July 4, 1976, a memory of a lifetime

It was a hot and steamy Fourth of July night. The year was 1976. A group of teenagers that had graduated from high school two weeks earlier sat on a grassy hilltop in Arlington, Virginia. Below them was the Pentagon. Across the river were the monuments of Washington D.C. lit up in all their glory.

Someone had brought an 8-track player. The songs of the Eagles, the Beach Boys, John Denver, America and the Steve Miller Band played loudly. A few danced but most sat on beach towels and drank TAB soda or Boone’s Farm wine while waiting for the show to start. Lighting bugs darted among the crowd.

They waited in anticipation for the fireworks over DC. As the class of 1976, they thought they were cool and special.  After all, they were the “Bicentennial” class. The entire year, saying bye to someone was said “Bi … centennial.” All year, Bicentennial events had been going on in DC and Arlington. Their high school choir sang at many of those, including at Iwo Jima Memorial, the Kennedy Center, and the National Cathedral.  It was far out.

The fireworks that night were truly spectacular – the kind that happens every 200 years or so. At the end of the show as the grand finale lit up the sky, one of the teens pulled out the 8-track tape so the music they were listening to stopped. A few started singing the National Anthem and very quickly everyone on that hillside joined in. The fireworks were so bright you could look around and see tears streaming down the faces of the crowd. The group went quiet after the last firework went off, then slowly packed up and made their way to the cars. 

In the last 50 years, there have been some amazing fireworks shows along the trail: at Mount Rushmore, on a boat in the Santa Monica Bay, Deception Pass on Whidbey Island, over the Puget Sound in Seattle and over Coronado Bay in San Diego.  None matched the fireworks of July 4, 1976. It would be grand to be on that hill July 4, 2026, to watch the semi-quincentennial fireworks.

But the grassy hill is now the Air Force Memorial. Eight track players don’t exist anymore. Those teenagers are now in their late 60s.  They celebrated their 50-year class reunion. Some of them are gone too soon. The soda TAB isn’t made anymore. Boone’s Farm wine is but it is very unlikely that any of them still drink it. But they will always have that moment in time. God bless the U.S.A. Happy 250th!