Peanuts by Charles Schulz for December 19, 2022

Ah the Bicentenial. My parents drove us coast to coast and back to California in the summer of 1976. Got my first wristwatch in a DC hotel for my 12th birthday in August. Great memories.

Now that I think about it, what did the Browns’ Sally-like ancestor attempt to make for the centennial in 1876?

Oh the bIcentennial…seems like it was just yesterday not 47 years ago…wow!

I remember our teachers making all kinds of artificial fuss about the Bicentennial—artificial because in my small Midwestern town there wasn’t even a special fireworks display or anything. I also remember the red, white and blue shag carpeting the magazines were trying to sell us.

By the time this strip was published, three of those people were dead.

One of my earliest memories is of the Bicentennial: I was 4 years old. My Dad needed something from the next town over – which happens to be where the big 4th of July celebration occurs every year. Traffic was slowed on the edge of town by the Firemen in the road selling Bicentennial buttons to raise money for the annual fireworks display. I can still remember my dad pretending to be outraged at the price. I remember that I was sitting unbuckled in the front seat – which is just what you did – looking out at this stranger my dad was talking to. I think that in the end he got the $1.25 button for $1.I still have that button in the bottom of a drawer or box someplace.It’s kind of weird to me that this cartoon is part of the lead-up to that day.

Draw a bunch of unhinged hogs attacking the white house because they don’t know how counting works. Now that’s patriotic.

My brother and I took an 8,000 mile trip in my Jeep CJ-5 from Texas into Canada (Banff, Yoho, Vancouver) and back through California. Took 26 days and cost us $500 each for groceries and gas. I’ve got fond memories of that trip, but our folks burned my brother’s sleeping bag after.

Another rare instance of a pop culture reference in the Peanuts canon.

She beat Bobby Riggs a few years earlier, so why not…

How about Abraham Lincoln playing the World Cup?

Somewhere I have a penny that we laid on the track to be squashed by the Freedom Train during the Bicentennial.

I wound up getting stationed in Massachusetts that year in “almost Boston” (It was on the boundary between civilization and the hinterland. We were on the “wrong” side of Route 128). They made a big deal over the bicentennial there.

Who was Harry Truman?

I hitchhiked across the US and Canada in 1976. It was a great year to be an American

So this is where trump got the idea for his NFTs.

True story. In July of 1976, while Queen Elizabeth was touring the states to celebrate the bicentennial, I got to meet her in Boston. I was all of 14 years old. It was on TV. My parents said she spoke to me for almost a minute. All I remember is her saying, ‘well – halloo!’ It made an impression though – 20 years later I gave my youngest daughter the middle name ‘Windsor’ in the Queen’s honor.

I’ve always enjoyed the Brown siblings’ interactions.

Abraham Lincoln was reportedly playing tennis when he was told he’d won the election of 1860. Put him in place of George Washington – I hear he had a terrible backhand.

I got married in 1976. A great many of our wedding guests have died, and the church is now a day-care center, but my husband and I are still around and still happily married to each other.

And that was today’s bicentennial minute!

I grew up loving the 4th of July. My small town in upstate NY would spend an outsized amount of its budget on the celebration. There’d be a big parade with bands and entries from as far away as Canada; games, helicopter rides, and other fun down on the playing fields (the closest area we had to a town square); the Blue Angels would do a fly over; and finally a fireworks display to rival most big cities. It was really fun day.

Our local (Lewistown PA) fireworks were cancelled on July 4, 1976 due to a thunderstorm.

Professional tennis was fun back in those days. I’ll never forget the Battle of the Sexes where Billy Jean King was borne onto the court like Cleopatra and played Bobby Riggs who had been taunting her for weeks about the inferiority of women’s tennis.

Billie Jean King. Another celebrity Schulz wanted to meet. And did.

Four more years until the U.S. Semiquincentennial (or Sestercentennial if you prefer fewer syllables).

Perhaps the journey to 1 million dollars begins with 1 thousand words.

I helped a church stand, at the State Fair grounds, sell Chinese food and warm, hot day, root beer. They did not refridgerate it.

Of course they would Charlie Brown. Harry and Billy Jean are much younger.

One of my favorite Bicentennial things were the fire hydrants painted red white and blue. It took a while before they were all painted back to yellow. By the mid-80s I remember finding a lone holdout hiding deep within an apartment complex when I went to visit a friend.

Now we have an idea how old this current strip is (1976) for the younger readers.

Don’t bet on it Charlie Brown, I hear Betsy Ross has a pretty mean backhand.

My sister lived outside of DC, and that summer we went down to visit, as usual. The fireworks at DC were awesome. However, less awesome was when my sister wanted to play a cassette of her singing and accidentally picked up the cassette that contained a conversation between her husband & his mistress.

There were no 1975 quarters.

I was aboard USS Cleveland LPD-7 in White Beach Okinawa Japan. Great to represent the nation’s BD, but I sure wish I could have been home to see it all! We signed all of our names as a record of forward-deployed American Forces in the Nation’s bi-centennial.

Thanks for your service fellow Vet!!!

Just an FYI. I was shipboard in the summer of 76, but we made a several-day port call to Sattahip Royal Thai Naval Base. You may know that according to the recently signed VA PACT Act, anyone that was stationed there or present there prior to late June 1976, that you are “presumed” exposed to Agent Orange. I am researching more with the VA. Perhaps this could help you in whatever way. Happy Holidays!!!

Bring Ike in, it’s all over.

Don’t count old George out — he was a boxer and combat veteran in his younger days, and remained an avid horseman well after his presidency. Betsy… I have no idea.

My parents took us to a huge celebration of the Fourth of July, 1976 at the Rose Bowl in LA. The massive fireworks display didn’t disappoint, and funny enough, neither did the pre-sundown entertainment which was a female roller derby competition. Those women rocked!