Has it really been fifty years?

My little hometown went all out for the Bicentennial celebrations back in 1976. 

The big city park was filled with people as bands played in the bandstand and vendors sold pork burgers, roasted corn on the cob and lemon shakeups. 

Kids played and cars cruised slowly through the park. Teens and adults tossed firecrackers and smoke bombs. As darkness fell fireworks lit the night. At some some point in the afternoon some fool set of a military style smoke bomb and thick clouds of red smoke billlowed through the crowd. 

It seems those celebrations far eclipsed what we are seeing today but it may be the perspective of age. Back in 1976 in my hometown the fire hydrants were painted to resemble Revolutionary figures.

Later that year I attended a massive Boy Scout Jamboree -Bijambo over in Henry county. I went with another troop for that event, I don’t know why my own troop did not go. Of course I took every opportunity in those days to go camping. That might have been the year I went to summer camp twice - once with my own troop and once with a different group. It was OK, I knew all of those guys.