Monday, July 4, 2011

Sunday, July 4th, 1976


At last! Bicentennial Day! Woke up early and turned on the CBS all day celebration which I stuck with most of the day. I clipped out a bunch of the Bicentennial themed comic strips in today's paper...which surprisingly DID show up for a change!

Dad went over the river early and blew ten bucks on lottery tickets.

We narrowed down our vacation plans to Pittsburgh, Columbus or St. Louis. I'm for Pittsburgh.

Tonight we watched Bob Hope and Paul Anka specials and saw the absolute best fireworks ever at the Statue of Liberty! It's after midnight now and we just saw highlights of Paul Revere's Kings Island wedding to a local girl who wore Raquel's outfit from THREE MUSKETEERS!

What a day!

NOTES: This was, of course, the big day that year. You'll notice that my family enjoyed it all vicariously! We didn't go anywhere other than my dad feeding his addiction to scracth-off tickets! Apparently that's where I got it as I have long since dreaded going places and doing even things that I know I would enjoy! In recent years, we've pretty much become hermits as we can't afford to go anywhere or do anything anyway. Sigh. My wife and I have not been on an actual vacation since we've been married.

Never got to St. Louis and other than a brief plane change in Pittsburgh once years later I never got their either.

With the WEBN fireworks a Labor day tradition around here, there have been plenty of even more spectacular fireworks displays over the years. My mother loved fireworks and so does my wife but I tend to just ignore them and wait for them to go away. I'm no fun at all.

It was a real wedding but I doubt anyone would deny that the nuptials of musician Paul Revere--who hadn't had a hit in several years at that point--was more-or-less a publicity stunt. He was married in Colonial uniform at a Raiders concert with the colorful background of our local amusement park, Kings Island. As stated, his bride wore the dress that Raquel Welch wore in THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Revere would announce his retirement from the music business later that year only to jump back in quickly. He's still touring with a version of the Raiders in 2011.

2 comments:

  1. I can relate. My family had out of town visitors arrive on July 3rd, so when Bicentennial Day arrived (what I will forever call it), we were stuck at home while the adults went out partying. CBS was my friend most of the day as well, especially the tall ship parade on New York Harbor (the Queen Elizabeth II had a banner stretched out along her hull that read, if I recall, "America, All Is Forgiven, Come Home To Mother". I think that the musical "1776" was shown that evening. I ended the evening watching PBS and Arthur Fiedler. Stuck at home, but a great day nonetheless. Great blog.

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  2. I ha a very different Bicentennial !! It was a fun time for me . Remember the comic books that had the Bicentennial as a backdrop to their stories ??

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