July 3, 2025 • 22 mins
Join us for a special episode as we rewind to 1976 and the United States Bicentennial! Remember the patriotic fervor, the tall ships sailing into New York Harbor, the Bicentennial quarters, and the widespread sense of national pride? We'll delve into what those celebrations truly meant to Americans at a time of significant social and political change. How did the nation reflect on its first 200 years, and what hopes and anxieties colored the vision for the future?
Then, we'll fast-forward to the imminent 250th anniversary in 2026 – the Semiquincentennial. With just a year to go, preparations are well underway across the country. What lessons can we draw from the Bicentennial as we approach this new milestone? How has America changed in the past 50 years, and what does this upcoming anniversary mean for a diverse and evolving nation? We'll explore the themes and initiatives shaping the 2026 commemorations, from historical reflection to a forward-looking vision for the next quarter-millennium. Tune in as we bridge the past and the future of the American story.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:06):
Hello, Kelly, Hey, Alex, how are you happy Fourth
of July? To you? Tomorrow'sFourth of July. That's right,
we're coming up on IndependenceDay. We just had Canada Day
and Independence Day. Do youknow how old America is
this year? 258 years? No? 249249 Okay, which means next year
(00:35):
is the big 250 Oh, yeah, 20261776 Yeah, 1776 is the year that
we go with. Yeah, when we werekids in 1976
we were we six, seven years old,yeah, and it was the bison
(00:58):
American bicentennial. Do youremember that? Yeah, I want to
talk a little bit about theAmerican bicentennial. Because
if you weren't alive in 1976you missed out on just red,
white and blue, everything. Doyou remember how crazy it was
you missed out on thoseBicentennial quarters? Remember
the Bicentennial quarter? Do youremember how everything in I
(01:18):
guess that was like first grade,like between first and second
grade for us, probably, yeah,just everything. People went
overboard on everything beingstar, spangled, this and that,
and red, white and blue, thisand that, everything was
(01:41):
and there were reasons. Iremember my my parents signed me
up for five lessons.
I've never used them since then.
Oh, I wish that were true. Ihope it was true. I
wanted them to call me five dog.
But apparently someone else hadthat. Do you remember? What
can you you know the famouspicture with the two drummers
(02:03):
and the guy with the Fife in thehead bandage. Do you remember
what that? You know the pictureI'm talking about, the painting?
Yeah, I can, I can picture it inmy mind. But
it's called Fife and Drumgetting down. No, no. That that?
It's called the spirit of 76spirit of 76 That's right. There
was even a song called thespirit of 76 I think, right.
(02:26):
Well, so in 1976of course, it refers to 1776
but in 1976 that spirit of 76really became the mantra, and
everything was about the spiritof 76 now, just to put this in a
(02:46):
larger context, that Watergatehad just been a few years prior
to that, in 1975 was the fall ofSaigon. So there was a lot of
kind of malaise about being anAmerican and President Ford, the
new president,wanted something of a kind of a
reset of a major Americanpatriotism. It was probably at
(03:08):
an all time low. So it wasreally important to him that we
did it up big with thebicentennial. And that idea of
the spirit of 76 they found thatThomas Jefferson wrote about the
spirit of 76 and he talked abouthow, you know, we were being
ushered into a new era offreedom, and
(03:33):
that the we could it would benot just for Americans, but All
people in the world, free themfrom the burden of oppression
and ignorance and open theireyes to the right of mankind to
overturn the power of tyrantsand equality over inequality.
(03:54):
And you can hear the fife anddrum in the background, as I say
this, right? Yes, definitely.
And this whole idea about thefounding fathers being almost
this like, almost like our Greekgods that they, you know,
they're, they're not just peopleanymore. They're people. They're
gods that founded this country.
And everything they said is howwe have to be
(04:16):
from from now on, right, thatspirit of 76
that was a really big deal intrying to kind of put this
country right back on trackafter some pretty rough, uh,
beginning of the 1970sDo you remember the the logo for
the bicentennial? Think if Ishowed it to you, you would
remember, but it was like awhite star, white five point
(04:38):
star. And then on the outside ofit was kind of a curved red,
white and blue star. And it wasdesigned by the same person that
designed the NASA logo. So a lotof those kind of curvy, oh, wow,
curvy, yeah. It was kind of acurvy line, curvy straw star,
the bicentennial of Fauci.
(05:00):
Eventually began in on April 1,1975 with the American Freedom
Train, which was a train thatwent on a 20 month, 21 month
tour of all 48 contiguousstates. Just went from state to
state celebrating thebicentennial. They had a big
Bicentennial parade on theFourth of July in Washington,
DC, with the Queen Elizabeth wasthere, which is kind of, I
(05:23):
guess, funny, yeah, but theywere all into it too. Who
do you think the Grand Marshalwas of the now, that's a big
deal, right? And it wasn't ofthe Bicentennial parade 1976 it
was not a politician. It was an,I'm gonna say Evil Knievel. It's
a good guess. It was JohnnyCash. Johnny Cash,
(05:47):
that's a good choice. Yeah, Iwould have thought it would be
like John Wayne or somebody, ormaybe like, I might have guessed
somebody like an actor, like,yeah, yeah, Ronald Reagan, yeah,
no, but he was a politician bythen too. Oh, yeah, you think he
was governor of California bythen?
(06:10):
No, but Johnny Cash is kind ofthe perfect, you know, bridging
of the north and south and kindof, kind of a,
I guess Elvis would have been agood choice. Sure, sure. Evil
kineva would actually been agood choice. Also did. Did Elvis
die in 76 or 78 seven or sevenor eight? Yeah. Okay, so he was
(06:32):
still alive in November of 1976they did a reenactment of the
crossing of the Delawareum frozen water and the whole
thing. And you know, they'vedone it every year since then.
That was the first time they haddone it. But every year, in
November, you can go up thereand watch those guys in a really
cold and icy waters and frigidit's, yeah, it's a whole thing.
(06:52):
They were tough back then. Theywere definitely tougher. The
we've talked about that inmultiple episodes about how
people and heartier, right? Theywere Hardy. Well, I guess in
1776 for sure, I don't knowabout 1976 1976 they were not
they're probably tougher than weare now, for sure, you think
we're getting less tough as acountry. The physical city of
(07:13):
Philadelphia was really ondisplay that whole year too.
Obviously, that's where thecountry was founded. It was the
host of of the NBA, NHL andMajor League Baseball all star
games, and the Final Four werein Philadelphia that year. The
thePhiladelphia ABA basketball team
(07:33):
was named the 76 years to kindof go on the same theme the
Super Bowl that year. That wasback before they had the
halftime shows that we know now.
It was done by a group called upwith people. Do you remember up
withpeople? Up with people? Dead end
(07:54):
for you. So if you're too youngto remember up with people was
this really cheesy kind ofdance truth dance troupe that
would sing all these reallyuplifting, inspirational songs,
but really corny and reallysaccharine and and just like you
(08:15):
wouldn't be able to watch ittoday. It would be unwatchable
today, but it was back then. Wejust assumed that was
entertainment. Yeah. I mean,everything, everything travels
in, in, in cycles, right? Iactually think it would probably
be very entertaining today. It'sso awful. Yeah, maybe
(08:36):
their halftime show that year ofthe Super Bowl was called, 200
years and just a baby, a tributeto America's bicentennial. Nice,
just getting started, folks.
We're just getting started. Firehydrants all over the United
States were painted red, whiteand blue that year. Oh yeah. I
remember where you lived in yourtown. Did you have a red, white
(08:57):
and blue fire hydrant? Oh yeah,yeah. I can, I can remember
those you mentioned the quarterswhen we first started talking
about this. They were separatequarters that were minted, that
were only 1976 quarters that hada special backing. Did you just
collect quarters?
(09:17):
Yeah, yeah. You know, I actuallyhave, I think all of the states,
or most of the state quarters,but, but for the Bicentennial, I
think I have a couple of those,yeah, yeah, yeah. What was, what
was the backing? Was, like, theribbon, yeah, it was, it wasn't
the standard evil. It was alittle bit different. And I
think one of them had, I thinkthere were a few, like three or
(09:39):
four, and I think one of themhad the the Fife and Drum guy,
yep, yep. You're right. You'reright. Schoolhouse Rock, that
year became history rock. Theycalled it America rock. That was
the year that I'm just a billcame out. And, oh yeah, the
preamble. You've mentioned thepreamble.
(09:59):
One.
On, we the people, in order toform a more perfect union. It
was established justice in itwas all about getting people,
primarily kids, our age, to bemore interested in the country.
Again, remember, people our ageweren't really part of Watergate
or Vietnam War. We that wasjust, we were just coming up
(10:21):
when all that stuff, so WorldWar Two Bicentennial was kind of
the beginning of it all for us.
Yeah, we were veryimpressionable. Rocky came out
that year. And if you remember,in Rocky Apollo Creed, there's
lots of big American patrioticthemes where Rocky is,
I mean, Apollo Creed is dressedlike George Washington in one of
(10:43):
the fights and and then UncleSam and the other both guys have
very patriotic. Rocky has thered, white and blue, uh, shorts
that he wears.
The Magna Carta was on displayin the capital for that year. It
was there's only four clapcopies of the Magna Carta. And
if you were in DC that year, youcould go look at that. They had
(11:04):
the tall ships in New YorkHarbor.
We lived in Michigan. And thelicense plates that year were
redwith a with a little bit of blue
and white. Stars, beautiful. Oneof the best license plates I
think I've ever seen. If we wereto rate license plates, yes,
(11:24):
let's spend a little time. Yeah,we should do that one show, just
a special a dirt nap city,specially
bad ones. I mean, I think Iremember when we moved to Texas,
it was just white with blackletters, yeah, that was lame.
That was lame. That was lame.
And then they ended up puttingthe ones with the the space
shuttle on them. That was kindof cool. Some license plates are
(11:45):
so distracting that you can'teven tell what state it's from.
I liked it when you didn't haveyou didn't have to read back
when I used to do car trips as akid and you couldn't buy all the
specialty plates. I remember,you could tell a license plate
before you even read the state.
You just knew by the colordesign, the color or whatever,
(12:06):
yeah, yeah. Pennsylvania used tohave those yellow ones, yeah.
And Arizona had the the cactuson it, sure, yeah, yeah. It was
a different, different time.
License plate spotting was a wasa big deal when you're an only
child on a 24 hour car trip forsure. Oh, yeah. So I mentioned
next year. Next year is the250th
(12:28):
anniversary, and I suspect thatwe're gonna have not exactly
what we had in 1976 but it'll bea little more than we're getting
for 249first of all, what? What do you
call? That's what I was gonnasay. First of all, there's
debate on what you call it. Now,you may remember, in 1986
(12:49):
we had the 100 and 50thanniversary of Texas. Do you
remember that? Do you rememberwhat that was called? Yeah,
SESQUI sesquicentennial.
Sesquicentennial. So I thinkthat this should be called the
BI sesquicentennial. SESQUImeaning half 100
by meaning two. So bySesquicentennial is what I think
(13:10):
you should call it. And somepeople are calling it that. But
the other word for it is semiquincentennial, semi, meaning
you're both horrible semi, thoseare both semi quincenten, so
those are your two choices.
Semi, how about 250 How about250 or buy SESQUI I like buy
sesquicentennial. Let's justcall it 250 a kick and ass. Do
you remember thesesquicentennial in Texas? Do
(13:32):
you remember that we went, Idon't remember if you were on
this trip, but a bunch of uswent down to the old bank where
they unveiled the largest Texasflag in the world. Do you
remember this in Sugar Land? Itwas, I wouldn't call it a trip.
I mean, it was in Sugar Land, sowe just drove over to it. And
largest Texas flag in thePresident Bush spoke. Was he
(13:56):
Governor Bush at the time? No,it was President. It was Vice
President Bush, who would bebecome the first this was 86
Yeah, yeah, it was VicePresident Bush spoke. It was at
the bank in Sugar Land, the onethat's the gold one.
(14:17):
Yeah, they had the world'slargest Texas flag, which, I
gotta be honest, thought wouldbe bigger. I
mean, it covered the whole bank.
It was like a six storybuilding, but I mean this,
they're probably a bigger oneson college football now, yeah,
exactly like the one that coversDKR during the halftime show. I
was a little disappointed, butthat Sesquicentennial was kind
(14:38):
of burned in our brain. So I'mgoing with bi sesquicentennial.
Bi sesquicentennial, would yousay the other option was semi,
semi quince centennial? Oh,that's horrible. Those are bi
sesquicentennial. Both goodscrabble words, though,
probably, huh? Yeah, yeah. Getyou lots of points. So.
(15:00):
Next year we will have newcoins. They will introduce new
quarters, I believe. But, youknow, a quarter isn't as worth
as much as it used to be, andnobody carries quarters around.
Maybe they should do the maybethey should do the penny like
the last hurrah of the penny.
This would be the last penny weever do. I think they are
getting rid of the penny.
Next year, there's going to bebig celebrations in Boston,
(15:21):
Charleston, New York City andPhilly, but I don't see the
level of you know, nationwidecelebrations that we had in 1976
the World Cup will be here nextsummer. So there will be games
in Boston area, Philly, New YorkCity, maybe. But you know,
(15:45):
honestly, on the fourth of July,there's probably just gonna be
soccer played, which is a lotdifferent than 1976 Yeah, not
even very American. Check thisout. This is what I want to run
by you. They're gonna bury atime capsule in Philadelphia.
And we we've talked about timecapsules in this Carl say we
have episode,and they're going to be a time
(16:05):
capsule in Philadelphia that'sto be opened on July 4, 2276,
the 500th anniversary of thisnation of ours. Okay? 500
anniversary? What would you putin a time capsule from 2026
(16:26):
that you think people in 2276would be interested in?
I would put in a dirt nap citysticker, of course, 100%
I would put in a IA, hmm, I probably put in some
ofthe cell phones from today, like
(16:48):
a, like an iPhone, 15 or 17, orwhatever it is at that time,
anything on it, though, youknow, you have to, you have to
treat everything like anartifact. I think part of the
problem with the Sagan thing wasthey put in a record player and
a record and it's like, that'stechnology, just dead
technology. Yeah, yeah. And thenI'd probably put in a map of of
(17:09):
the world before all the coastalcities get flooded. Here's
what it looked like. Sorry,suckers. Well, unlike the Sagan
one, where you're putting you'remaking something for aliens that
don't even really read yourlanguage or anything, or maybe
(17:29):
even, I mean, people 250 yearsin the future. Kind of are
aliens? You think so they're butthink about us compared to
people 250 years ago. Yeah. Soyou think we are, we are strange
creatures to them well, but theystill strange and soft, so you
but we can still read thingsthat they wrote. We can
(17:50):
understand it. Yeah, right.
It's, it's not like anotherlanguage you can read. I mean, I
guess it's, it's a little moreformal, and they, they're
um, S's look like F sometimes orwhatever. But,
you know, they're right withquill pens, but you for the most
part, we can still read theirlanguage, assuming that people
are still speaking English inthe US. I think you can, unlike
(18:15):
the aliens, you can actually putthings for them to read.
Yeah, yeah, right, yeah. Say theword aliens again. You said it
like Carl Sagan aliens, yeah.
What would you put in this, inthis time capsule? I think you
have to be careful not to go topop culture. You have to, I
think you were on the righttrack with putting things like
maps and money and maybe somegold. And then descriptions of
(18:42):
all these things. This is how wedid this. And a Twinkie. You got
to throw a Twinkie in there. Howabout a booby trap? Put it, put
a booby trap in there and makeit blow up when they open
it. Fu future people will bekind of on brand, wouldn't it to
what we were like in in2026 2026 we're seeing a glimpse
250, years.
(19:06):
Yeah, I just think it's sointeresting, because you always
think of of these time capsulesas being like, you know, 100
years later, butthe 500th anniversary of the US,
man, I hope the US is stillgoing strong. Then I really
hope, I hope it's but there's achance that might not, even you
know, be the US anymore, andmight not, might not be, might
(19:27):
not be earth anymore. Yeah,you're right. So maybe this
might just be, might just be asome sort of future dinosaur
ripping that thing open andtrying to find that Twinkie or
monkeys. Yeah, for sure. Allright, man. Well, Happy Fourth
of July to you and yours. Yes.
God bless America. God blessAmerica. For 250, more years at
(19:51):
least, you.
Flags are waving in the summersky.
(20:12):
Eagles soar in freedom's battlecry.
Pickup trucks rumble down theold dirt lane, red, white and
blue pumping through our bluepumping through
our veins. Let's call itfreedoms to fit the
Jubilee. Raise your fear andtoast to liberty. From the
(20:34):
mountains to the shining sea,we're the land of the bold and
the home of the free.
Me, fireworks burst like starsin the night, a nation's roar
(20:54):
echoes burning bright crack opena cold one. Cheers to the past.
This is a legacy built to last.
Let's call itfreedoms 250 Jubilee. Raise your
beer and toes to liberty.
(21:16):
From the mountains to theshining sea, we're the land of
the bold and the homerev, rev those engines. Let the
music play, wave that flag likeit's Independence Day. Together
(21:36):
we stand. No one tears us apart.
This is America, straight fromthe heart. Let's call
it freedoms 250 Jubilee. Raiseyour beer and toes to liberty.
From the mountainsto the shining
(21:58):
sea, we're the land of the boatand the heart. See we're the
land of the boat and the homeof the free
Hello, Kelly, Hey, Alex, how are you happy Fourth
of July? To you? Tomorrow'sFourth of July. That's right,
we're coming up on IndependenceDay. We just had Canada Day
and Independence Day. Do youknow how old America is
this year? 258 years? No? 249249 Okay, which means next year
(00:35):
is the big 250 Oh, yeah, 20261776 Yeah, 1776 is the year that
we go with. Yeah, when we werekids in 1976
we were we six, seven years old,yeah, and it was the bison
(00:58):
American bicentennial. Do youremember that? Yeah, I want to
talk a little bit about theAmerican bicentennial. Because
if you weren't alive in 1976you missed out on just red,
white and blue, everything. Doyou remember how crazy it was
you missed out on thoseBicentennial quarters? Remember
the Bicentennial quarter? Do youremember how everything in I
(01:18):
guess that was like first grade,like between first and second
grade for us, probably, yeah,just everything. People went
overboard on everything beingstar, spangled, this and that,
and red, white and blue, thisand that, everything was
(01:41):
and there were reasons. Iremember my my parents signed me
up for five lessons.
I've never used them since then.
Oh, I wish that were true. Ihope it was true. I
wanted them to call me five dog.
But apparently someone else hadthat. Do you remember? What
can you you know the famouspicture with the two drummers
(02:03):
and the guy with the Fife in thehead bandage. Do you remember
what that? You know the pictureI'm talking about, the painting?
Yeah, I can, I can picture it inmy mind. But
it's called Fife and Drumgetting down. No, no. That that?
It's called the spirit of 76spirit of 76 That's right. There
was even a song called thespirit of 76 I think, right.
(02:26):
Well, so in 1976of course, it refers to 1776
but in 1976 that spirit of 76really became the mantra, and
everything was about the spiritof 76 now, just to put this in a
(02:46):
larger context, that Watergatehad just been a few years prior
to that, in 1975 was the fall ofSaigon. So there was a lot of
kind of malaise about being anAmerican and President Ford, the
new president,wanted something of a kind of a
reset of a major Americanpatriotism. It was probably at
(03:08):
an all time low. So it wasreally important to him that we
did it up big with thebicentennial. And that idea of
the spirit of 76 they found thatThomas Jefferson wrote about the
spirit of 76 and he talked abouthow, you know, we were being
ushered into a new era offreedom, and
(03:33):
that the we could it would benot just for Americans, but All
people in the world, free themfrom the burden of oppression
and ignorance and open theireyes to the right of mankind to
overturn the power of tyrantsand equality over inequality.
(03:54):
And you can hear the fife anddrum in the background, as I say
this, right? Yes, definitely.
And this whole idea about thefounding fathers being almost
this like, almost like our Greekgods that they, you know,
they're, they're not just peopleanymore. They're people. They're
gods that founded this country.
And everything they said is howwe have to be
(04:16):
from from now on, right, thatspirit of 76
that was a really big deal intrying to kind of put this
country right back on trackafter some pretty rough, uh,
beginning of the 1970sDo you remember the the logo for
the bicentennial? Think if Ishowed it to you, you would
remember, but it was like awhite star, white five point
(04:38):
star. And then on the outside ofit was kind of a curved red,
white and blue star. And it wasdesigned by the same person that
designed the NASA logo. So a lotof those kind of curvy, oh, wow,
curvy, yeah. It was kind of acurvy line, curvy straw star,
the bicentennial of Fauci.
(05:00):
Eventually began in on April 1,1975 with the American Freedom
Train, which was a train thatwent on a 20 month, 21 month
tour of all 48 contiguousstates. Just went from state to
state celebrating thebicentennial. They had a big
Bicentennial parade on theFourth of July in Washington,
DC, with the Queen Elizabeth wasthere, which is kind of, I
(05:23):
guess, funny, yeah, but theywere all into it too. Who
do you think the Grand Marshalwas of the now, that's a big
deal, right? And it wasn't ofthe Bicentennial parade 1976 it
was not a politician. It was an,I'm gonna say Evil Knievel. It's
a good guess. It was JohnnyCash. Johnny Cash,
(05:47):
that's a good choice. Yeah, Iwould have thought it would be
like John Wayne or somebody, ormaybe like, I might have guessed
somebody like an actor, like,yeah, yeah, Ronald Reagan, yeah,
no, but he was a politician bythen too. Oh, yeah, you think he
was governor of California bythen?
(06:10):
No, but Johnny Cash is kind ofthe perfect, you know, bridging
of the north and south and kindof, kind of a,
I guess Elvis would have been agood choice. Sure, sure. Evil
kineva would actually been agood choice. Also did. Did Elvis
die in 76 or 78 seven or sevenor eight? Yeah. Okay, so he was
(06:32):
still alive in November of 1976they did a reenactment of the
crossing of the Delawareum frozen water and the whole
thing. And you know, they'vedone it every year since then.
That was the first time they haddone it. But every year, in
November, you can go up thereand watch those guys in a really
cold and icy waters and frigidit's, yeah, it's a whole thing.
(06:52):
They were tough back then. Theywere definitely tougher. The
we've talked about that inmultiple episodes about how
people and heartier, right? Theywere Hardy. Well, I guess in
1776 for sure, I don't knowabout 1976 1976 they were not
they're probably tougher than weare now, for sure, you think
we're getting less tough as acountry. The physical city of
(07:13):
Philadelphia was really ondisplay that whole year too.
Obviously, that's where thecountry was founded. It was the
host of of the NBA, NHL andMajor League Baseball all star
games, and the Final Four werein Philadelphia that year. The
thePhiladelphia ABA basketball team
(07:33):
was named the 76 years to kindof go on the same theme the
Super Bowl that year. That wasback before they had the
halftime shows that we know now.
It was done by a group called upwith people. Do you remember up
withpeople? Up with people? Dead end
(07:54):
for you. So if you're too youngto remember up with people was
this really cheesy kind ofdance truth dance troupe that
would sing all these reallyuplifting, inspirational songs,
but really corny and reallysaccharine and and just like you
(08:15):
wouldn't be able to watch ittoday. It would be unwatchable
today, but it was back then. Wejust assumed that was
entertainment. Yeah. I mean,everything, everything travels
in, in, in cycles, right? Iactually think it would probably
be very entertaining today. It'sso awful. Yeah, maybe
(08:36):
their halftime show that year ofthe Super Bowl was called, 200
years and just a baby, a tributeto America's bicentennial. Nice,
just getting started, folks.
We're just getting started. Firehydrants all over the United
States were painted red, whiteand blue that year. Oh yeah. I
remember where you lived in yourtown. Did you have a red, white
(08:57):
and blue fire hydrant? Oh yeah,yeah. I can, I can remember
those you mentioned the quarterswhen we first started talking
about this. They were separatequarters that were minted, that
were only 1976 quarters that hada special backing. Did you just
collect quarters?
(09:17):
Yeah, yeah. You know, I actuallyhave, I think all of the states,
or most of the state quarters,but, but for the Bicentennial, I
think I have a couple of those,yeah, yeah, yeah. What was, what
was the backing? Was, like, theribbon, yeah, it was, it wasn't
the standard evil. It was alittle bit different. And I
think one of them had, I thinkthere were a few, like three or
(09:39):
four, and I think one of themhad the the Fife and Drum guy,
yep, yep. You're right. You'reright. Schoolhouse Rock, that
year became history rock. Theycalled it America rock. That was
the year that I'm just a billcame out. And, oh yeah, the
preamble. You've mentioned thepreamble.
(09:59):
One.
On, we the people, in order toform a more perfect union. It
was established justice in itwas all about getting people,
primarily kids, our age, to bemore interested in the country.
Again, remember, people our ageweren't really part of Watergate
or Vietnam War. We that wasjust, we were just coming up
(10:21):
when all that stuff, so WorldWar Two Bicentennial was kind of
the beginning of it all for us.
Yeah, we were veryimpressionable. Rocky came out
that year. And if you remember,in Rocky Apollo Creed, there's
lots of big American patrioticthemes where Rocky is,
I mean, Apollo Creed is dressedlike George Washington in one of
(10:43):
the fights and and then UncleSam and the other both guys have
very patriotic. Rocky has thered, white and blue, uh, shorts
that he wears.
The Magna Carta was on displayin the capital for that year. It
was there's only four clapcopies of the Magna Carta. And
if you were in DC that year, youcould go look at that. They had
(11:04):
the tall ships in New YorkHarbor.
We lived in Michigan. And thelicense plates that year were
redwith a with a little bit of blue
and white. Stars, beautiful. Oneof the best license plates I
think I've ever seen. If we wereto rate license plates, yes,
(11:24):
let's spend a little time. Yeah,we should do that one show, just
a special a dirt nap city,specially
bad ones. I mean, I think Iremember when we moved to Texas,
it was just white with blackletters, yeah, that was lame.
That was lame. That was lame.
And then they ended up puttingthe ones with the the space
shuttle on them. That was kindof cool. Some license plates are
(11:45):
so distracting that you can'teven tell what state it's from.
I liked it when you didn't haveyou didn't have to read back
when I used to do car trips as akid and you couldn't buy all the
specialty plates. I remember,you could tell a license plate
before you even read the state.
You just knew by the colordesign, the color or whatever,
(12:06):
yeah, yeah. Pennsylvania used tohave those yellow ones, yeah.
And Arizona had the the cactuson it, sure, yeah, yeah. It was
a different, different time.
License plate spotting was a wasa big deal when you're an only
child on a 24 hour car trip forsure. Oh, yeah. So I mentioned
next year. Next year is the250th
(12:28):
anniversary, and I suspect thatwe're gonna have not exactly
what we had in 1976 but it'll bea little more than we're getting
for 249first of all, what? What do you
call? That's what I was gonnasay. First of all, there's
debate on what you call it. Now,you may remember, in 1986
(12:49):
we had the 100 and 50thanniversary of Texas. Do you
remember that? Do you rememberwhat that was called? Yeah,
SESQUI sesquicentennial.
Sesquicentennial. So I thinkthat this should be called the
BI sesquicentennial. SESQUImeaning half 100
by meaning two. So bySesquicentennial is what I think
(13:10):
you should call it. And somepeople are calling it that. But
the other word for it is semiquincentennial, semi, meaning
you're both horrible semi, thoseare both semi quincenten, so
those are your two choices.
Semi, how about 250 How about250 or buy SESQUI I like buy
sesquicentennial. Let's justcall it 250 a kick and ass. Do
you remember thesesquicentennial in Texas? Do
(13:32):
you remember that we went, Idon't remember if you were on
this trip, but a bunch of uswent down to the old bank where
they unveiled the largest Texasflag in the world. Do you
remember this in Sugar Land? Itwas, I wouldn't call it a trip.
I mean, it was in Sugar Land, sowe just drove over to it. And
largest Texas flag in thePresident Bush spoke. Was he
(13:56):
Governor Bush at the time? No,it was President. It was Vice
President Bush, who would bebecome the first this was 86
Yeah, yeah, it was VicePresident Bush spoke. It was at
the bank in Sugar Land, the onethat's the gold one.
(14:17):
Yeah, they had the world'slargest Texas flag, which, I
gotta be honest, thought wouldbe bigger. I
mean, it covered the whole bank.
It was like a six storybuilding, but I mean this,
they're probably a bigger oneson college football now, yeah,
exactly like the one that coversDKR during the halftime show. I
was a little disappointed, butthat Sesquicentennial was kind
(14:38):
of burned in our brain. So I'mgoing with bi sesquicentennial.
Bi sesquicentennial, would yousay the other option was semi,
semi quince centennial? Oh,that's horrible. Those are bi
sesquicentennial. Both goodscrabble words, though,
probably, huh? Yeah, yeah. Getyou lots of points. So.
(15:00):
Next year we will have newcoins. They will introduce new
quarters, I believe. But, youknow, a quarter isn't as worth
as much as it used to be, andnobody carries quarters around.
Maybe they should do the maybethey should do the penny like
the last hurrah of the penny.
This would be the last penny weever do. I think they are
getting rid of the penny.
Next year, there's going to bebig celebrations in Boston,
(15:21):
Charleston, New York City andPhilly, but I don't see the
level of you know, nationwidecelebrations that we had in 1976
the World Cup will be here nextsummer. So there will be games
in Boston area, Philly, New YorkCity, maybe. But you know,
(15:45):
honestly, on the fourth of July,there's probably just gonna be
soccer played, which is a lotdifferent than 1976 Yeah, not
even very American. Check thisout. This is what I want to run
by you. They're gonna bury atime capsule in Philadelphia.
And we we've talked about timecapsules in this Carl say we
have episode,and they're going to be a time
(16:05):
capsule in Philadelphia that'sto be opened on July 4, 2276,
the 500th anniversary of thisnation of ours. Okay? 500
anniversary? What would you putin a time capsule from 2026
(16:26):
that you think people in 2276would be interested in?
I would put in a dirt nap citysticker, of course, 100%
I would put in a IA, hmm, I probably put in some
ofthe cell phones from today, like
(16:48):
a, like an iPhone, 15 or 17, orwhatever it is at that time,
anything on it, though, youknow, you have to, you have to
treat everything like anartifact. I think part of the
problem with the Sagan thing wasthey put in a record player and
a record and it's like, that'stechnology, just dead
technology. Yeah, yeah. And thenI'd probably put in a map of of
(17:09):
the world before all the coastalcities get flooded. Here's
what it looked like. Sorry,suckers. Well, unlike the Sagan
one, where you're putting you'remaking something for aliens that
don't even really read yourlanguage or anything, or maybe
(17:29):
even, I mean, people 250 yearsin the future. Kind of are
aliens? You think so they're butthink about us compared to
people 250 years ago. Yeah. Soyou think we are, we are strange
creatures to them well, but theystill strange and soft, so you
but we can still read thingsthat they wrote. We can
(17:50):
understand it. Yeah, right.
It's, it's not like anotherlanguage you can read. I mean, I
guess it's, it's a little moreformal, and they, they're
um, S's look like F sometimes orwhatever. But,
you know, they're right withquill pens, but you for the most
part, we can still read theirlanguage, assuming that people
are still speaking English inthe US. I think you can, unlike
(18:15):
the aliens, you can actually putthings for them to read.
Yeah, yeah, right, yeah. Say theword aliens again. You said it
like Carl Sagan aliens, yeah.
What would you put in this, inthis time capsule? I think you
have to be careful not to go topop culture. You have to, I
think you were on the righttrack with putting things like
maps and money and maybe somegold. And then descriptions of
(18:42):
all these things. This is how wedid this. And a Twinkie. You got
to throw a Twinkie in there. Howabout a booby trap? Put it, put
a booby trap in there and makeit blow up when they open
it. Fu future people will bekind of on brand, wouldn't it to
what we were like in in2026 2026 we're seeing a glimpse
250, years.
(19:06):
Yeah, I just think it's sointeresting, because you always
think of of these time capsulesas being like, you know, 100
years later, butthe 500th anniversary of the US,
man, I hope the US is stillgoing strong. Then I really
hope, I hope it's but there's achance that might not, even you
know, be the US anymore, andmight not, might not be, might
(19:27):
not be earth anymore. Yeah,you're right. So maybe this
might just be, might just be asome sort of future dinosaur
ripping that thing open andtrying to find that Twinkie or
monkeys. Yeah, for sure. Allright, man. Well, Happy Fourth
of July to you and yours. Yes.
God bless America. God blessAmerica. For 250, more years at
(19:51):
least, you.
Flags are waving in the summersky.
(20:12):
Eagles soar in freedom's battlecry.
Pickup trucks rumble down theold dirt lane, red, white and
blue pumping through our bluepumping through
our veins. Let's call itfreedoms to fit the
Jubilee. Raise your fear andtoast to liberty. From the
(20:34):
mountains to the shining sea,we're the land of the bold and
the home of the free.
Me, fireworks burst like starsin the night, a nation's roar
(20:54):
echoes burning bright crack opena cold one. Cheers to the past.
This is a legacy built to last.
Let's call itfreedoms 250 Jubilee. Raise your
beer and toes to liberty.
(21:16):
From the mountains to theshining sea, we're the land of
the bold and the homerev, rev those engines. Let the
music play, wave that flag likeit's Independence Day. Together
(21:36):
we stand. No one tears us apart.
This is America, straight fromthe heart. Let's call
it freedoms 250 Jubilee. Raiseyour beer and toes to liberty.
From the mountainsto the shining
(21:58):
sea, we're the land of the boatand the heart. See we're the
land of the boat and the homeof the free
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