I don't mind fireworks and I used to love setting them off (especially in model cars and school toilets). But now I've got a 15 year old border collie who hates those things. She'll face down pit bulls, coyotes and patiently lets kids crawl all over her, but when the fireworks start, she shrinks into the closet, shaking, and tries to dig her way through the rug hoping to create a hole big enough to hide in.
Plus, every year the Fourth of July seems to last longer. Now it starts somewhere around June 20th and runs through at least to the second week of July. And there will still be explosions going off way past midnight on the 4th (though given that this is Chicago, it might be gunfire - it was the home of Al Capone after all). Two years ago, I went out at about 10pm and coming down my street was a Mercedes full of what looked like wealthy frat boys with one having his arm out the window drunkenly firing an H&K into the air.
I am fond of the Fourth of July, but I'd rather watch a professional fireworks display from the relative safety of my porch (I can see the big Grant Park display from there).