Talking Southern No. 82 : Happy Fourth!

     Saturday will be July 4, 2026, the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Technically, it’s called the Semiquincentennial, which is rather a mouthful of a term.

    Is it just your compiler, or does it seem to anyone else who is old enough to remember the Bicentennial back in 1976 that the 250^th is being treated as much less of a celebration than the 200^th was?  

Your compiler remembers “Bicentennial Minutes” – short vignettes of aspects of American history – that aired on TV every evening (he thinks) for months and months prior to the big day.   He remembers seeing reminders everywhere one looked, and considerably more awareness and excitement about it than he is seeing regarding the impending Semiquincentennial.

     Even television shows got into the act back then.   Those who remember the 1970s sitcom, Sanford and Son, will recall with a smile that Fred Sanford and his sister-in-law, Esther, were always a-fussing and a-fighting, complete with some of the funniest personal put-downs ever scripted or improvised.  Watching Sanford and Son reruns still makes your compiler laugh uproariously fifty years after he first saw the episodes. 

     He remembers one in particular that aired sometime in the long lead-up to Sunday, July 4, 1976.  Fred and Esther were going at it, and Esther insulted Fred greatly.   He shot back: “Esther, you old buffalo – you old bison – why don’t you go celebrate the Bison-tennial?”

     Your compiler was 13 ½ at the time of the Bicentennial, and had siblings who were then 9 ½ and 6 ½.  On the Bicentennial day, Sunday, July 4, 1976 – which  your compiler recalls as being stormy and rainy in metro Atlanta — their parents skipped church and took them downtown to The World of Sid and Marty Krofft in Omni International, later known as CNN Center.  Krofft World may have been the shortest-lived theme park in American history; it opened in late May 1976, and was closed by that Thanksgiving.   The Krofft brothers and their sponsors had misread the market terribly, it seemed, but your compiler recalls that day as having been great fun and the park highly entertaining.

     It was as good a way for a family to celebrate the “Bison-tennial” as any, your compiler supposes, and it resides happily in his memory today.    He wonders how his own grandsons, now six and nearly three, will remember the Semiquincentennial as fifty-somethings in 2076, or whether they will at all.  This column is being written in late April, and that thought spurs your compiler to get busy ensuring that July 4, 2026, will be memorable for them.

     Happy July 4, everyone!  Be safe, and God bless.