Some Personal Thoughts on this 250th Anniversary of our Country

By Lori Perkins

I was a teenager when we celebrated our 200^th anniversary.  I lived in New York City’s Washington Heights on the Hudson River and I vividly remember watching the fleet of international tall ships, many historic recreations, sail up the Hudson past my home.

We were all reading Gore Vidal’s historical novel 1876 which was on the best seller list,  watching the Bicentennial Minutes on CBS, and excited that the Smithsonian had just opened the Air and Space Museum. Even popular TV had Bicentennial Fourth of July pop culture references such as The Jeffersons, Maude and even MASH. We were all just enthralled with the grandeur of our country’s history (even if we now see just how white-washed it was).  

There was just this feeling of “we were really all in this together” – from wherever we came from and wherever we were going.

Even writing this sounds so naive today.

But you should have been there.

I wish you were.

This year I will be watching the ships from an even better Hudson River vantage point, but I would gladly go back to a time when I felt so proud of my country.