Happy (almost) Fourth of July, America!

I love Independence Day. When I was a kid, we used to day trip to my Uncle Mike’s house every Fourth to spend the holiday there.

My Uncle Mike wasn’t biologically my uncle; he was my dad’s best friend — and actually, my dad’s best man, too. He was a pretty prominent figure in my life growing up, so calling him my uncle always came naturally.

Anyway, Uncle Mike lived right on Strawberry Lake back in Michigan. Like, right on it. So every summer, my parents would pack us up and take us over a handful of times each year. We’d spend days learning how to waterski behind the speed boat, afternoons dining at Zukey Lake Tavern and nights catching fireflies, barbecuing and jumping off the rope swing into the canal behind Uncle Mike’s backyard.

And, the Fourth of July was no exception. Almost every year, we’d take the pontoon out for the day, park it at a sandbar and allow ourselves to sunburn waiting until dusk. Once night fell, we’d watch the fireworks show while fishing cold melon out of the cooler with our sandy hands.

Fourth of July was always a summer highlight growing up.

And, while I won’t be spending tomorrow docking the pontoon and lounging with a drink in hand, there’s something to be said for celebrating the Fourth here in Chicago, too. Miles of beaches along Lake Michigan, drink specials on rooftop bars across the city and the Navy Pier fireworks show?

Chicago is not a bad place to celebrate America’s birthday.

But, it begs the question: What do you wear?

Whenever summer comes around, I end up getting DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince stuck in my head about once a week. Is that just me?

“Summertime” makes me so nostalgic for the ’90s. I don’t know about you, but “hey pull over real quick and throw your car in park to override its safety system so we can sync my iPhone up to your car’s Bluetooth audio connection and use Siri to switch tracks on Spotify” just doesn’t really have the same flow as “pop in my CD and let me run a rhyme.”

Seriously, mix CDs were about a million times better than streaming service playlists. I think I loved the fact that they were so permanent. Unless you had a million dollars to spend on CD-RWs, you were basically stuck with whatever 22 songs you could fit onto a few CDs for the whole summer.

So, yeah. I miss a few things from the ’90s, like terrible super awesome mix CDs, writing in Lisa Frank binders with gel pens, and original Nicktoons. But, the style? Not so much. I know there’s a huge fashion revival going on right now trying to re-popularize some of the styles from the decade, but I’ll pass on the muddy brown lipstick, butterfly hair clips and Steve Madden flatforms.

But, the crop tops? The resurgence of those suckers started a few years ago, and I can get behind it. I just probably won’t pair them with incredibly low-rise super flared jeans this time around.