As a teenager in 1976, I remember the excitement building up to the bicentennial celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Seemingly every clothing store, whether the elevated department stores of the day or the bargain clothing stores, was filled with red, white, and blue clothing to show our enthusiasm for the Fourth of July that year.

It wasn’t just the clothing. Our notebooks, pens, and pencils at school were all saturated with patriotic colors and themes. There was a Broadway musical, titled appropriately “1776” that toured the country, as city streets and rural communities dressed their sidewalks with flags and banners as the big day approached.