Anyone else remember the Bicentennial?

[hunter]

66. My parents were both working or looking after their parents. I don't remember which.

I ended up watching my six year old brother since my other siblings were off doing their own things. My parents probably figured that I, as a college student, was the most responsible among us. I was taking a class that summer, "Technical Writing for Idiots," or something like that and still planning to be an engineer.

First thing me and my brother did was fire off my old stash of home-made rockets and explosives. No better day to dispose of the evidence! I'd had to quit my high school pyrotechnic experiments previously when neighbors started complaining to both my parents and the police.

Then me and my brother drove to the local museum which had free admission for the day. There we looked at a diorama of a Native American village. My little brother noted that everyone in the diorama was half naked, including the women. "Boobies!"

Attracting attention, he said it more than once. I hated attention.

Growing up in a city that was 99% white, where grade school history classes were essentially propaganda and myths, pretty much everyone assumed the local Indians were extinct. That was not the case, but the museum made no mention of them, same as school.

Then we ate at McDonalds, something my parents rarely allowed, went to the park where the big fireworks show would be, played on the swings and "monkey bars," made a nuisance of ourselves with the guys who were setting up the fireworks, and eventually met up with the rest of our family for the big show.

The traffic jam when the show ended was horrible.