gunpowder.