Back in 1976 – America's bicentennial – I was 13 years old and in 8th grade. I wasn't overly fond of my math teacher, but I will give her credit for something I've always remembered: She took us on a field trip to see the Bicentennial Freedom Train when it landed either in California's Bay Area or in Sacramento (I don't remember where we went). Any other folks out there remember this patriotic marvel?
Somewhere, too, I still possess a small bicentennial pin bearing this logo. Does it look familiar to anyone?
For more memories of 1976, here is a short documentary:
And, for good measure, a Coke commercial:
Now here we are, fifty years later, celebrating America's semiquincentennial
Presumably I won't be around for this nation's 300th anniversary, but I hope it will be a good one. Happy birthday, America!
The Bicentennial was great. We went to see the tall ships in NY harbor, then Mom BBQed for family and friends. My mother was a fantastic cook. In addition to the usual hamburgers and steaks, Mom deep fried shrimp, and uh, I don't remember much else except potato salad and a delicious flag cake. I was 11.
ReplyDeleteThat might have been the time my grandmother, mother's mother, got completely drunk. She was a nondrinker, so when she decided to have a few too many whiskey sours (probably made by me because I liked to take a sip) it was big family news. And obviously remembered for 50 years. My father thought it was the funniest thing ever.
DeleteAs a kid, I thought whiskey sours were the best tasting things ever. Yet I have never once had one as a legal adult drinker. Heh. Maybe I should think about making a couple tomorrow in honor of Nana.
ReplyDeleteI was 11 years old. We celebrated on my granddads farm. The men cooking mutton, pulled pork and venison with a kettle of burgoo (squirrel stew) off to the side. Grandma, mom and aunts cooking the best sides and deserts available. Horseshoes and washers being pitched in between the eating and the laughter. All us boys wearing newspaper tricorn hats pretending we were minutemen saving the homeplace from the redcoats. It was a glorious time and place to be a red blooded American boy. Happy 250 to you and yours!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't alive then, born a few years later, but my mom told me many stories of all the events they did in the Twin Cities area for the event. In the German/Polish communities there, beer is a big thing, and all the beer companies local to that region, made custom cans for the 200th celebration, many people actually made crocheted hats using the cut up cans as well to wear, I still have the ones my parents had from back then. My mom also had several sets of the collectible Ball canning jars they made that year, and I still use them to can in today. Also have a bunch of the quarters, 50 cent pieces and $1 coins they made to celebrate that year. I do remember however in 1990 when Idaho celebrated it's 100th anniversary, that was a huge deal, tons of events everywhere and collectible things, they even made a monopoly style board game for the occasion, LOL.
ReplyDeleteSomething that thankfully stayed in the 70s were Bicentennial themed cars. We had a red, white and blue Pinto. sigh.
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