BICENTENNIAL

This prompt sent me thinking back on many events — some happy, some sad — but the earliest memory I have of a major historical event is the Bicentennial. Yes, I’m THAT old.

I grew up in the birthplace of the American Revolution. I could ride my bike to both the Lexington Green and the center of Concord, Massachusetts. My hometown, Bedford, was best known for having the nation’s oldest battle flag. As you can imagine, the Bicentennial was a huge deal for us.

President Ford visited the area for Patriot’s Day in April 1975 to kick-off the nation’s big birthday year. (Patriot’s Day is a special Massachusetts holiday where we celebrate the beginning of the American Revolution: “the shot heard round the world”) I went to see President Ford speak in Concord at the Old North Bridge. I was nine. I mainly remember my oufit. My mother made full colonial dresses with aprons and hats for my sister and me. She actually made us two hats each — a bonnet (in the picure) and a white colonial Martha Washington hat. We wore those outfits a lot that year. (Parades, parades, and more parades!) I vaguely remember seeing President Ford at the Old North Bridge, but the secret service frogmen in the water under the bridge made a bigger impression. The idea that the President needed intense, 24-hour protection was new to me.

The funny thing is that last year I took a visiting friend to The Old Manse in Concord and the tour guide told us about a whole different side of that same day. Apparently there were thousands of teenagers (including her) and some well-known musicians camped out near the bridge. They were supposedly protesting Ford’s visit to Concord (he had pardoned Nixon the year before), but she said it turned into a wild, debauched party, with fantastic music. She made it sound like a mini-Woodstock! It was weird because I didn’t remember hearing about any of that, but I did find a story about it in The New York Times. Somebody needs to make a documentary about what really went on in Concord that day.