Any plans for the Sestercentennial in 7 years?

[Dennis Donovan]

In 2026, it will be the USA's 250th birthday. I was around for the Bicentennial, which, trust me kiddos that might not have been around for it, was a GREAT party.

*IF* we're still a country in 2026, what kinda things would you like to see in celebration of this event? My FIRST wish is that a Democratic POTUS officiates over it in their second term. My second wish is for CBS to have Sestercentennial Minutes. Also, I really dug The Tall Ships.

My secret wish is that there's a parade in which Donald Trump is in a cage and the parade goers get to chuck rotten vegetables at him.

[rampartc]

1. i'm sure we'll have a yuuuge militaty parade in honor of our great president for life

the guy who invented the 4th of july.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. That's not what the Bicentennial was about, at all.

We were just coming out of Vietnam, and there were no tanks, IIRC.

It was a celebration of our ideals, including flaws in them. In 1976, we were coming to terms with racial inequality.

Sadly, 4 years later, the US lurched backwards with the election of Reagan, and we haven't caught our breath since.

[malthaussen]

2. Funny, I was around for the Bicentennial...

... in Philadelphia, no less, and I think it could be best described as a damp squib. Sorry I missed your party!

-- Mal

[Dennis Donovan]

4. Yeah, I guess you did... n/t

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. I was in DC on July 4, 1976,

and I plan to be there on July 4, 2026. I know what hotel I want to stay in.

I will tell every single person I see that I was there fifty years earlier.

I just want to see the amazing good feelings and joy that I experienced in 1976. People kept on predicting there would be riots and violence by protestors on that day, and I always knew that wouldn't happen. There were a million people on the Mall and I was one of them. When the fireworks ended, I, along with many thousands of others, started walking home, in my case to Alexandria, VA. At National Airport I caught up with two guys resting in one of the bus shelters, and they offered to drive me the rest of the way home after we got to their car parked at the Marina, another mile or so further on. I was very glad to be walking with them from that point, as by then the crowd of walkers was completely gone, and I'd have been very nervous walking the rest of the way completely alone. Although since we didn't see anyone else the rest of the way, I'd probably have been completely safe.

It's the mood I want to see again, not any specific events, although Sestercentennial Minutes is a very good idea.

The only thing I've experienced that has been like the Bicentennial was the total eclipse in August, 2017. I watched it in a park in Ravenna, NB with some good friends a wonderful crowd of strangers. The camaraderie and sharing (I'd baked cookies I passed out to people, others shared fruit and lemonade) was great. The next morning when I got gas before heading back to New Mexico, all of us getting gas had seen totality and we all chatted like old friends.

I have often compared the two experiences, because the mood of each was very much the same. And that's what I want to have again.

Oh, and I plan to have my son be with me in DC in 2026. He has a good chance of being around in 2076 (he'll only be 93), and I've told him that if he is, he must go to the Mall again and tell every single person he sees that he was there fifty years earlier, and that both his parents (we hadn't met yet) were there 100 years earlier. How cool will that be!

[Dennis Donovan]

7. Yes! We just emerged from Watergate and Vietnam, and we needed *something* after those ordeals

The Bicentennial was VERY important in the healing from those traumas.

In NYS, we had the Bicentennial Barge. It was an old railroad barge on which they built a museum on. It traveled from NYC up the Hudson and thru the NYS Canal System. I was just shy of 11 and I remember standing on the dock at our camp on Cayuga Lake and watching it pass by on its way to, and from, Ithaca. I visited it in Seneca Falls.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Nice.

Back then I was a ticket agent at National Airport in Washington, DC, and had been dreading the Bicentennial for several years, thinking it would be a total clusterfuck and given the potential for afternoon thunderstorms to disrupt plane travel, well you get the idea.

Instead, the lead-up wasn't bad at all. On the day itself I got off work at 4pm, took the bus home, changed clothes, and then took a bus back to the Mall. Except that several busses had to pass up my stop because they were already so full. When I finally squeezed on one, it was standing room only. Everyone was happy and chatty.

When I got to the Mall, I was able to rendezvous with my brother, his wife, and their two kids. He was one of the ones who'd been scornfully dismissive of the thought of going to the Mall for that 4th, and I told him that I'd be there no matter what. He changed his mind and was very happy he did.

About a half hour after we met up, that part of the mall, the part west of 14th street, was closed to new arrivals by the park service. The next day, the front page of the Washington Post had a photograph of the many thousands of people streaming across Memorial Bridge, completely filling the car lanes. It was at least 30-45 minutes before the people diminished enough for vehicles to resume movement.

I so much am looking forward to 2026.

[calguy]

6. Since I'm 69 right now,

I'm simply planning on still being alive.