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Fireworks (Score:3, Interesting)
Our local Volunteer Fire Department has a potluck/day in the park that ends with a terrific fireworks show.
It's dropped 4th of July fire statistics by about 80%
PLUS, it's FUN!
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Missing Option: Celebrating my friend's birthday. It sure is nice of the entire USA to have a fireworks show for her. :)
Random Illegal Fireworks All Week (Score:2)
There was an event at a nearby university last weekend that had fireworks I could hear. My local community will have a concert and fireworks in the park on July 4th, as will several communities up and down the freeway from here. (I won't be going; traffic is a horrendous fail :-) There have been a few random illegal fireworks every night all week, and I suspect there'll be more tonight, lots more tomorrow, some Saturday, a few Sunday.
Some years ago there was a nearby highway construction project that had
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Our neighbors set off "illegal" explosives in order to celebrate seditious men. We usually call the cops when they start setting off the bottle rockets in the middle of the night and waking up my baby. Before I bought my house the college students living in the apartment below me had a "illegal explosives" party all night long one night. It was a weeknight. After I went downstairs and yelled at them for making a ruckus, they decided to light up the rest of their stash. The next morning they had left al
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"shaking fists" Get off my lawn.
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Hello Americans (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of us don't live in the US and couldn't give a damn about 4 July.
Re:Hello Americans (Score:4, Informative)
A lot of us don't live in the US and couldn't give a damn about 4 July.
I live in the US and couldn't give a cluck about July 4.
As for fireworks, the US sure picked the worst time of the year for those. Not only is it too bright to see them well, at least in the Northern states, but it's also a season where it's easy to start fires.
The 4th of December? (Score:2)
Re:The 4th of December? (Score:5, Informative)
You are totally correct of course. Fuck the founding fathers for not holding off until winter before starting a war of independence against a tyrant. THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER.
You can't be American, because you're apparently unaware that the Declaration of Independence was signed long after the war started.
It also didn't take effect until years later, when we became independent. Our nation's birthday is September 3 1783. July 4 1776 was more like a baby shower during pregnancy.
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How the heck do you shower a baby during pregnancy?
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Is that a lame joke or do you just not know what a "baby shower" is?
Actually, I did not know. Looks like it's an extremely dumb name for a party...
Because, you know, if it's named a spade, folks should be able to assume you're talking about a tool or a card suit, right?
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It also didn't take effect until years later, when we became independent. Our nation's birthday is September 3 1783.
And apparently you aren't aware of when the Declaration took effect.
Well, I suppose from the perspective of the British, perhaps they would consider that the effective date. But why should that matter?
Not so for the new U.S., nor for many other countries who recognized the new country before the end of the war. The Continental Congress drafted laws for the government (Articles of Confederation) in 1777, and they were officially ratified by enough states in 1781, so at most you might push back the bir
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Let me stop you right there. You must not know Americans, because unawareness, of our own history and so many other things, is one of our hallmarks. The fact that the signing of the Declaration of Independence wasn't promptly followed by the "shot heard round the world," or that the war dragged on for years and wasn't particularly popular while it was raging, or that our Constitution was our second attempt at self government is not something peopl
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wrong and uninformative. 1783 is the year Britain acknowledged US independence after WE KICKED THEIR LIMEY ASSES, However the Declaration took effect immediately.
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1761: england declares slavery not legal (in england). 1766: the slave owning colonies break away from the freedom loving ones (which become canada) before the idea spreads. Truth.
Vermont's state constitution forbids slavery and was adopted in 1777.
Several other rebel colonies declared themselves free even before independence was formally gained.
During the Revolutionary War, Britain transported slaves of loyalists to other British colonies. (The slaves were not emancipated.)
There was a British court decision in 1763, but it was not binding overall, seems to have been pretty widely ignored by other British courts at the time, and the matter would not be settled in the British Empire f
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It's called light pollution. If the communities in your area would turn off their lights, you'd be surprised at how "dark" it really is.
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No, it just wasn't dark yet. Yeah, light pollution sucks, but you could tell it wasn't truly dark by the fact that it was noticeably darker after the fireworks were over than when they began. Just looked it up and "nautical twilight" began around 10:40, and "astronomical twilight" at 11:40 pm.
I'm surprised by that, as I live a good way north of most of the USA, in London.
I looked up Macinaw City (since I've been there): sunrise is 05:54, sunset 21:32, solar noon 13:43. Accounting for DST, that's 43 minutes "off".
In London, solar noon is at 13:05 (we are also on DST), sunrise 04:50, sunset 21:20. Almost an hour's extra daylight. (And no astronomical twilight at all until 22 July.)
The local Americans (quite a big group, there's an "international" school not far away) had their fireworks at 21:3
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I used to live in Midland, Michigan, and I was using the weather site I used to use there for times, specifically this one. [wunderground.com] (left column near the bottom under "Astronomy".
Granted today is 1 day later, but today it's listing sunset at 21:21 EDT (eastern daylight time), nautical twilight at 22:42, and astronomical twilight at 23:39. Ok, now I've beaten the horse to death... :)
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We don't actually have any sort of twilight this time of year in Stockholm, even though the sun does go down for about 5½ hours. It gets dark only if it happens to be cloudy between 2200 and 0330.
Not quite the midnight sun thing you hear about (that's further north), but it still takes some getting used to.
Happy Canada Day! (Score:2)
It's July 1, and friends of mine have used it as an excuse for a party when it's on a more convenient day, especially if they have Canadians around.
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Re:Hello Americans (Score:5, Interesting)
But you sure seem to care about our websites, like this one. And the internet in general. You know, the one we created.
Using the html invented by a Brit, right?
CERN, not just Brits, and SGML,GIF,JPEG (Score:5, Informative)
Sir Tim is a Brit, but he was working at CERN, an international collaboration in Europe. Somebody once said that Sir Tim invented 80-90% of what the web needed, while Ted Nelson invented 120%, which is why we use HTTP/HTML instead of Xanadu.
URLs were really the big win - most previous hypertext systems were contained on single platforms, whether it was Apple Hypercard or whatever, while URLs let the hypertext connect pages by multiple authors and organizations. The other big win was including pictures in practical widespread formats.
HTML wasn't as big an invention - it was a derivative of SGML, and five years before the web I was a newbie on documentation standards committees that were using SGML and vector-based graphics standards (and even back then, there were people who got that the big win was content description, not format description, and many of the problems we have today are because too many people lost sight of that and wanted authors to control presentation instead of readers, forcing us to deal with flash and Javascript and lots of other brokenness.)
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there were people who got that the big win was content description, not format description, and many of the problems we have today are because too many people lost sight of that and wanted authors to control presentation instead of readers, forcing us to deal with flash and Javascript and lots of other brokenness
Sounds like someone needs to invent the InTeXnet
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Hubris was also invented in Europe.
History has general lessons over what happens when it starts to pervade an empire.
Watch yourselves there.
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I was going to respond with a vigorous retort but my ispcapbw
"Websites don't come with a nationality" (Score:2)
Of course they don't. CERN is an international organization, after all!
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"Websites don't come with a nationality,"
Mine has an America flag in the website logo.
Re:Hello Americans (Score:4, Insightful)
This. How should we know where it is hosted? Or care? This is the internet - I am demonstrably "not in the USA" right now, and it doesn't matter in the least where the other end is.
Or did you mean your comment to be sarcastic?
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So http://www.cnn.com/ [cnn.com] is international news because it is read outside the US?
Or maybe http://www.foxnews.com/ [foxnews.com] would be a better example. I'm blaming them on the international community from now on.
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Traditional US July 4th Internet Activity (Score:5, Funny)
Traditionally the US government celebrates July 4th by wiretapping the Entire Internet. Didn't you know?
Yes, that's no different from any other day.
A Day That Shall Live In Infamy (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm descended from Loyalists who moved from North Carolina to Nova Scotia in the 1790s.
...laura, United Empire Loyalist
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To replace the Acadians (French) the British all kicked out of Nova Scotia in 1755 who migrated to New Orleans...
So basically a net zero move, with the benefit that the south obtained some culture and some (more) funny speaking folks.
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It was a long time later before the idea of getting rid of slavery came up. The funny thing with the 4th of July: declaration of independence: yeah and how long did it actually take to get it? I can declare myself boss at my work it might take a while before others agree though.
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It was a long time later before the idea of getting rid of slavery came up.
Yeah, in Vermont, it took all of about a year.
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... and for the places where people actually live much longer. Though Vermont might (and probably was) a larger portion of the population at the time. The UK was either early or late to the party depending on how you count the Magna Carta. But after their abolishment in 1833 they did more over the next few decades, by far, to irradiate slavery by making it an issue of Treaty with pretty much every country they dealt with, creating a large part of the navy specifically for anti-slavery operations etc. As muc
Missing Option: I HATE fireworks. (Score:2, Interesting)
This is the day that one asshole in the neighborhood will stay out ALL NIGHT drinking beer and setting off fireworks. It was annoying enough before, but now that I have a toddler and a new baby, it's awful. And he bought enough fireworks and beer that he'll start a day early and continue lighting off a few every night for the next week.
Seriously, people, keep it to one night and can the noise by 9 or 10pm. PLEASE.
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a new baby
Could be worse...you could have an old baby.
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Oh Pulllleeeze. If you have a "new baby" then you certainly don't need some drunken jackass to keep you up all night. The "new baby" will be quite happy to do that all on it's own.
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Yeah that is the worse bit. I like fireworks I go more times than not to see them (on a different day than the yanks though). What sucks is the drunken idiots with $5 of fireworks to set off every night for a week on either side. They always seem to wait until 12-2am and set off one or two. Could call the cops but who knows where they are coming from? It isn't like they are doing a whole show or anything: just enough to wake you up and scare your dog.
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Ditto. People are doing them days early around here. Plus, it's illegal to do fireworks!
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So you're that neighbor with the baby that keeps screaming bloody murder all night and nobody in the area can sleep?
At least the drunk 4th of July guy only does it one day a year...
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You know, I cannot understand the recent cultural backlash against babies.
Yes, babies cry. They cry at night, they cry in restaurants, and they cry on airplanes. They cry when they are hungry, when they are tired, when they're pooping, and when they need a diaper change. And often, they cry for apparently no reason at all.
As a father of a four month old, I can tell you that we parents aren't exactly pleased to hear our babies cry, either. We don't want our kids to be in pain, and we want them to be happy. W
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We are acutely conscious of bothering others, and we feel helpless about the whole thing.
But you know what's worse? Assholes who cannot stop complaining about crying babies. Guess what? It's how human beings are. You cried too. So did every human being who's ever lived.
You're apparently not too conscious because you're not helpless--you have the power to keep screaming baby out of the "restaurants...and airplanes." And more.
You're right babies are just being babies. But self-centered parents don't have to be.
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Yes, because anyone who cannot afford to pay for a baby sitter should forego ever eating out or watching a movie.
And the reason you find more babies out is for a few reasons:
1. Families are smaller and there is less of grandma and grandpa living 'round the block. As such, you are left with no family help.
2. Economic realities make childcare extreme expensive, even in double income families.
3. Single parents are also a lot more common, and the single parent already has someone taking care of the kid during t
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Yes, because anyone who cannot afford to pay for a baby sitter should forego ever eating out or watching a movie.
Not "forego ever", just until your kid is old enough that it doesn't ruin the experiences of all the other paying customers. Really, you take a crying baby into a movie theater, or a restaurant which doesn't have a plastic mascot? Shame on you. How uncivilized.
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Not over here in L.A.
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I ignore July 4th.. (Score:2)
At least this year I am spending this day doing some decent downhill mountain biking in France, so my only concerns about the date involve what runs am I doing, and where will I eat really good food that evening..
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This 4th of July, there might be some impromptu fireworks displays in France . . . or in Germany . . . but not in both. They are playing against each other on the evening of the 4th of July in the World Cup Tournament , and the winner team's fans will probably stage spontaneous celebrations . . . with fireworks.
missing option (Score:3)
I hear amateur fireworks.
Since the state of Michigan loosened restrictions on the sale of fireworks, every yahoo with a lighter has started setting them off, beginning sporadically the weekend before the holiday.
Any holiday.
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Heh, I hear and see fireworks near my old nest since there is a local park. It's quite scary and loud. :(
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Same here. [sighs] BTW, it's = it is/has.
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Also, mine like to do days before and after Independence Day every dang year! Argh! I assume yours is like that too. :(
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Well, technically, it achieved independence by a lot of people breaking much more serious laws than those concerning fireworks...
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Options A. through D. (Score:4, Interesting)
And don't look at me like that! I live near Seattle where there is plenty of open water and plenty of Indian Reservations to buy the good stuff at.
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Other missing option.. I sell consumer fireworks. Had a $10K day today.
It's noise is annoying, but for some, it's 10% of the annual income in just a few days.
Meteors are valid? (Score:3)
I watch the original Red Dawn (Score:2)
I watch Red Dawn on the 4th of July. Citizens of the US are called insurgents, and rightly so given the context.
It is an important movie to frame current events, in my opinion.
I've been doing this since the late 1990s.
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"I watch the original Red Dawn..."
Well, there's your problem right there.
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I'm not sure I understand your comment.
I'm referring to the 1984 movie (the first PG-13 rated movie). My friends and I were into the cold war (those evil Russians...), and it was our favorite movie for some time. HBO showed it constantly during 1985.
A few years ago, on July 4th, I realized the movie was sort of a blueprint for Al-Qaeda style insurgencies. Wars of attrition, with insurgents hiding and striking randomly. Today the scene where they gun down the townspeople reminded me of the bloodbaths in
Save me (Score:2)
I live in a small town. The next town over (a bit over a mile) has a fire department completely obsessed with fireworks. Not just the 4th, but MOST holidays. It was cute at first, but now I close the windows, draw the shades, and turn up the TV.
That's How I Know I Got Old (Score:2)
The last few years I've thought it would be awesome if I could watch the fireworks from a small private plane. This year I found a company that will rent me a plane, but couldn't find a pilot on short notice. Next year I'm going to try to get a smaller plane and recruit a pilot well in advance.
Re:That's How I Know I Got Old (Score:4, Interesting)
Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but watching fireworks from a plane is likely to be a big disappointment. Because you can see so much area from a thousand feet or so, the fireworks become comparatively tiny, and also often viewed against a background of urban lighting which makes them hard to see. Even huge public displays like the Sydney NYE displays look pretty unimpressive from the air. Fireworks are only impressive when viewed from the ground against a dark sky, close to their launch point.
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There is one place better than on the ground. In the air, at about 1000 feet or so! I was lucky enough to get a reservation at the John Hancock tower restaurant on the 95th floor some years back.
This was in Chicago on July 3rd (when Chicago sets theirs off) and they are sent up from the water on barges just off the shoreline at Grant Park, near Navy Pier. They go up 600-800 feet to detonate typically, so you are nearly on eye-level or slightly above with the explosions! They are only a few blocks away s
Re:That's How I Know I Got Old (Score:5, Interesting)
Best point of view I've had:
http://ninjito.com/images/_2013-07-14/qx-te-1.jpg [ninjito.com]
Up the Eiffel Tower (technical level, non public - "deux et demi").
Fired a line of fireworks off the tower, and then got to watch the show. The 150 and 200mm mortars were popping at about head height. Great experience!
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Nice! That's pretty close to the view I had, about the same distance away, too. I wish my adventure wasn't before the days when everyone had a camera-phone on them, or I would have gotten some nice shots at the time as well. :(
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http://www.viator.com/tours/Orlando/Fireworks-Helicopter-Tour-over-Disneys-Epcot-Center/d663-5168EPCOT
The only drawback is that you are in proximity to Disney World, The Shittiest Place on Earth (tm), in the middle of Florida, the most brain dead state in the union (sorry, Alabama).
Summertime fireworks (Score:2)
While I don't celebrate 4th of July (not American) I've always thought that mid-summer was an awkward time to hold fireworks displays.
By the time it's dark enough to effectively set off fireworks it's well past kids bedtimes and noise becomes a large consideration.
In my southern-hemisphere country we celebrate Guy Fawkes (or the failure thereof) on 5th November but that's of course close to our summertime so we have the same problem.
The UK seems to have gotten that right - Guy Fawkes in late autumn when it'
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By the time it's dark enough to effectively set off fireworks it's well past kids bedtimes and noise becomes a large consideration.
Depends, obviously, on where you are.
Here where I live in southern California, fireworks start about 9:00 and sunset is around 8:00. I grew up seeing the fireworks in New Hampshire, where they would start the fireworks at 9:30 with sunset around 8:30.
Not being a parent, I don't know if 10:00 is particularly late when sunset is around 9:00. I can't imagine that small children would want to go to bed when it's still light out.
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I don't know if 10:00 is particularly late when sunset is around 9:00. I can't imagine that small children would want to go to bed when it's still light out.
In northern latitudes they pretty much have to. I do myself sometimes, in June and July, and wake up well past sunrise, which tomorrow is at 4:50. Nautical morning twilight (when the sky starts to visibly change colour) is at 2:53. (This is London, 55N. Most of Northern Europe is further north.)
(There's no "night" tonight, only astronomical twilight. But that's a technical definition -- it's dark outside.)
wooooot Alice Springs Show day (Score:2)
the people of Alice Spings in Australia get a day off to go to the local Ag Show. Bargain!
thanks (Score:2)
Thanks for providing an answer that at least remotely fitting to Muslim during this month of Ramadan:
> I mostly care about the food
Fireworks started at 9pm, right at the time I just started to eat my Iftar. At first, when I was still hungry, it sounded like pop-corn was finishing last pops in the microwave.
On Earth this year (Score:2)
We called it Friday.
A question though, how is it that for 364 days you use a backasswards date format that is set to confuse the rest of the human race but this one day you put the day number before the month like everyone else?
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Of course, the Americans get to have the same problem in 2017/2018 when July 4th is on a Tuesday/Wednesday, and Canada day will instead be
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The US was the first colony to successfully rebel against its former master and achieve independence. Everyone else celebrates the victory of one side after a (horrific and brutal) civil war.
And we celebrate our victory over a historical foreign power by lighting incendiary devices manufactured in a future foreign power.
Re:Different from other revolution celebrations (Score:5, Informative)
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Just for the record:
Yes, without the French, we wouldn't have won. A lot of us where appalled at the freedom fries bull crap.
The French are are first allies. The fact that they get left out of almost every money, including the appalling PoS 'the Patriot' is practically criminal.
They saved are ass with about 300,000 soldiers, and superior weapons.
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revolting against unjust taxation
Looks like we lost [wikipedia.org] that one.
Re:4th of July? (Score:5, Funny)
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Correct.
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In Mexico, they have Quatro de Julio.
Down by the School Yard?
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Every country has a day in the year when they set off the fireworks.
Residents of the USA should care that that the USA chose the middle of summer to set off the fireworks. The professional display nearest to me started at 10.00pm.
If the USA has not so clumsily divorced itself from its owner, it would be letting the fireworks off on the 5th of November and everyone could be home and drinking themselves silly by 9.00pm after seeing a show that started around 7.00pm.
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It was related to me by my father, who was probably told this by *his* father. In regards to the mining town where they lived until my father was 4. People would take home a little dynamite from the mine, much in the way office workers might grab a stapler or some pens. They'd blow it up on the 4th. I guess management didn't mind too much on that one day. They probably did the same thing. Talk about a different era! We're talking almost 100 years ago now. This would be near Uniontown, PA by the way.