07/04/2026
Happy 4th of July
It’s not often you can remember where you were and what you were doing on a specific date & time, 50 years after that moment in time. But that’s where I am, today, July 4th, 2026 at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.
It was, of course, July 4th, 1976, our nations Bi-Centennial, the 200th celebration of the Declaration of Independence. There had been celebrations and events for a year. Special money issued, I remember the quarters and half dollars and two dollar bills especially. Some sports teams changed their uniforms for the season, Uncle Sam and bald eagles were everywhere it seemed. One thing that was different as opposed to now, the 250th, is then, even though we were right in the middle of a Presidential race, and a very consequential one at that, I don’t remember any of it being political. Neither party or candidate was accusing the other of being less than American, sure there was some of that, as it was right after Vietnam ending but there wasn’t the vitriol there is now.
So the reason I remember where I was and what I was doing at 11 a.m. on July 4th 1976 is because of a Bi-Centennial event called Bells Across America in which the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia was symbolically struck at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and all across the U.S.A. from sea to shining sea, people were to ring a bell for two minutes in commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The year before, after my 6th grade year at Somis School, I went back east to visit my relatives in Virginia, near Washington D.C., for two weeks. It was an epic trip, part of which we toured Boston, Lexington, Concord and other Revolutionary War sites, which I was very interested in at that time. Paul Revere and the Shot Heard Round the World were things I was interested in.
The next year, after my 7th grade year, my parents sent me to stay with my Grandpa Boedy, my dad’s dad, in Cambria for a week before July 4th, at which time my parents and two brothers would come up to go to Cayucus Beach for a picnic and fireworks, which was a sort of tradition, meaning we did it several times but not every year.
Because of that country wide call to action I found myself on my Grandpa Boedy’s front porch of his house, situated as far west as possible, on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, in Cambria, CA, at 11 a.m. proudly ringing his real bell with a clapper(in other words, not a door bell), thinking that I was finishing the journey of bell ringing, there on the edge of the country. I would stop for a few seconds to listen for other bells… and I think I did hear a few, but not sure. But it didn’t matter because I knew that I was a part of something that people from across the country were a part of at the same moment.
Which is why I remember exactly where I was & what I was doing on July 4th, 1976 at 11 a.m., Pacific Standard Time.
I hope everyone has a happy and safe day today & remember, were all in this together, no matter shape, size or color...
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