Anyone else here remember the "Bicentennial?"

[Archae]

And all the hucksters back then?



I was 16, and when I saw a snack food with a TV ad jingle that went, "They've got French fried flavor, and Yankee Doodle crunch!" it was the real low point for me.

Did watch the tall ships, though.

[essme]

1. Yep, I was 13

My folks drove me to DC so we could tour the Smithsonian. I thought it was pretty cool.

[DonRedwood]

17. That IS pretty cool!

[allan01]

2. raises hand . i graduated from high school june 1976. gasp was it that long ago??

[mainstreetonce]

4. I had a baby.

He's getting old.

[PJMcK]

19. Me, too. Class of 1976

Our float for homecoming included the iconic image from the American Revolution of the Flag Holder, the Drummer and the Fife Player.

Yeah, allan01, it was forty fucking years ago!

Own it. (wink)

[OhioBlue]

43. OMG - This post just made me realize I was at a Bicentennial Celebration.

I was born in '72. There are pics of me, age 4, in a parade holding the "queen to be"'s crown. The pics show me on a patriotic float with young ladies in patriotic dresses. One of the contestants was my cousin's best friend, which is how I probably ended up on the float. I have very feint memories, I remember watching the float be decorated and actually remember the park where the parade started. My parents divorced within a year after that, and might have been separated shortly after so there wasn't really any recollecting about it.

[PJMcK]

44. Own it, OhioBlue!

None of us are as young as we think we are! Frankly, I don't care and I'll continue to behave as I want to.

[JustAnotherGen]

59. I have a picture from when I was 3

At a base 4th of July celebration in Weisbaden. That red, white, and blue get up my mom had me in. At least I'm not the only person whose mom acted the fool in that picture.

[ChazII]

50. I also graduated in 1976. n/t

[JonathanRackham]

3. Hucksters?

Free enterprise at work. Wages paid and taxes collected.

[Archae]

5. Including the snack food who's jingle I quoted?

[Adrahil]

31. Why the heck not? NT

[lapucelle]

6. I remember it and saw the tall ships as well.

I remember everyone painting fire hydrants red, white, and blue or to look like miniature Revolutionary-era soldiers.

Even Queen Elizabeth paid a visit. I remember there was a kerfuffle because President Ford asked the Queen to dance while the orchestra was playing the song "That's Why the Lady is a Tramp".

[Ex Lurker]

7. We went out to somebody farm where they shot an old Civil War cannon

Or at least they claimed it was. It may have been homemade for all I know. Then we went home and watched the tall ships on TV.

[SummerSnow]

8. I remember it. I was about 11, The commercials, the jingles, etc.

I remember a firehouse about a block away from my grandmothers house and they had 1776-1975 on their firetrucks.


I remember this commercial...lol

[CentralMass]

9. Yes and I was 16 as well.

[Happyhippychick]

10. I was 12. I loved bicentennial quarters

[mcar]

11. I graduated from HS that year

[PJMcK]

21. That was an interesting time, wasn't it?

Last edited Sat Jul 2, 2016, 10:59 PM - Edit history (1)

Were you old enough to vote in 1976? I proudly and excitedly voted for Jimmy Carter and ever since, I've been a loyal and ardent Democrat!

[doc03]

12. I was 28 then, I still have a bicentenial BIC lighter. n/t

[PJMcK]

22. Doing the arithmetic

Was 1968 your first presidential election? I don't remember when the voting age was set at 18. Having read your thoughtful posts, doc03, I'm confident you voted Democratic!

Happy fourth of July.

[doc03]

25. I was 20 and in the Army in 1968 but voting age was 21. I don't remember who for or

if I voted in 1972. In 1976 I definitely voted for Jimmy Carter. Forgive me but in 1980 I voted for the Republican Reagan for the first and last time. What was I thinking? In 2000 I voted for John McCain in the primary but Gore in the general, couldn't stand "W". In 2000 John McCain seemed to be a good choice but in 2008 he went nuts. You have a nice 4th too.

[PJMcK]

26. The 1970's are hard for me to remember, too (BIG wink!)

Thanks for sharing your voting history, doc03. My biggest electoral regret is that I voted tor Ronald Reagan for his second term in 1984.

Here's the humorous story: My first wife and I went to vote after work that year and we ran into our neighbors from across the hall. We agreed to meet at the local Irish restaurant later that evening. By the time my wife and I got home after voting, the networks were calling the win for Governor Reagan. Since I had voted for President Reagan, my ex-wife was so angry that she blamed me for his re-election even though he crushed Senator Mondale by winning 49 states. As a result, she refused to join us for dinner and when I arrived at the restaurant, our neighbors didn't believe me when I told them why my wife wouldn't be joining us!

That is the only time I ever voted for a Republican except for a local election. There was a civil court judge who I new personally and he ran unopposed so I gave him my support. He was actually a great guy and helped out a lot when I was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader.

[jdadd]

13. Yeah....The Buy Centennial

[calimary]

56. I remember some zoo getting a new buffalo.

And they named their new bison... Tennial.

Seriously.

[jdadd]

69. Not surprised here....

My hometown (central Ohio) named a new city park, Bicentennial Park. After Sept 2001 Bicentennial Park was re named Patriot Park....I'm living in the middle of Red Hell!!!

[MANative]

14. Yup, I was also 16. Just talking about that with my hubby this afternoon and observed...

That it's only ten more years to the 250th. I had no concept of the potential that I'd likely be alive to see that when I was that young. Our high school colors were red and white, and that year, everything had the blue added in! So cheesy, but I recall that we all got sucked into it!

[aidbo]

15. I'm a bicentennial baby. Born a month + 4 days after the 4th of July.

So the USA is 200 years and 35 days older than me.

[PJMcK]

51. You're a Yankee Doodle Baby! (n/t)

[annabanana]

16. Me too.

I sat with my legs dangling over the edge along the East River in the lower 70's somewhere, I think. The tallest ships couldn't clear the bridges, so we saw all the slightly smaller "tall ships" which was just fine.

Lots and lots of people waiting for a long time for them, then, we could hear a cheer coming down the East River, but couldn't see anything..

Then a guy in a rubber raft came into view, bumping his craft along the side as people clapped and laughed. (I'd forgotten that until just now)

[DonRedwood]

18. All that red white and blue polyester plaid

Oh yeah, I remember it well!

[Bluenorthwest]

20. The snack food with that slogan had been out for a few years already but I do remember the

Bicentennial Minutes....

[Brother Buzz]

23. I traveled the west on the Mother of all road trips that summer

Inflation was taking a ding on my wallet, but it was still a blast to be foot-loose and free. Juxtaposition to that bicentennial shit, I celebrated the centennial of Custer's fall, the pompous ass, by traveling through the Little Bighorn area.

[bhikkhu]

24. I remember going on the bicentennial train

and I think I still have a commemorative medallion from that. I used to save the quarters too, of course. I recall we got pancake syrup in special bicentennial design glass bottles, and I thought I'd save them because they might be collectors items someday (but I didn't). It was neat at the time. I don't recall ever paying much attention to commercials. We didn't have much money and I didn't like to ask my mom for stuff, so I tuned all that out.

[dflprincess]

27. I still have my "Official National Lampoon Bicentennial Calendar"

[mountain grammy]

67. Holy crap, I remember that!

what a treasure!

[Runningdawg]

28. 1975 4H had a nation wide contest

the winner from each state got a tour of America the summer of 76. I won from OK. Along with 49 others and chaperones we toured around a few weeks looking at historical sights, before stopping in DC for a week, ending with the 4th. I was 16. A little stupid too - I manged to sneak away from the group and find some really nice people to smoke with at the capitol. Yeah, I got in trouble with the head honcho in charge of us but I played dumb, saying I got lost and no one was any the wiser.
It was a fantastic trip, we learned a lot, had a ton of fun and made new friends. It's the most memorable thing about the year. On the flip side, I was damned glad when the red, white and blue madness stopped.

[Lance Bass esquire]

29. Was 13 and it was a big deal.

Before 24/7 cable news. All THREE networks ran special programming. Simpler..lol information times..miss them days at times.

[pintobean]

30. A lot of the bicentennial stuff was cool.

You seem to complain a lot.
And, as BNW pointed out, Nabisco's American Fries had been out for a couple of years.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19741024&id=LEcpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jmcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4175,4026816&hl=en

[Archae]

49. Even Saturday Night Live back then did a sketch on the hucksterism.

On "Weekend Update" Gilda Radner played a teenage girl who either had, or wanted to have, any and every Bicentennial trinket available.

And I had completely forgot who made the snacks, and what they ever were!

Just goes to show you, "Everything old is new again..."

[SheilaT]

32. I was 28, living in Alexandria, VA.

On July 4, 1976, I went down to the Mall, met up with my brother, his wife, their two kids, and we watched the fireworks. Afterwards I walked almost all the way home before getting a ride the final mile. In fact, for about an hour after the fireworks ended no vehicular traffic could move because the million plus people who'd gone to the Mall that day simply took over the roads. There was a photograph the next day on the front page of the Washington Post showing peopled walking across Memorial Bridge, and they were using up all of the lanes of traffic.

My now ex husband was also there, although we wouldn't meet for another couple of years.

I intend to be there on July 4, 2026, and I've told my sons that they need to be there July 4, 2076, for the Tricentennial. And to tell every single person they see that their parents were there one hundred years ago. Older son will be 93, younger one 89, and there's a very good chance they would both still be around.

Plus, I believe in long-range planning.

One of the things that happened because of the Bicentennial was a huge revival in needle arts: embroidery, quilting, needlepoint, knitting, and crochet. And many of us who took up those things back then are still doing them forty years later.

[liberal N proud]

35. We will be on the Mall for fireworks this year.

[SheilaT]

64. Nice. Being in our nation's Capital on the Fourth

is always a treat.

[pinboy3niner]

66. All that's missing is the Beach Boys

Those were the days.

[woodsprite]

33. We were just reminiscing about the Freedom Train's stop in DE

I was 13 yo.

[liberal N proud]

34. 40 years ago.

I was 17 and owned the world. I lived in rural Iowa and ran contraband fireworks from South Dakota. We would make a road trip, fill our trunk and sell it for 3X what we paid.

That was the last carefree summer I had, the next year, I had to face the real world and grow up.

[PufPuf23]

36. I cleared a spot of hillside and hauled in some silt and mulch and removed

rock to improve the soil and made a large American flag out of red and white petunias and blue lobelia.

I was 23 and lived with a gf and we rented (for $100 per month!) a small A-frame cabin with only a Franklin wood stove for heat and no telephone. I had taken off the 75-76 school year while an undergrad at Cal and rented that cabin for about 5 years it was so cheap and such nice view of the Klamath River even though spent more time in Berkeley.

Probably one of the most patriotic things I ever did.

The owners of the cabin lived nearby and would bring down their company to see the flower flag and my gf's pet (scraggly) pot plant.

[Hekate]

38. I like that for a project. Did you ever go back and graduate?

[PufPuf23]

40. March 79 BS, June 1987 Masters

I never started until I was 21 and already had a career Fed job.

I was detailed to a Berkeley office of the agency and worked part time while at Cal.

Was Fed 1969 to 1985 and resigned to go back for Masters.

[Hekate]

37. I do. It was cool. My mom gave me a Bicentennial commemorative plate that coincidentally matched....

... (Almost matched) the Centennial plate I got from my MIL when she passed. So one of them is now 140 years old. I never hung either of them on the wall, but you know someday I might.

My first baby was born in December 1975, so I was doing young-mother things that year. I thought about all the ways the country had changed since 1876. I was still optimistic in many ways.

[dlwickham]

39. I remember my school pictures all had a patriotic background

I think there was like one background that every school used

[elmac]

41. I still run into little trinkets from that year

a Bicentennial pocket knife, cups, ect... was 16 also on the 4th back then.

[Iggo]

42. Friday morning I found an American flag planted in my lawn (and on the lawns of all my neighbors)...

...with the business card of a local real estate agent attached to it.

And I thought, "Didn't it used to be verboten (or at the very least distasteful) to use the flag in advertising? When did that change?"

I think you may have provided me with my answer.

(I was 14, by the way.)

[Sancho]

45. My first year teaching middle school

[Hoppy]

46. My friend's wife worked on about the 30th floor of the World Trade Center.

She got us passes to watch the parade of sails from that floor.

Every possible commercial was "Bicentennial (this or that). I had a summer job and was sitting near a woman who had a habit of loudly yawning. (It was a boring job). Anyways, another worker asked if she would please stop.

"That's my bicentennial whistle." We all got a kick out of that.


July 4, 1777. My cousin and I were riding back home to N.J. from Maine. He announced that we had to take a side trip to Marblehead, Mass. We got there around noon when he stopped the car near the town hall so we could go into that building.

There, on prominent display is the painting, "The Spirit of '76."

[The Wizard]

47. I have $100 in

Bi Centennial quarters.

[The empressof all]

48. I was a Bicentennial Aide in Philadelphia

We had a ball! We were stationed at various points in the city to interact with visitors and answer questions. It was a great time to be in Philadelphia!

[trackfan]

52. Yep. I was 16 too.

I remember those "bicentennial minute" spots on TV. I remember lighting a lot of firecrackers on the day.

[babylonsister]

53. My parents hosted a German family

who brought a ship over. Yes, I remember, and it was a big deal.

[jalan48]

54. We referred to it as the "Buy Centennial".

[melman]

55. Of course I remember

I was nine and we were out at my grandparents' house in Lake Mohawk, NJ. I remember watching the tall ships on channel 5.

[loyalsister]

57. I was six yrs. old and remember it well

We had just moved into a new house and my dad bought a lot of bicentennial fixtures. A liberty bell chandelier still hangs in that house. He had a big party with lot of fireworks that became a tradition.
I also vividly remember this filthy little ditty playing constantly.....

[Rhiannon12866]

58. Bicentennial Minutes!

[HughBeaumont]

60. I was 7.

I remember Ohio, clothes, products, etc. looking like Old Glory was vomited over everything.

And Starland Vocal Band.

[MFM008]

61. I was the class of 76

High school. Special tassels n stuff.
My parents bought a floor room bicentennial dodge dart that had 'Spirit of 76' on the side of it in red and blue on a white car at least until my brother wrecked it one night.

[Quantess]

62. Some wiseacre painted a couple of the local fire hydrants red white & blue.

I was too young to notice any hucksters.

[bemildred]

63. AYE. "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip_inflation_now

Those were he days.

[SheilaT]

65. The Air and Space Museum opened.

It was originally scheduled to open (if I recall correctly) on the Fourth, but it was completed a bit early so (again if I recall correctly) on the first of July. By the Fourth it had hosted a million visitors.

[csziggy]

68. Mostly because my Mom became a minor celebrity

She was on the local Bicentennial committee and made a quilt for the Bicentennial celebrations. Actually she made two - her first one wasn't large enough. The second one was displayed at various events promoting the activities of 1976. People paid money so they could sign the quilt. I'm not sure where that money went, maybe to fund other events.

During 1976 Mom traveled around to schools with her quilt and samples of quilt blocks and gave talks about American history and about quilting. She became so well known that when the children wrote letters to her addressed to "The Quilt Lady, {my hometown}" the post office knew where to deliver them!

As a result of the preparations for the Bicentennial a local history association was formed. That group now has a museum of local history and for over twenty years my Mom was editor of their quarterly which printed many, many articles on local history.

I was in my last year of college and didn't pay much attention to the Bicentennial hoopla.

[maveric56]

70. I was 20 and living in Boston.

The Queen came to our town. Tall ships were being welcomed into the harbor by fire boats with water cannons. There were many cool things going on. That evening we made our way to the Esplanade to watch Aurtur Feidler and the Boston Pops play to fireworks and a crowd of a million. It was fantastic.

[Exilednight]

71. Yep. I was 7 years old and in 4th grade. I remember they gave my class these funky shirts with

Blue body and the sleeves were red and white striped with stars and there was an eagle on the front.

Since I was so young, my shirt was 3 sizes too big. A lot of the kids made fun of me, but I was the only one who could spell bicentennial from memory.

All of our projects that year involved bicentennial themes.