Streetalk: How do you celebrate the Fourth of July?

Annelise: My father reads the Declaration of Independence every 4th of July out loud. We have it on our door. He pulls it down, reads it out loud to my mom, the dog and me. He’s a lawyer. It’s why our country was started, so we should remember it. I had a friend over last year and he read the Declaration of Independence. It was great. Then we went to the Waffle House afterward. Now that’s American. Then for dinner my mom makes a really big meal and we have an American flag ice cream cake. We’re very patriotic.

Bubba: I like to shoot guns on the 4th of July to celebrate my freedom. Commie bastards come over to kill us. They’re continually slapping us in the face. I’ll shoot anything that moves — vermin, coons, squirrels, greys, beer bottles, armadillos, chickens. Then I eat a pig. I put an apple in his mouth. It’s traditional barbecue, man. And then maybe I’ll ride some motorcycles and watch some fireworks in the graveyard over there at Marietta Boulevard and hang out with the G.B.C. It’s a secret society, man.

Zeus: The independence of America is really the independence of so many other people and different cultures. So I try to spend time with as many friends from different cultures, because that’s what the United States is. If it wasn’t, it would be boring. It’s cool that you can walk through a neighborhood within a ten block radius of Atlanta and see people from all over the world. Best day to do that is on the 4th. Everybody barbecue,s but every culture has their own dishes. They all bring a little bit of home with them. It’s like, “Wow, I’ve been around the world today.”