美国国家公共电台 NPR With A Midweek Holiday, Marking A Revolution With Moderation

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AILSA CHANG, HOST:

OK. It's nothing compared to what our Founding Fathers had to contend with, nor does it compare to the weighty issues facing our country today. But, still, when the Fourth of July falls on a Wednesday, celebrating can become a serious summer dilemma¹. NPR's Tovia Smith has more.

TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE²: With the Fourth of July barbecues and fireworks smack³ in the middle of the workweek, what's a worker to do?

TOM LEONE: It's just confusing for the week. You know, you take a couple of days before or after. It's confusing.

THIAGO MANSO: Like, even, like, my job doesn't even know what to do because, like, they don't know if they should give us off, like, at a weekend or in the middle of the week or last weekend. So, yeah.

SMITH: It's a mess.

MANSO: It is, definitely.

SMITH: Tom Leone (ph), a volunteer firefighter in Boston, and Thiago Manso, a waiter, ended up taking two days midweek. Steve Spadt, visiting Boston from Philadelphia, took the whole week.

STEVE SPADT: I only had to take four days off, and I get a five-day vacation.

SMITH: Bonus.

SPADT: It's a good deal.

(LAUGHTER)

SMITH: Everything's on sale on Fourth of July, right?

SPADT: That's right (laughter).

SMITH: ...Even vacation.

SPADT: (Laughter) That's right.

SMITH: But there are many not celebrating.

KEVIN HEALY: Aw, miserable⁴.

SMITH: Forty-year-old truck driver Kevin Healy says he needs to save his vacation days for Christmas, so he has to miss the Fourth this year.

HEALY: No partying because you got to work the next day. (Laughter) It's ridiculous.

MATT TRIPP: Dreadful. Dreadful.

SMITH: Some business owners, like general contractor⁵ Matt Tripp and architect Bill Whitlock, have their own complaints.

BILL WHITLOCK: Productivity - we basically lost a week, easily.

SMITH: Because staff didn't show up.

WHITLOCK: Yeah. They're not here.

TRIPP: We're all that's left.

SMITH: They'd like to see lawmakers ensure that Independence Day is always a long weekend, not a week.

TRIPP: It should be like Thanksgiving - first Friday or Monday of July every year. I think you'd get a lot of voter support.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, yelling) Huzzah (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Yelling) Huzzah.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) All together on the count of three, we're going to dump this tea into the sea.

SMITH: Down the street at the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, tourists are re-enacting a different grievance⁶.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) One, two, three - over the side. Huzzah.

SMITH: Tourist traffic here was light on Monday and Tuesday, but Executive Director Shawn Ford⁷ is counting on the end of the week.

SHAWN FORD: We hope it's coming. We certainly do hope it's coming.

SMITH: But either way, Ford says, the holiday should not be changed.

FORD: You got to celebrate the Fourth on the Fourth.

SMITH: Because it's significant that it's...

FORD: Our nation's birthday.

SMITH: Love it or hate it, the Fourth of July won't fall on Wednesday again for more than a decade. Tovia Smith, NPR News, Boston.