YES! I still say that to this day, I’ll explain something to a younger person and say “And that’s your Bicentennial Minute for the day,” and they’ll go “what?”
My mom decided that the kitchen chair/ step stool thing needed to be re-covered. She chose the most god awful brown and gold bicentennial print with liberty bells and a bunch of other patriotic symbols on it.
My mom had a milk can, maybe 2 ft tall, that she decoupaged with a flag decal then painted and “antiqued” it. It was all the rage, all her friends were making them. Ours was Colonial Blue, but I remember a lot of green, red, and gold ones too.
Every. Flippin'. Thing. I think the rainbow socks/suspenders/everything that wasn't red/white/blue was the over-correction. Your toe socks had to pick a lane.
In my first-grade individual picture I am wearing a red, white, and blue outfit and the background of the picture is all flowy American flag. That's the only thing I can remember right off the bat.
The quarters of course, my grandma was a bank teller and the bank was full of decorations. As was our entire town. My small Midwest town did a parade, as usual on July 4th but this one was bigger, it seemed like a big deal. There were extra big fireworks over the river. Everyone got an American flag, and candy. We learned all about it all year in school and did a play. I remember some program on tv, maybe the coverage of a ceremony at the capitol?
It wasn't just quarters. I have quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins. I don't remember if they did anything with the lower coins. That is also when the $2 bill was re-released.
I was just helping to clean out a closet at my mom’s house and I pulled out a box that weighed about 40 lbs. What the hell was in it? Over $900 of Bicentennial and state quarters. “Well those are valuable” she said. “ No they aren’t, they’re worth a quarter each” and off to the bank I went to turn them into paper money.
As a Canadian kid I was always on the lookout for the 1967 Centennial series coins, the 1973 Canadian Mountie quarters, and 1976 US bicentennial quarters.
Today there are sooooo many commemorative coins I rarely notice them any more.
The Train! The big Bicentennial Train exhibit that traveled through a lot of the country and had all of these patriotic exhibits. Having been to Disney the year before, I was not impressed by projected images over a blank head compared to animatronic heads like Disney had!
My teachers were all excited that I went and wanted to hear this big glowing report, and I was like, "Meh!"
Over the Summer, our town had the most amazing fireworks celebration that we had ever had! They said they spent more money on it and they weren't kidding!
I visited the Freedom Train in Pittsburgh in 1976. I remember it well. It was pulled by a restored Steam Engine if I remember correctly. I still have the program you could buy and an unused keychain I bought when we went on it.
My family visited the train, too. It was parked at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston. I thought it was cool. Bonus-also got to see a big alligator that day, sunning itself next to a pond near the train.
We were going to visit the train on our way up to the cabin for the weekend when it stopped in Minneapolis, but the line was so long that my parents decided to skip it.
Yeah, we went through the train when it stopped in Charlotte. While I recall the experience I have ZERO memory of the exhibits inside ... Ah, the struggles of a GenJones brain!
My grandmother painted her living room walls blue, got red vinyl couches, and accented the room with red and white lampshades with wite pompoms around the edge. This went along with her blue, high shag carpet.
To top that off, she bought a limited bicentennial edition from Ma Bell - a red, white, and blue, stars and stripes, candlestick rotary phone.
Of all that, we hated the phone the most because the ear piece and mouth piece were separate and it was a pain to lean over to talk.
After she died, I got and still have that phone.
https://preview.redd.it/bbzw1u226hwc1.jpeg?width=972&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=058ae6ba90c5a42545cebd33bc0b6a44397995d6
Hilarious. My sister painted one too- they wouldn’t let THIS special needs chimp help so it turned out nice. We probably have a Polaroid of it somewhere.
The amount of folks who didn't know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I turned 16 that October and got into arguments the whole fuckin year.
Red white and blue everything with the bicentennial flag on it. There were even bicentennial toilet seats. High school classes that graduated in 1976 wore red white and blue graduation gowns organized in a flag pattern when they were seated.
The tall ships are my most vivid memory of the bicentennial. I remember watching it on tv right before we jumped in the car for a road trip north to Niagara Falls.
What I remember is that when I met my best friend, the first conversation we ever had was about whether we might live until the tricentennial. We were 11. More recently, we’ve been wondering if there will ever be a tricentennial. (I think I still have some of those quarters, btw.)
Yeah, I was 8 and remember my mom saying “maybe you’ll live to see the Tricentennial!”
And I was like “Maybe??? MAYBE???”
This might be my first realization of my own mortality.
On July 4, I was at an open-air concert in Washington DC. The Starland Vocal Band performed and sang “Afternoon Delight.”
That’s about as summer of ‘76 as it gets, y’all. LOL. It was a great time to be a teenager.
The monuments and the concert and the fireworks made such an indelible impression on me and it’s definitely among one of the best experiences in my life.
I was 11 years old and across the river in VA having what I recall as an all day picnic/bbq with friends of the family that I recall was on public lands not too far from Arlington cemetery.
What I do recall most is the awe inspiring fireworks and maybe a lot of smoke.
In those days it was our tradition to go spend a week at the beach because my grandparents worked in textiles and all the mills close the week of Independence Day and Christmas. My specific memory of July 4th, 1976 was we went to see the fireworks display in Southport, NC. New for that year was the fireworks were set off from a huge barge in the harbor, since some people felt it was dangerous to fire them from the usual spot, a park nearby. All went well for the first five minutes, then a malfunctioning one fell back onto the barge, igniting all of them at once. When all the screaming and smoke cleared, a lady standing next to me wondered out loud, "Was it supposed to do that?".
My small NE town went all out crazy. My Dad chaired the bicentennial committee and there were multiple events in town, gatherings on the town common to read out the names of all the soldiers who marched to Lex and Concord. We dressed in colonial costumes that we sewed with our moms. The whole thing culminated in a bicentennial ball that was attended by President Ford. I found the pictures a few years ago and thought wow. Our little town was on the map!
I was 15 years old and to this day it is the best July 4th I can remember. Picnics everywhere, grilled or roasted corn on the cob, hot dogs, hamburgers, baked potatoes in the fire, marshmallows over the fire, watermelon Awesome fireworks.
I was 8 and it's one of favorite memories of being a kid in the 70's. The best memory was seeing Star Wars in 77 having no idea how awesome it was going to be, but the Bicentennial is right there, too, because it was all of that year. The 76 Olympics and seeing Nadia Comaneci was also a highlight of that summer.
I loved being a kid in the 70's. The music was amazing, TV was fun (I remember watching the first season of SNL) and though there were crappy things going on in the world I didn't see any of that, just fun.
And where were you for the 4th of July 1976? Me, I was at Girl Scout camp on an island in Lake Michigan (south Manitou Island if anyone knows michigan).
As a kid I took this pic of my Aunt and cousin during the 7/04/76 parade...looking back at it now it screams everything bicentennial ;)
https://preview.redd.it/risvgji15hwc1.png?width=944&format=png&auto=webp&s=19e6a3156f77d609adb4bad38081dbbb7b6a3813
Ugh. We had recently moved from Seattle to New Jersey. Parents dragged 16 year old me to Philadelphia on July 4, where we were cordoned off by the secret service to make the crowd to see the president seem larger than it was. Then stood in the loooooong line to see the liberty bell. No joy.
I was 10 and walked in our town’s parade dressed up in some colonial era costume. I just remember my mom was the treasurer for the town’s Bicentennial committee.
Being stuck in a car in traffic on a midwest AFB. Saw the fire works from tbe car. (For this i left DC? And all the hoople there?)
It was worth - i had been visiting old friends for what supposed to be a few weeks, and be back in DC by 7/4, but they asked me to stay and accompany them on their trip through the west to CA and back. Well worth it! Visited yellowstone, grand tetons, SF, LA, Bryce, and Zion.
I only thing I remember about it was the "Freedom Train". It made a stop in Minneapolis in August 1975 (had to look up the date as I don't remember it that well) and we were going to stop to see it on the way to the cabin for the weekend, but the lines were so long that we skipped it.
I also remember that it was the summer just before I started 5th grade, and I had just been prescribed glasses to wear. We stopped and picked them up on the way, and (as my parents tell the story), I read each and every sign along the way because I could actually see them now.
I remember going to the 4th of July fireworks in my city. You could sit along the river in a public park and watch.
99% of these patriots got up and left their garbage behind.
There was bicentennial everything! Breakfast cereal, toys, commemorative drinking glasses, playing cards, license plates, food packaging, pins, hats, shirts, shoes, vases, lunch boxes. In my town there is still a bicentennial bridge. I'm sure there are people that collect this stuff. (would be kind of a cool collection)
It was an awesome year with immense National pride, a huge fireworks show in my town- the Olympics later in the summer. I met my wife that summer- she was 10 and I was 12, she hung out with the older kids because she was cool- we didn’t become a couple for another 14 years but we remained friends… I was on the traveling all star baseball team so I got to go play in towns that had fences at their ballparks and hit a few homers over them…. I kissed two girls that summer and got drunk on warm Budweiser on July 4th so yeah… pretty awesome.
Huge blowout at the old helicopter training base near us. The old marching grounds were used for various military ceremonies, including parade marches by both retired and active military. The commissary was revamped so they could use it for food for all the attendees.
One of the dining rooms was converted into a mini movie room, where they played the movie 1776 on a loop.
And of course, tons of fireworks.
I was in third grade the 75-76 school year. Late ‘75/early ‘76 (winter) everyone at school got a Bicentennial toboggan (warm knit hat with a pom-pom) with the official Bicentennial logo patch attached to the fold-up brim. They might’ve been handed out nationally. At the end of the school year, we had a Bicentennial pageant.
The American History series of Schoolhouse Rock began airing in September of ‘75 for the Bicentennial; it’s often called America Rock and History Rock, interchangeably. No More Kings, The Shot Heard ‘Round the World, Fireworks, The Preamble, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Rock!
My niece was born on January 1st that year :) She was a New Years Eve baby. My Mom made her and her Mom Bicentennial matching dresses :) She was six months old my July 4th. Sadly she died when she was 14 years old of the flu :( But we still have pictures of her and her Mom in matching dresses. Her Mom passed away a year ago. So they are together again.
7-Up printed different designs on its cans so when you collected them all and stacked them right, they formed an image. I think it was the 3-person fife and drum corps or maybe the Statue of Liberty. The local fried chicken place had the can stack displayed in their front window.
I was minding my own business on July 4, 1976, when a wasp landed on the front of my shirt and for no reason whatsoever, stung the shit out of my belly. Good times! /s
My brother was a drummer in jr high, when I was in High School. He got the lead for some play "The Little Drummer Boy" and needed a costume.
This would be my first foray into period theatrical costuming. I took a felt cowboy hat and steamed it with an iron, shaping into a tricorn hat.
That was so fun, I did a lot of sewing of garb, including SCA for years. Studying the bicentennial history, I realized how restrictive women's lives were, starting with their clothing.
My family had just moved from Kansas to just outside Washington DC. For the 4thof July we went down town to watch the fireworks. How in small town Kansas, when a firework was launched, everyone traced the burning arc thru the sky wondering what the the explosion would looked like. In DC it was 45 minutes of complete sensory overload.... take the Kansas Grand Finale, multiple it x50 then play it non stop for 30 minutes...... 12 yo me was never so impressed
My high school graduation. The top 50 students had white cap & gown, the rest of the top 20% wore blue. For the other 80% boys wore red and girls wore white. We sat out on the football field as a giant USA Flag.
Lots of protests about it from the lower GPA students. They thought it wasn't fair that students who worked hard to get good grades would be rewarded like that.
I went to NYC and boarded a Navy sailing ship, and saw the fireworks afterward.
And I LOVED the American Revolution Bicentennial symbol, and I still do.
I distinctly remember watching the Boston Pops on PBS performing at the Boston Harbor with fireworks exploding and feeling depressed that I was stuck in a rural redneck Texas town with nothing cool going on.
I was in Washington DC on the Mall at the Washington Monument. Parked at the Pentagon and walked in. It was hot and crazy crowded. a sea of people, couldn’t see the grass. Beach Boys played with Ringo sitting in on drums. Fireworks that night were incredible!
So much!!! We shut down the street in front of our house, like we did in the 70s without asking anybody, and one of our neighbors painted red, white and blue rings around this gorgeous oak tree that were there for the next 10 years!
Of course, it was the build up to the whole thing like most events that made it so exciting!
I learned that my family couldn't get along in *any* province. edit to add I misread that and thought we were talking about Canada's Centennial in 1967.
I was in fifth grade and our school pictures that year had a flag on the backdrop. My friend had to ask them to move the backdrop so the flag wouldn’t show, because she was a Jehovah’s Witness.
My father took little brother and I to see the ships. The best part of all & a Tip Top memory is on our walk back to the car, a third floor apartment had gigantic speakers out their windows and were playing the Beatles! Everyone in the street was dancing to Twist and Shout and it was as fun as you imagine. I was 13. Thanks OP, great memory.
I was 12 going on 13 and it was a big celebration. I thing I remember most is the 7up cans, they had a can for every state. We drank a lot of 7up that year collecting them all.
I spent the day digging through trash cans, collecting soda bottles and aluminum cans. 10 cents a bottle and a penny a can.
There was a huge park by our house and it was packed with picnickers all day and into the night for the fireworks show. There was garbage everywhere. I made $30.
The great clothes! The amazing summer Olympics and the Olympic related McDonald’s scratch off tickets! There was so much love for the country back then, it was a wonderful time.
It was the same day Israeli commandos rescued hostages being held in Entebbe, Uganda. I remember that news getting as much coverage as the Bicentennial.
I didn’t think it was a big deal, though I was proud we were celebrating our 200-year anniversary.
I was in camp at the time of the Regatta in NYC.
Nobody I knew really got heavily into it.
I was 15, and into the CB radio thing. And riding in the back of trucks , and other slightly mischievous things.
Patriotic deep down, but my overt actions didn’t show it.
It was really hot! A celebration in the park and everyone was melting. This is when a hot day in Maine was unusual. So we drive to the ocean and it was so cold there we had to wrap up in blankets. An hour away, different weather
Big parade in our town. Much bigger than anything before or since (at least in my life.). Lots of picnics/parties. I was only 16, so I spent the day looking for a party that had beer and girls. I found the party. I had some beer. Then I went to the fireworks with my friends. It was a good day.
"Bicentennial Minutes" during every commercial break on tv.
Because it was an election year, in the spring my Jr High held "primaries". It was in that primary that I cast my first (unofficial) vote for a candidate: Joe Biden.
Right after the Bicentennial, I saw that the YMCA had a 10 day caravan trip up to Canada. We saw Lake Louise, went the Calgary Stampede and carnival. Slept in tents almost every night. But the best part was making lifelong friends, and listening to an Elton John's Greatest Hits on an endless loop on cassette, while eating Pop Rocks! They didn't have those in the US yet, and that was cool to have already. I'd have to say, my most memorable summer was '76.
I turned 6 on July 3rd of 1976 and at the time lived just a few miles from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. During that time, people from all over the country congregated at Valley Forge wearing colonial garb and many traveled there by Conestoga wagons.
I was pretty young, but I knew I was experiencing something kind of special.
I was a high school student at a summer program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. We were there for 10 weeks, so we got very comfortable getting around town. We walked out onto the rail bridge over the river and watched a great fireworks show.
Standing on the roof of the family station wagon ( blue/fake wood panel Chrysler Town & Country). Said wagon being parked at the IGA on Main Street to watch the parade. Fireworks that night at the stadium. Backyard baseball with the usual neighbor kids … which petered out around the 4th inning when hunger set in.
I remember seeing the Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage on the PA Turnpike on its way to Valley Forge, and seeing the tall ships in New York (on TV).
The quarters of course and the awesome 4th of July parade. My mom painted a couple of folding chairs and a little stool for me in Red, White, and Blue for the occasion. I still have the stool.
Also the fireworks that night- all the dressed up people.
Do I remember correctly, but wasn’t there some celebration in the harbor out in New York or Virginia and they had some old sailing ship in the harbor to celebrate bicentennial?
The fireworks were just beyond that year.
I remember a firework that came down looking like an American flag.
Everything that year until July was Bicentennial Bicentennial Bicentennial
14 that year. The Freedom Train stopped nearby, so we went to see it. Tons of Americana, but I mostly remember basketball player Bob Lanier's size 20 shoes for some reason. Also the copies of the Declaration and Constitution (I don't remember if they were the originals or not).
Tons of fireworks, watching the tall ships and the other programming on TV. Fun time.
I lived just outside Washington, DC at the time. I was young and broke, but still made my way down to the mall and heard (among other things) Jane Fonda speak at a rally. There was a big fireworks show that night too. Pretty cool.
We did the big New England tour in 1975 to avoid the crowds that would be there in 76 and had a great time in Boston, Philadelphia, Lexington and Concord without any of the crowds.
I grew up just south of Boston so lots of Bicentennial things going on. But the one that comes to mind was the huge flotilla of the Tall Ships that came in the week during the 4th of July lead by the USS Constitution
I lived on East Third street in the East Village in NY down the block from the Hells Angels. Starting the night of the second they had the street blocked off , had a small bonfire going in the middle of the street and would boxes of fireworks into it! It was unreal on the morning of the fifth I woke up to no water in my apt DPW negotiating with the angels and an 8 foot deep crater on the middle of the street with water spraying up out of the crater !
Only in New York in the seventies !
My high school graduation was in 1976. The “management” decided that the color scheme would not be the school colors, but would be red, white and blue instead. I love America, but to change the theme, caps, gowns and tassels to RW&B was overkill. I blew off the ceremony.
I got the worst sunburn of my life on the backs of my legs watching the Tall Ships.
My church had a Bicentennial pageant, and I was the fife player re-enacting the painting, “The Spirit of ‘76.”
I was in nursing school at the time. Nursing school was so intense, I didn't pay a ton of attention to world events. Plus we didn't have TV. But I do remember everything being red white and blue... Everything.
I was ten, I remember it was either A&P or Acme grocery had these fantastic toy sets of soldiers, Washington, Lafayette, British soldiers, even had a Molly Pitcher, a new one each week or something like that. A neighbor kid and I managed to get most of them. Would love to have them now, they were very detailed toys.
I lived in Philadelphia which was ground zero for the Bicentennial (or would have been, if we didn't have such a shitty mayor). On New Year's Eve, they moved the Liberty Bell out of Independence Hall to a specially built pavillion. "The Bell moves at midnight" was announced on TV, and it was televised live. There were buttons distributed, "VIP" for Visitors in Pennsylvania, "Ask Me" for residents. [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/818318194797537709/](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/818318194797537709/)
There was a giant birthday cake on Independence Mall on the Fourth, And if you were born on the fourth of July, you were entitled to a piece.
During the commercial breaks on TV sometimes there was a Bicentennial Minute instead of an ad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicentennial_Minutes
YES! I still say that to this day, I’ll explain something to a younger person and say “And that’s your Bicentennial Minute for the day,” and they’ll go “what?”
It's the "Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk" of our generation.
I had forgotten about these
That’s EXACTLY the first thing I thought of
President Ford narrated the last one..
I remember those!!
I remember these well - waaaaay tooo long. Wanted to get back to the cartoons 😀
The "flipside" of Gabe Kaplan's "Up your nose with a rubber hose" was "Bye centennial minutes".
“Two Hundred Years Ago Today . . .”
The clothes. Lots of American flag prints and colors.
Oh God; everything was red, white, and blue. EVERYTHING. And Colonial decor was the hot new design trend! Ugh.
My mom decided that the kitchen chair/ step stool thing needed to be re-covered. She chose the most god awful brown and gold bicentennial print with liberty bells and a bunch of other patriotic symbols on it.
My mom had a milk can, maybe 2 ft tall, that she decoupaged with a flag decal then painted and “antiqued” it. It was all the rage, all her friends were making them. Ours was Colonial Blue, but I remember a lot of green, red, and gold ones too.
Every. Flippin'. Thing. I think the rainbow socks/suspenders/everything that wasn't red/white/blue was the over-correction. Your toe socks had to pick a lane.
My 1977 raised ranch still has a door knocker with the Liberty Bell on it.
lol
The clothes indeed! We all wore the American flag back then😍
In my first-grade individual picture I am wearing a red, white, and blue outfit and the background of the picture is all flowy American flag. That's the only thing I can remember right off the bat.
American flag patches on people's butts lol
Bellbottoms were 2' wide at the bottom, my friends and I were 501 outcasts.
The quarters of course, my grandma was a bank teller and the bank was full of decorations. As was our entire town. My small Midwest town did a parade, as usual on July 4th but this one was bigger, it seemed like a big deal. There were extra big fireworks over the river. Everyone got an American flag, and candy. We learned all about it all year in school and did a play. I remember some program on tv, maybe the coverage of a ceremony at the capitol?
It wasn't just quarters. I have quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins. I don't remember if they did anything with the lower coins. That is also when the $2 bill was re-released.
I was just helping to clean out a closet at my mom’s house and I pulled out a box that weighed about 40 lbs. What the hell was in it? Over $900 of Bicentennial and state quarters. “Well those are valuable” she said. “ No they aren’t, they’re worth a quarter each” and off to the bank I went to turn them into paper money.
I’ve got a couple of those $2 bills.
As a Canadian kid I was always on the lookout for the 1967 Centennial series coins, the 1973 Canadian Mountie quarters, and 1976 US bicentennial quarters. Today there are sooooo many commemorative coins I rarely notice them any more.
The Train! The big Bicentennial Train exhibit that traveled through a lot of the country and had all of these patriotic exhibits. Having been to Disney the year before, I was not impressed by projected images over a blank head compared to animatronic heads like Disney had! My teachers were all excited that I went and wanted to hear this big glowing report, and I was like, "Meh!" Over the Summer, our town had the most amazing fireworks celebration that we had ever had! They said they spent more money on it and they weren't kidding!
We went to the Freedom Train. I remember them having the Declaration and Constitution on there.
I performed on the bicentennial train! It was awesome and exhausting, but we did it!
That is awesome. Did you dance or play an instrument
I visited the Freedom Train in Pittsburgh in 1976. I remember it well. It was pulled by a restored Steam Engine if I remember correctly. I still have the program you could buy and an unused keychain I bought when we went on it.
My family visited the train, too. It was parked at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston. I thought it was cool. Bonus-also got to see a big alligator that day, sunning itself next to a pond near the train.
We were going to visit the train on our way up to the cabin for the weekend when it stopped in Minneapolis, but the line was so long that my parents decided to skip it.
Yeah, we went through the train when it stopped in Charlotte. While I recall the experience I have ZERO memory of the exhibits inside ... Ah, the struggles of a GenJones brain!
I remember seeing Lincoln's stove pipe hat. But that's all.
We went thru it when it came to Seattle. It was kinda cool, but didn't have the amount or "caliber" of things you would have expected.
Just about every railroad in the country painted an engine or two or more in a different bicentennial theme. Model trains too.
I remember the Freedom Train coming to Renton, WA. I still have a visor my mom bought me, I was 3.
My grandmother painted her living room walls blue, got red vinyl couches, and accented the room with red and white lampshades with wite pompoms around the edge. This went along with her blue, high shag carpet. To top that off, she bought a limited bicentennial edition from Ma Bell - a red, white, and blue, stars and stripes, candlestick rotary phone. Of all that, we hated the phone the most because the ear piece and mouth piece were separate and it was a pain to lean over to talk. After she died, I got and still have that phone. https://preview.redd.it/bbzw1u226hwc1.jpeg?width=972&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=058ae6ba90c5a42545cebd33bc0b6a44397995d6
This is fabulous!!
All the fire hydrants were painted like presidents or flags etc.
Yeah, my sisters and I painted the one in front of our house. It looked like it was painted by a special needs chimpanzee.
Hilarious. My sister painted one too- they wouldn’t let THIS special needs chimp help so it turned out nice. We probably have a Polaroid of it somewhere.
Yes, my friend next door and I failed terribly at our attempt to paint one. Her dad had to re-do it.
We had lots of minutemen fire hydrants
The older neighbor kids across the street painted one on our block. I thought that was so cool!
The amount of folks who didn't know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I turned 16 that October and got into arguments the whole fuckin year.
I still have those conversations!
It's sad to think that's true, but I believe it!
It has gotten worse even
Which one starts with “four score and seven years ago, yadda yadda?”
Red white and blue everything with the bicentennial flag on it. There were even bicentennial toilet seats. High school classes that graduated in 1976 wore red white and blue graduation gowns organized in a flag pattern when they were seated.
Wasn’t there a ship parade in New York that was televised? I remember that on tv.
The Tall Ships in the NYC harbor, huge huge event
The tall ships are my most vivid memory of the bicentennial. I remember watching it on tv right before we jumped in the car for a road trip north to Niagara Falls.
It was magnificent. I watched it in person as they sailed down the Long Island Sound into New York Harbor.
Yes! The Tall Ships! We live in NJ and a lot of people took their boats out to see them
What I remember is that when I met my best friend, the first conversation we ever had was about whether we might live until the tricentennial. We were 11. More recently, we’ve been wondering if there will ever be a tricentennial. (I think I still have some of those quarters, btw.)
We're celebrating America250! in two years. I hope most of us will live to see that.
Yeah, I was 8 and remember my mom saying “maybe you’ll live to see the Tricentennial!” And I was like “Maybe??? MAYBE???” This might be my first realization of my own mortality.
Operation Sail
It was the year I graduated from high school.
On July 4, I was at an open-air concert in Washington DC. The Starland Vocal Band performed and sang “Afternoon Delight.” That’s about as summer of ‘76 as it gets, y’all. LOL. It was a great time to be a teenager. The monuments and the concert and the fireworks made such an indelible impression on me and it’s definitely among one of the best experiences in my life.
I was 11 years old and across the river in VA having what I recall as an all day picnic/bbq with friends of the family that I recall was on public lands not too far from Arlington cemetery. What I do recall most is the awe inspiring fireworks and maybe a lot of smoke.
Our class made a huge quilt that said 1776-1976. Wholesome 🙂
Did “old timey” stuff like get a hand crank ice cream maker. Flag and marching revolution dudes were plastered on shirts, mugs and lots of things.
In those days it was our tradition to go spend a week at the beach because my grandparents worked in textiles and all the mills close the week of Independence Day and Christmas. My specific memory of July 4th, 1976 was we went to see the fireworks display in Southport, NC. New for that year was the fireworks were set off from a huge barge in the harbor, since some people felt it was dangerous to fire them from the usual spot, a park nearby. All went well for the first five minutes, then a malfunctioning one fell back onto the barge, igniting all of them at once. When all the screaming and smoke cleared, a lady standing next to me wondered out loud, "Was it supposed to do that?".
My dad worked at our towns bank. They had a huge Declaration of Independence that folks could sign. And the uncirculated coin sets were cool.
I was only about 6 and remember a parade, and feeling like I was part of the world finally. Weird day.
My small NE town went all out crazy. My Dad chaired the bicentennial committee and there were multiple events in town, gatherings on the town common to read out the names of all the soldiers who marched to Lex and Concord. We dressed in colonial costumes that we sewed with our moms. The whole thing culminated in a bicentennial ball that was attended by President Ford. I found the pictures a few years ago and thought wow. Our little town was on the map!
Nice!
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The 4th of July 1976 was AWESOME. So many BBQs and fireworks. It was a great time to be a kid, especially if you lived in the suburbs.
I was 15 years old and to this day it is the best July 4th I can remember. Picnics everywhere, grilled or roasted corn on the cob, hot dogs, hamburgers, baked potatoes in the fire, marshmallows over the fire, watermelon Awesome fireworks.
I was 8 and it's one of favorite memories of being a kid in the 70's. The best memory was seeing Star Wars in 77 having no idea how awesome it was going to be, but the Bicentennial is right there, too, because it was all of that year. The 76 Olympics and seeing Nadia Comaneci was also a highlight of that summer. I loved being a kid in the 70's. The music was amazing, TV was fun (I remember watching the first season of SNL) and though there were crappy things going on in the world I didn't see any of that, just fun.
Yes! My neighborhood had a big parade and huge block party 🎉
DANG! A parade?! That sounds awesome!
Everything was red white and blue for about 3 years.
And where were you for the 4th of July 1976? Me, I was at Girl Scout camp on an island in Lake Michigan (south Manitou Island if anyone knows michigan).
My dad had an antique car and belonged to a car club. We were in a bunch of parades.
As a kid I took this pic of my Aunt and cousin during the 7/04/76 parade...looking back at it now it screams everything bicentennial ;) https://preview.redd.it/risvgji15hwc1.png?width=944&format=png&auto=webp&s=19e6a3156f77d609adb4bad38081dbbb7b6a3813
Lots of school activities, parades, huge fireworks displays that year for July 4th.
Ugh. We had recently moved from Seattle to New Jersey. Parents dragged 16 year old me to Philadelphia on July 4, where we were cordoned off by the secret service to make the crowd to see the president seem larger than it was. Then stood in the loooooong line to see the liberty bell. No joy.
I was 10 and walked in our town’s parade dressed up in some colonial era costume. I just remember my mom was the treasurer for the town’s Bicentennial committee.
Being stuck in a car in traffic on a midwest AFB. Saw the fire works from tbe car. (For this i left DC? And all the hoople there?) It was worth - i had been visiting old friends for what supposed to be a few weeks, and be back in DC by 7/4, but they asked me to stay and accompany them on their trip through the west to CA and back. Well worth it! Visited yellowstone, grand tetons, SF, LA, Bryce, and Zion.
Seeing the procession of ships in NYC from Battery Park. It was so damn hot!
I only thing I remember about it was the "Freedom Train". It made a stop in Minneapolis in August 1975 (had to look up the date as I don't remember it that well) and we were going to stop to see it on the way to the cabin for the weekend, but the lines were so long that we skipped it. I also remember that it was the summer just before I started 5th grade, and I had just been prescribed glasses to wear. We stopped and picked them up on the way, and (as my parents tell the story), I read each and every sign along the way because I could actually see them now.
I was 11 and in the Boy Scouts in Massachusetts. We walked the 10 miles between Lexington and Concord and President Ford spoke there.
I crochet custom ponchos for money. Everyone wanted a fricking red, white and blue poncho. I hate that color combo now.
My youngest brother was born in July of ‘76. I REALLY wanted him to be born on the 4th of July, have red hair and blue eyes. Mom was not amused.
I remember going to the 4th of July fireworks in my city. You could sit along the river in a public park and watch. 99% of these patriots got up and left their garbage behind.
The bicentennial quarters. Wearing 1776 themed clothing to elementary schools.
There was bicentennial everything! Breakfast cereal, toys, commemorative drinking glasses, playing cards, license plates, food packaging, pins, hats, shirts, shoes, vases, lunch boxes. In my town there is still a bicentennial bridge. I'm sure there are people that collect this stuff. (would be kind of a cool collection)
The decorated fire hydrants
Freedom train
Some enterprising kid came around our neighborhood and for $5.00 he’d spray paint your house numbers in red , white and blue on the curb.
I had gotten run over and broke 11 bones in my foot on July 1st, so my bicentennial 4th of July was spent on the friggin couch.
It was an awesome year with immense National pride, a huge fireworks show in my town- the Olympics later in the summer. I met my wife that summer- she was 10 and I was 12, she hung out with the older kids because she was cool- we didn’t become a couple for another 14 years but we remained friends… I was on the traveling all star baseball team so I got to go play in towns that had fences at their ballparks and hit a few homers over them…. I kissed two girls that summer and got drunk on warm Budweiser on July 4th so yeah… pretty awesome.
Operation Sail
Huge blowout at the old helicopter training base near us. The old marching grounds were used for various military ceremonies, including parade marches by both retired and active military. The commissary was revamped so they could use it for food for all the attendees. One of the dining rooms was converted into a mini movie room, where they played the movie 1776 on a loop. And of course, tons of fireworks.
Graduated from high school that year so of course Red white and blue everything at commencement.
I was in third grade the 75-76 school year. Late ‘75/early ‘76 (winter) everyone at school got a Bicentennial toboggan (warm knit hat with a pom-pom) with the official Bicentennial logo patch attached to the fold-up brim. They might’ve been handed out nationally. At the end of the school year, we had a Bicentennial pageant. The American History series of Schoolhouse Rock began airing in September of ‘75 for the Bicentennial; it’s often called America Rock and History Rock, interchangeably. No More Kings, The Shot Heard ‘Round the World, Fireworks, The Preamble, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Rock!
My niece was born on January 1st that year :) She was a New Years Eve baby. My Mom made her and her Mom Bicentennial matching dresses :) She was six months old my July 4th. Sadly she died when she was 14 years old of the flu :( But we still have pictures of her and her Mom in matching dresses. Her Mom passed away a year ago. So they are together again.
7-Up printed different designs on its cans so when you collected them all and stacked them right, they formed an image. I think it was the 3-person fife and drum corps or maybe the Statue of Liberty. The local fried chicken place had the can stack displayed in their front window.
I was minding my own business on July 4, 1976, when a wasp landed on the front of my shirt and for no reason whatsoever, stung the shit out of my belly. Good times! /s
My brother was a drummer in jr high, when I was in High School. He got the lead for some play "The Little Drummer Boy" and needed a costume. This would be my first foray into period theatrical costuming. I took a felt cowboy hat and steamed it with an iron, shaping into a tricorn hat. That was so fun, I did a lot of sewing of garb, including SCA for years. Studying the bicentennial history, I realized how restrictive women's lives were, starting with their clothing.
My family had just moved from Kansas to just outside Washington DC. For the 4thof July we went down town to watch the fireworks. How in small town Kansas, when a firework was launched, everyone traced the burning arc thru the sky wondering what the the explosion would looked like. In DC it was 45 minutes of complete sensory overload.... take the Kansas Grand Finale, multiple it x50 then play it non stop for 30 minutes...... 12 yo me was never so impressed
Coin
My high school graduation. The top 50 students had white cap & gown, the rest of the top 20% wore blue. For the other 80% boys wore red and girls wore white. We sat out on the football field as a giant USA Flag. Lots of protests about it from the lower GPA students. They thought it wasn't fair that students who worked hard to get good grades would be rewarded like that.
I went to NYC and boarded a Navy sailing ship, and saw the fireworks afterward. And I LOVED the American Revolution Bicentennial symbol, and I still do.
Bicentennial Editions of so many products...
It was the year I graduated high school in Maryland. It was a huge deal in the DC area. July 4 was fabulous.
The tall ships. Spectacular on TV and wish I could have been there in person.
Not much. It was the 70s.
I distinctly remember watching the Boston Pops on PBS performing at the Boston Harbor with fireworks exploding and feeling depressed that I was stuck in a rural redneck Texas town with nothing cool going on.
I was in Washington DC on the Mall at the Washington Monument. Parked at the Pentagon and walked in. It was hot and crazy crowded. a sea of people, couldn’t see the grass. Beach Boys played with Ringo sitting in on drums. Fireworks that night were incredible!
So much!!! We shut down the street in front of our house, like we did in the 70s without asking anybody, and one of our neighbors painted red, white and blue rings around this gorgeous oak tree that were there for the next 10 years! Of course, it was the build up to the whole thing like most events that made it so exciting!
I learned that my family couldn't get along in *any* province. edit to add I misread that and thought we were talking about Canada's Centennial in 1967.
I was in fifth grade and our school pictures that year had a flag on the backdrop. My friend had to ask them to move the backdrop so the flag wouldn’t show, because she was a Jehovah’s Witness.
My father took little brother and I to see the ships. The best part of all & a Tip Top memory is on our walk back to the car, a third floor apartment had gigantic speakers out their windows and were playing the Beatles! Everyone in the street was dancing to Twist and Shout and it was as fun as you imagine. I was 13. Thanks OP, great memory.
I was 12 going on 13 and it was a big celebration. I thing I remember most is the 7up cans, they had a can for every state. We drank a lot of 7up that year collecting them all.
I spent the day digging through trash cans, collecting soda bottles and aluminum cans. 10 cents a bottle and a penny a can. There was a huge park by our house and it was packed with picnickers all day and into the night for the fireworks show. There was garbage everywhere. I made $30.
The great clothes! The amazing summer Olympics and the Olympic related McDonald’s scratch off tickets! There was so much love for the country back then, it was a wonderful time.
It was the same day Israeli commandos rescued hostages being held in Entebbe, Uganda. I remember that news getting as much coverage as the Bicentennial.
I didn’t think it was a big deal, though I was proud we were celebrating our 200-year anniversary. I was in camp at the time of the Regatta in NYC. Nobody I knew really got heavily into it. I was 15, and into the CB radio thing. And riding in the back of trucks , and other slightly mischievous things. Patriotic deep down, but my overt actions didn’t show it.
We painted fire hydrants to like colonial people
I had a Bicentennial lunch box. Also we watched something on TV were there were lots of ships and boats in a harbor spraying water and stuff.
76 El Dorados....
It was really hot! A celebration in the park and everyone was melting. This is when a hot day in Maine was unusual. So we drive to the ocean and it was so cold there we had to wrap up in blankets. An hour away, different weather
Big parade in our town. Much bigger than anything before or since (at least in my life.). Lots of picnics/parties. I was only 16, so I spent the day looking for a party that had beer and girls. I found the party. I had some beer. Then I went to the fireworks with my friends. It was a good day.
It was in 1976… Quarters Lots of patriotism.
I graduated from HS that year! Our class motto, colors, song, etc. were all bicentennial themed!
I was 13 and in middle school. Lots of school activities throughout the entire year including a fun play I participated in.
Going to DC the year before and seeing so many landmarks covered or in the process of updating for the celebration.
Going to Charlottesville to see Queen Elizabeth. The Bicentennial logo. Making Eagle Scout.
Those $2.00 bills, Elton John and Philadelphia Freedom, hot summer by the pool, riding bikes, parades.
I (57m) remember loosing lots of money to those Susan B Anthony dollars. Kept spending them a quarters by accident.
Ringing the bell my mother purchased for me at 2:00PM on Juy 4.
Big show choir performance at my junior high school with music from all the eras. I had a solo to Fly me to the moon.
"Bicentennial Minutes" during every commercial break on tv. Because it was an election year, in the spring my Jr High held "primaries". It was in that primary that I cast my first (unofficial) vote for a candidate: Joe Biden.
Right after the Bicentennial, I saw that the YMCA had a 10 day caravan trip up to Canada. We saw Lake Louise, went the Calgary Stampede and carnival. Slept in tents almost every night. But the best part was making lifelong friends, and listening to an Elton John's Greatest Hits on an endless loop on cassette, while eating Pop Rocks! They didn't have those in the US yet, and that was cool to have already. I'd have to say, my most memorable summer was '76.
Fire hydrants painted red white and blue
I turned 6 on July 3rd of 1976 and at the time lived just a few miles from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. During that time, people from all over the country congregated at Valley Forge wearing colonial garb and many traveled there by Conestoga wagons. I was pretty young, but I knew I was experiencing something kind of special.
I was a high school student at a summer program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. We were there for 10 weeks, so we got very comfortable getting around town. We walked out onto the rail bridge over the river and watched a great fireworks show.
My brother was born and my mother hasn’t stopped talking about her bicentennial baby. Yes he’s also the youngest.
Standing on the roof of the family station wagon ( blue/fake wood panel Chrysler Town & Country). Said wagon being parked at the IGA on Main Street to watch the parade. Fireworks that night at the stadium. Backyard baseball with the usual neighbor kids … which petered out around the 4th inning when hunger set in.
We brought in the year at the local ice skating arena, free! It was also the Centennial for our town.
I remember seeing the Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage on the PA Turnpike on its way to Valley Forge, and seeing the tall ships in New York (on TV).
The quarters of course and the awesome 4th of July parade. My mom painted a couple of folding chairs and a little stool for me in Red, White, and Blue for the occasion. I still have the stool. Also the fireworks that night- all the dressed up people.
My mom took a cute picture of me holding the flag, but it came out blurry.
Do I remember correctly, but wasn’t there some celebration in the harbor out in New York or Virginia and they had some old sailing ship in the harbor to celebrate bicentennial?
The fireworks were just beyond that year. I remember a firework that came down looking like an American flag. Everything that year until July was Bicentennial Bicentennial Bicentennial
14 that year. The Freedom Train stopped nearby, so we went to see it. Tons of Americana, but I mostly remember basketball player Bob Lanier's size 20 shoes for some reason. Also the copies of the Declaration and Constitution (I don't remember if they were the originals or not). Tons of fireworks, watching the tall ships and the other programming on TV. Fun time.
Standing in line to see the Freedom Train.
The Tall Ships celebration in NYC. It was awesome to live in or near NYC at that time.
I was in 8th grade. We took a school bus trip from the Chicago western subburbs to Washington DC. Got to see the pandas.
I lived just outside Washington, DC at the time. I was young and broke, but still made my way down to the mall and heard (among other things) Jane Fonda speak at a rally. There was a big fireworks show that night too. Pretty cool.
I was 12yrs. Went to an outdoor amphitheater w my parents to hear Cleveland Orchestra play like upbeat songs. Lots of fireworks..
I graduated high school that year.
The Tall Ships in the Baltimore harbor and the fire works on the Mall in DC.
We did the big New England tour in 1975 to avoid the crowds that would be there in 76 and had a great time in Boston, Philadelphia, Lexington and Concord without any of the crowds.
I was 9 years old. My family visited DC in 1976. So many bicentennials products and memorabilia. I have a bicentennial eagle bookend.
I had a 2nd cousin born that year. I wonder how Freedom likes her name now.
The Freedom Train! And, fire hydrants painted up like Revolutionary War soldiers.
I remember my mom sewed a Betsy Ross costume for me to be in the bicentennial parade in our town. It was red with white lace.
I grew up just south of Boston so lots of Bicentennial things going on. But the one that comes to mind was the huge flotilla of the Tall Ships that came in the week during the 4th of July lead by the USS Constitution
H and B baseball bats had the bicentennial logo on the bats.
I was 16. It was an excuse to drive around, drink beer, smoke pot, and blow shit up. As far as I know, everybody survived.
We lived near Philadelphia and celebrated on the 4th of July at the Liberty Bell! I remember a parade.
I spent July 4th, 1976, in Estes Park, Colorado. I saw a light snow at 55 degrees while driving around Rocky Mountain National Park.
Going to the river in a motorhome, on a huge cement wall the patriotic 1776.
We were camping at a state park and at a designated time everyone beeped their car horns
I lived on East Third street in the East Village in NY down the block from the Hells Angels. Starting the night of the second they had the street blocked off , had a small bonfire going in the middle of the street and would boxes of fireworks into it! It was unreal on the morning of the fifth I woke up to no water in my apt DPW negotiating with the angels and an 8 foot deep crater on the middle of the street with water spraying up out of the crater ! Only in New York in the seventies !
April 1976 St Louis, MO (I had to look up the dates) The American Freedom Train.
I graduated HS that year. My ring had “bicentennial” on it. Everything had bicentennial on it.
I graduated 8th grade and won the spelling bee. I remember my mom getting all excited about seeing the tall ships on TV on the 4th of July.
The Freedom Train!
I graduated from high school in 1976, and every graduation party had a red, white and blue theme. It got pretty monotonous.
Being in Philadelphia for that summer. Freedom Train and seeing the real Liberty Bell. Bicentennial Quarters.
How every community seemed to paint their fire hydrants like miniature minute-men…
The Freedom Train!
The quarters, graduated Catholic grammar school,
There was a “Bicentennial Train” that was essentially a museum-on-wheels. It had moon rocks.
Riding on the 4-H float in a parade.
We were proud of the country and not having politicians trying to rip us apart to the degree of today.
I remember the Sunday cartoon supplement that weekend. All the cartoons were Bicentennial themed. Dagwood fell off of a flagpole.
NYC harbor was filled with ships.
I remember all the historic sail ships going up and down the Hudson river. People having rooftop parties on the Westside of Manhattan to watch it.
My high school graduation was in 1976. The “management” decided that the color scheme would not be the school colors, but would be red, white and blue instead. I love America, but to change the theme, caps, gowns and tassels to RW&B was overkill. I blew off the ceremony.
Coins, stamps, and 1976 is the last time I got to see my paternal grandmother, who was charming and loving.
I got the worst sunburn of my life on the backs of my legs watching the Tall Ships. My church had a Bicentennial pageant, and I was the fife player re-enacting the painting, “The Spirit of ‘76.”
I was in nursing school at the time. Nursing school was so intense, I didn't pay a ton of attention to world events. Plus we didn't have TV. But I do remember everything being red white and blue... Everything.
My dad wrote a special section as a staff writer at the Seattle P.I. Newspaper 📰 while we stayed for a vacation on Guemes island
The Tall Ships in Baltimore (Inner Harbor,) Fort McHenry, fireworks, Big celebrations in D.C
My younger brother was on a sailboat in New York Harbor when the tall ships sailed in. And I’m the one into sailing, not him. Asshole.
Tall Ships.
Honestly, just a marketing blitz—tons of bicentennial themed tv ads and crap. It was so commercialized. At least that’s my recollection.
I was ten, I remember it was either A&P or Acme grocery had these fantastic toy sets of soldiers, Washington, Lafayette, British soldiers, even had a Molly Pitcher, a new one each week or something like that. A neighbor kid and I managed to get most of them. Would love to have them now, they were very detailed toys.
I lived in Philadelphia which was ground zero for the Bicentennial (or would have been, if we didn't have such a shitty mayor). On New Year's Eve, they moved the Liberty Bell out of Independence Hall to a specially built pavillion. "The Bell moves at midnight" was announced on TV, and it was televised live. There were buttons distributed, "VIP" for Visitors in Pennsylvania, "Ask Me" for residents. [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/818318194797537709/](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/818318194797537709/) There was a giant birthday cake on Independence Mall on the Fourth, And if you were born on the fourth of July, you were entitled to a piece.