Dear Reader, you have been privileged and blessed to enter a New Year that holds special promise. This year our nation celebrates its 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026.
Assuming I live until our nation’s Semiquincentennial (or Sestercentennial), I will have lived through both the 200th and 250th anniversaries of our great country. Much “ado” was made of the 200th anniversary of the founding of America. I’m eager to see how much emphasis will be placed on the 250th.
On this last day of 2025, my mind goes back to what I remember of the 1976 Bicentennial. It was a most impressionable time in my life. I was ten years old, four days shy of being eleven. Even so, there are basically only three things that I remember as highlights of 1976.
The first is a school memory. I was in the second semester of my fifth-grade year in Ms. Polly Dyer’s class at Maynardville Elementary School in the spring of 1976. I remember that Union County’s travelling music teacher Ms. Allene Griffith was preparing a special program to honor the Bicentennial. Though I was not a participant, Ms. Dyer took the non-participants in our class to several of the rehearsals in the school gym. I remember Ms. Janet Moore playing the piano and one of Ms. Bloma Rush’s sons singing some of the solos and playing a guitar. All I remember of those practices was one song that had the lyrics:

And that’s how our country had its birthday.
A day that everybody celebrates.
When 13 original colonies became the UNITED STATES.

I typed those words into a Google search and found what is obviously more of the lyrics from that program. (Retrieved December 31, 2025 from https://sites.google.com/wsd.net/maswanson/geography-history-links ) I also found some other lyrics listed at that same site that I remember from those musical rehearsals:

Goin’ west…
in a covered wagon,
Get along mule…
gid-di-yup, gid-di-yup.
In spite of the danger…
Goin’ through wilderness country
We’re gonna cross…
The Cumberland Gap,
The Cumberland Gap.

The other and most treasured is a family memory. I spent July 4, 1976 at my oldest brother Fred’s house in Cincinnati, Ohio. My niece Denise (poetic, isn’t it?) came to Tennessee to spend a few weeks with her southern family, and it was worked out that she and I would “swap places”. Her brother Keith drove Denise to Tennessee, dropped her off, and took me back to Cincinnati. I remember adjusting the mirror on the passenger side of his car, which caused him consternation and me guilt.
I was never so thrilled to be in a place in my life! And my niece Sheila, three years younger than me, was ecstatic to have me visit, which made it so much better. At that time, Sheila was my very favorite person on earth, with the possible exception of Aunt Lidia.
I remember several things about that trip—I saw my first baptism, learned a couple of new hymns, watched/waved/listened to the trains on the nearby track, and was fascinated by my niece’s radio clock that flipped numbers to tell analog time. The thing I remember about the Fourth of July was the fireworks, or at least what happened while we were watching the fireworks.
My brother and his wife Easter drove Sheila and me to a spot where we could get a great view of the fireworks. Fred drove a Ford Gran Torino. Sheila and I sat on the hood and goofed off as we enjoyed ourselves. At one point, Sheila pushed me off the hood of the car. That particular model had two vertical projections on the front bumper, and unfortunately my crotch came in contact with one of those projectiles. I was not injured, though I was in a measure of discomfort for a time. It was a delicate situation, and I never let any of the family knew how close I came close to castration! (At least, not until now, half a century later).
Finally, I remember the last half of the Bicentennial year. I had Mrs. Ann Crass for my sixth-grade social studies teacher. She taught us so much about the presidential election process. Our class had a spirited election, and Jimmy Carter won. I had let my strong Republican views be known prior to the vote, and it seems I was the only person in the class who voted for Gerald Ford. I was ribbed not only after the results of the class election, but after the national elections as well. It was my first, but not last, experience with political anger. (Wonder who will be angry after the November 2026 elections?)
Whatever you do, Dear Reader, to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, I hope you get as much enjoyment from it as I did the summer of 1976. Barring unforeseen circumstances, I plan to spend July 4, 2026 in Cincinnati, Ohio. If I get lucky, I might even spend my 61st birthday there as well.

ANSWER TO QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 79
What does it take to make an octopus laugh? (ANSWER: Ten-tickles!)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 80
I went to a pet shop and bought 12 bees. Why did they give me 13? (See the next “Mincey’s Musings” in historicunioncounty.com for the answer.)

Grocery Prices in the Year 1976
(Retrieved December 31, 2025 from https://discover.hubpages.com/education/Positively-Perrier-Fun-Facts-Tr… )
These 1976 grocery prices have been made available courtesy of the Morris County Public Library in Whippany, NJ.
1. Aqua Net Hair Spray: 59 cents for a 13-ounce can
2. Baby shampoo: 89 cents for a 32-ounce bottle
3. Baking potatoes: Five pounds for 89 cents
4. Bartlett pears: Three pounds for $1.00
5. Bayer Aspirin: 100 for 88 cents
6. Betty Crocker Cake Mix (assorted varieties): 69 cents per box
7. Blue Bonnet Margarine: One-pound package for 39 cents
8. Boneless hams: $2.29 per pound
9. Carnation Instant Milk: Two-pound box for $2.19
10. Chicken breasts: 89 cents per pound
11. Chicken legs: 69 cents per pound
12. Chicken wings: 69 cents per pound
13. Coca Cola: 64 ounces for 69 cents
14. Colgate Toothpaste: Nine-ounce tube for 99 cents
15. Del Monte Fruit Cocktail: 30-ounce can for 59 cents
16. Duncan Hines Brownie Mix: 19-ounce box for 79 cents
17. Efferdent Denture Tablets: 79 cents for a box of 40
18. Eggplant: 25 cents per pound
19. Eggs: 97 cents per dozen
20. Eight O’Clock Coffee: $1.69 for a one-pound bag
21. English muffins: Three 12-ounce packages for $1.00
22. Filet mignon (USDA choice): $2.49 per pound
23. Friskies Cat Food (assorted varieties): Five 15-ounce cans for 89 cents
24. Hi-C Drinks: Three 46-ounce cans (grape or orange) for $1.00
25. Hillshire Farms Polish Kielbasa: $1.39 per pound
26. Keebler Chocolate Chip Cookies: 14-ounce package for 75 cents
27. Libby Tomato Juice: 48-ounce can for 49 cents
28. Marvel White Bread: Three 20-ounce loaves for $1.00
29. Milk: $1.68 per gallon
30. Mylanta Liquid: $1.19 for a 12-ounce bottle
31. Nestle’s Quik: $1.49 for a two-pound can
32. Pork for kabobs: $1.29 per pound
33. Porterhouse steak: $1.67 per pound
34. Q-Tips Cotton Swabs: 79 cents for a box of 400
35. Red plums: 59 cents per pound
36. 7Up (regular or sugar-free): 64 ounces for 79 cents
37. Royal Gelatin: Six three-ounce boxes for $1.00
38. Seedless grapes: 49 cents per pound
39. Seven Seas Salad Dressing (all varieties): 16-ounce bottle for 69 cents
40. Shell or ziti pasta: Three one-pound boxes for 88 cents
41. Sirloin steak: $1.27 per pound
42. Sliced bacon: $1.59 per pound
43. Starkist Chunk Light Tuna: 6.5-ounce can for 49 cents
44. Sweet corn: 10 ears for 79 cents
45. T-bone steak: $1.59 per pound
46. Uncle Ben’s Rice: 10 pounds for $2.99
47. Valencia oranges: 10 for 99 cents
48. Veal for kabobs: $1.39 per pound
49. Vet’s Dog Food: 25-pound box for $4.99
50. Viva Paper Towels: Roll of 122 sheets for 49 cents