Who feels old thinking the bicentennial was 50 years ago? What do you remember about it? (If you weren’t born yet, you can have your own thread like this in 50 years for the 300th bday )
I was a rising senior in high school. I just have vague memories - but memories - of wearing flag gear, lots of parades, lots of fireworks.
More recently I remember experiencing and embracing (perhaps more than !) Canada’s 150th in 2017. It has been a “second home” for us and it was somewhat reminiscent of the simple celebrations of 1976 - and people really celebrating the event.
I have no real attachment to the 250th. I certainly won’t see the 300th!
I remember it well as my family took a road trip in August that year with stops in Philly, DC and all the sites there and ending at Bethany beach. I had these sneakers that had 1776 on the back of one shoe and 1976 on the other.
‘76 was my senior year of high school. I emceed our senior variety show which was bi-centennial-themed, but lots of red, white, and blue the whole school year. Good times.
My 50th HS reunion is this September. I’m sure bi-centennial memories will be featured.
I have great memories of that day. I was 15. I lived in Brooklyn, not far from the Verrazano Bridge. We walked to the Belt Parkway (closed that day) and watched the tall ships sailing into the harbor. I lived so close, I remember actually going twice to see them over the course of the day (probably going home to eat lunch). Then that night, I saw the Macy’s fireworks over the East River. That was the first year of the NYC fireworks that continues 50 years later.
I now live near Boston and am excited to view the ships that will be docked in the Boston Harbor next week. I hope it feel nostalgic to me.
I was in college. I remember all of the parades, big fireworks displays etc. in my ( small) hometown and the other towns around it. There seemed to be a lot of red,white and blue merchandise too.
I’m not seeing that this year. Read the hometown newspaper online and follow on social media and it doesn’t seem like much happening.
I’m considering flying my flag. Not excited about things but it is July 4th.
I was in a colonial dress on a float in the biggest parade my tiny town had ever seen. We were also in the path of the wagon train that crossed the country, and everyone went to see it.
I am flying the flag. The more of us, the better, I think.
I was a young teen in 1976. I don’t specifically remember the celebrations on the 4th but we did visit the tall ships when they were nearby that summer.
I remember “colonial” style was all the rage in decorating. Bulky dark pine furniture, butter churns, spinning wheels. Harvest gold and avocado were the big accent colors. My memories of this are particularly clear because we moved a couple years before the bicentennial and of course the house was decorated in the latest style.
I remember local celebrations (I lived near Kingston NY - lots of history there). And the tall ships.
It does make me feel a little old. This week I was saying that my age of 13 years seemed such a small part of the 200 year US age. But now… 63 years seems a significant chunk of 250 .
I was 13. I remember a lot of excitement and red, white and blue everything. But I was living in one of the original 13 colonies (NJ) so maybe there was more of it. We saw the Freedom Train and the tall ships. And my Girl Scout troop did several Bicentennial themed activities. In my photo album from that year there’s a grainy photo of the younger kids on our street having a July 4th parade dressed in homemade colonial costumes. The Bicentennial fueled my interest in American history and eventually my career field (museums/archives/library).
I was 14. If I’m not confusing my years, I remember driving around one of the highways near DC, and the fireworks started. My aunt and I (she’s just a year and a half older than I am), climbed up on top of my other aunts new van and watched them from the side of the road.
I attended the fireworks displays a couple of times in DC, but the last one I went to may have been over 30 years ago.
Other than the fireworks, I don’t remember much about that year. I do think that maybe our school pictures had a special “feature” to commemorate the bicentennial.
I was also a rising senior in high school. I was also involved in the mariner sea scouts, an off-shoot of the girl scouts. We flew to Newport and sailed and crewed for a week on a tall ship, the Shenandoah, with the other tall ships from various countries, before they sailed on to NYC for the fourth. It was an amazing experience.
I was 27 and had just broken up with a long-time live-in boyfriend, so I was living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with my maiden aunt in her apartment while I looked for one. I was feeling pretty isolated so I didn’t go see the fireworks or the Tall Ships – but (and this is sooooooo sad) I watched the fireworks on my aunt’s tiny black-and-white TV. How pathetic is that!!
But I do remember very well the joy and camaraderie that was all around the City as we celebrated.
Well I was 3, almost 4! So I don’t remember exactly. But I lived in a suburb of Columbus until I was 10. I remember going to parades in the morning. And they would paint red, white, and blue stars on the street on the parade route. I thought that was the coolest thing. we would do sparklers in the backyard before watching the fireworks. Now if any of these memories were 1976, I’m not sure. They are all jumbled together.
I plan to try to watch the fireworks from the same place tomorrow - if we can stay up that late and it doesn’t storm. Since 1983, I have only been back here 5 times in the 90s to run the marathon, and in 2017 on the way to cedar point. I will drive by the house and my old school tomorrow.
All the John Jakes books “The Kent Family Chronicles” was written for the bi-centennial. I read ALL of them and eagerly awaited each new book. I hated learning history before those books but he made it all come alive for me.
The parades and fireworks were wonderful. New coins! It was a time of celebration!
On July 4, 1976, I was in the graduate lounge at my graduate school…re-writing some sections my thesis so I could defend it the following week. I spent the entire day and well into the evening getting this done.
So…no holiday celebration for me.
The day after I defended my thesis, I embarked on a cross country trip for about 6 weeks, hitting a lot of national parks. It was great! Returned to the east coast the night before I started my job.
It was a magical summer. I was 16. Our town had a big craft fair in addition to the rest of the celebration. I got a ring and bracelet, I still have to this day. I love the memories when I look at it. We certainly had a big family picnic.
About a month later, I met the boy who would become my husband eight years later. He was a rising senior at our rival high school.
My memories remind me that it was a summer of joy, freedom, and possibilities.
)
!) Canada’s 150th in 2017. It has been a “second home” for us and it was somewhat reminiscent of the simple celebrations of 1976 - and people really celebrating the event.