Miss Patriotic Me

Over Labor Day weekend, among other things, I sorted two boxes of bicentennial souvenirs that had been in the basement since we moved in and were in an attic before that. Don and I were somewhat naïve about collectibles back in 1976. We thought they'd make us rich in retirement if we kept every single thing we came across that was put out for the 200^th birthday of our nation. And I do mean everything---dry cleaning bags, French fry and hot dog boxes, pencils and pens, marble paper weights, newspapers, plans for planting bicentennial gardens and building floats, Pepsi cans, beer cases, wind chimes, bells, Jim Beans liquor bottles, quilt patterns, paper dolls, flags, White House building kits, pill boxes, dishes and plates. And it goes without saying that we bought every postage stamp and coin set put out by the mint---and there were many. We thought we were 'investing' wisely but what we didn’t factor into the equation is that a lot of other people had the same idea. Bottom line: we wasted our money if you only look at it like an 'investment' gone kaput.  

But, boy did we have fun that year! Don and I were only six years into our relationship at the time and still very much acting like carefree kids even though we were in our 30s. 1976 was a summer filled of bluegrass festivals and going to every bicentennial celebration we could find---and we had a bicentennial guide book to help us find them. We signed copies of the constitution, we put poems in time capsules and we watched parades and fireworks. Every weekend, all summer long was party time. I even had a long, flowing hippy style dress that I made out of white homespun-like fabric that had little liberty bells, dates and flags all over it. I loved wearing that dress! I practically lived in it that year and I still have it hanging in my closet.

As I sat in the garage going through the boxes, my memories of that summer of '76 made me happy and I decided that was my pay-off for saving all that stuff. I hadn’t opened those boxes for 43 years but when the fun of unpacking was over, about a third of it went in the trash because the quality of papers were never meant to be kept that many years. Popcorn bags? What was I thinking? We even had a 43 year old condom with a bicentennial flag on the cellophane. I wasn’t particularly fond of finding that in poor condition because there’s a healthy collectors market for vintage condoms tins. I sold nearly dozen for $25 to $95 each 2-3 years ago. But I was excited when I found the photo at the top of this post. It’s an 8” by 10” and it was taken in a town so small half the people who lived there were in the 4^th of July parade while the other half looked on. People lined up to get our photos taken in front of that flag and we had to wait for them to come in the mail. I wish it showed the pattern in my hippie dress. Still, I love that photo and the eye brows I had back before they turned gray. Heck, I wish I could still fit in that dress. 

About the only thing of any real collector value in our bicentennial stuff is the wooden beer case half the stuff was packed in. It will bring fifty to seventy bucks at the local auction house so I put a few bicentennial dogs inside and am sending them off to sell as one unit. A local newspaper dated July 4th 1976 was sent as a stand-only auction item and I did the same with an unopened 5th of whiskey in a bicentennial decanter. How they get away with selling liquor without a liquor license is a mystery, but it's not the first unopened whiskey bottle I've sold that way. I suspect it's the aged contents, not the collector's edition bottles people are bidding on. A few of the coins got listed on e-Bay and I grouped a big bunch of the bicentennial things together to sell as a junk drawer lot. People who buy junk drawer lots fascinate me. Sometimes they'll e-mail questions about stuff that I have no idea what they are and neither do they, but they end up bidding on the lot anyway. They must be like my husband was. He loved owning unidentifiable objects and would spend whatever time it took to figure out its purpose. Today, with Google images it’s easier but it’s not helping me with any of the mystery items I’ve unearthed while downsizing.

The bicentennial downsizing project took too long but it is what it is. I love that I now have a photograph of me wearing my all-time favorite dress and the photo documents, in a meaningful way, the best summer of my life---the summer I was little Miss Patriotic. I love that it was all but forgotten for four decades so I can look at the image now with fresh eyes and see the artistic quality. The balance and starkness of the blacks and whites is striking, don't you think. And maybe you won't be able to see it in the small image up above but in the 8" x 10" you can see that I'm wearing a Mona Lisa smile and I'm not telling anyone what that smile was all about....  ©