The Summer of ’76

The official logo for the 1976 bicentennial

I’ve seen this a lot in recent social media - “Was the American Bicentennial a big deal in 1976?” The writers of such posts are being intellectually lazy, since any dive in history will show that the Bicentennial WAS a big deal. America was out of Vietnam, Nixon was no longer President, having resigned after the Watergate scandal, and Gerald Ford was the incumbent.  The mood was pretty good, people were enthused, and there was a lot of Bicentennial swag to be had.  However, that’s the big picture. If you are asking what those of use who experienced it were doing, well, that’s a much different request.

I was 19, and looking for summer employment after my first year of college in Syracuse, NY.  My freshman year had been a rude awakening, and I was under academic probation.  That was a blow to someone that always had good grades in high school.  I had never really learned how to study, and there were lots of distractions to be had as a college freshman in the 1970s.  Anyhow, I had family living in Maine, and somehow I found a job as a summer camp counselor at a place called Wavus Camps on Damariscotta Lake near Jefferson, Maine. 

The flagpole at Wavus

Looking back, I don’t think I was especially qualified to be a camp counselor, though I did know enough about wood craft, nature, and wood shop to be able to teach 8-10 year-old boys.  I had 6 boys in my cabin, and we never received an award for the best-made beds.  Boy Scout I was not.  I was called “Uncle Obie” as all the male counselors were called “uncle” and the female counselors were addressed as “aunt”. The camp was not co-ed in daily activities, as the girls had their area, and the boys theirs. The was no co-mingling was in the dining hall, but on Saturday evenings there would be some sort of co-ed interaction.  That didn’t extend to the counselors,  who had plenty of co-mingling on off hours.  

I think the youngest were about 6 years old.

It was a pretty good summer. I don’t think most of us were really aware of all that was going on - no tv, no radio, and certainly there were no phones except at the camp office.  As the build-up to the 4th of July proceeded, we were going to be in a parade in the nearby town of  Jefferson, and take part if the festivities there.  Except that I didn’t.  I had come down with a really severe case of strep throat, which landed me in the camp infirmary. The camp nurse bathed me with water, ice, and rubbing alcohol to get my fever down, but when my temperature reached 105, I was taken to a small emergency center and given antibiotics.  Within a couple of days, I was almost back to normal, but I missed all the 4th of July events.

So, my best recollection of July 4, 1976 is some strange fever dream.  I heard the day was pretty good.  

My stint as a camp counselor was singular, and while that summer was 50 years ago, there are some good memories from then.  I wonder how those kids turned out - some were there while their parents went to Europe, and one was the Maine governor’s son.  Every boy had to take a weekly bath - in the lake, no less.  This was 1976, after all.  I wonder if any of them might remember “Uncle Obie” and his bug walks.  

My charges out on one of our hikes. These guys are probably thinking about retiring soon.

Alright, you’ve read this far. What about photography?  This is a photography blog, right? Well, you young whippersnappers, I have the photos from that summer - shot with my Exa 1a SLR.  At the time, I shot only slide film, because it was cheaper to get developed, and as a student, I didn’t have a lot of storage space, so the plus from that era is that the Kodachromes still look good.  On some of my time off I hitch-hiked along the coast, especially along US-1.  I can’t even imagine doing that now.    

After I scanned these in, I did some minor editing, and looking back, I did manage to get some pretty good images.  What struck me most was how those kids looked pretty much like any kid from that time.  I don’t imagine that all of the children there came from well-to-do families, but certainly upper middle-class.   That decade was before Reagan ended up ruining the American Dream.

There’s something to be said for that time. 

I wish that I'd taken more photos of my travels, but as I said, I had a limited budget for film!  

Yeah, I bet you thought of Jaws music when you saw this.

There were plenty of deer around

Wiscasset, ME, the old schooners are no longer there

Bicentennial calf with mama

Maine is a lovely place

So, that's a little trip down memory lane, with the Kodachromes to prove I was there.  That's the joy of photography.