Summer of '76

Happy Independence Day, USA! #America250 isn't the first 'big birthday' I have experienced in our nation. My parents gave me a love for American History, travel, and learning 'with my feet,' taking me places where I could experience historic culture and hear stories I'd never heard before. In 1976, just a month before I turned 16, Mom planned "the Bicentennial Vacation," a two-week car trip from Arkansas all the way up the Eastern Seaboard to Maine and back. Americana was abundant for the 1776-1976 celebration!

My scrapbook was more like a journal, so I preserved where we were and what was happening. Looking back at this as a grandparent makes me appreciate the research, time, thought, and planning that Mom put into mapping our course... making reservations to stay in cool places, literally squeezing in so much that holiday for an unforgettable trip. All that without the internet and travelers' reviews!

So here are a few of my takeaways from the trip and the memories.

My immediate recognition is that I need to pony up and start planning like Mom. We need to take our grandsons on the road as well. Besides these great American places, they’ve never seen where my family roots are from New Orleans to Appalachia. Would it interest them to see one of my childhood homes, or where their Papa grew up?

Our family was proudly American throughout my childhood and high school years, and I mainly remember that because of all the teachable moments and conversations shared around our family dinner table. These times gave me a window to the world, and my parents’ commitment to a well-rounded education was key. Love of history came from studying with Daddy, picking up his passion for how this nation was built. His own struggle out of a poverty-stricken area as a son of coal miner/farmer, a young man with a talent for basketball and team work meant he had much he could tell me about how work ethic, determination, and risk-taking built the country in the same way it built his life, opening doors and opportunities that would have otherwise eluded him.

Time and travel with my parents in the summer of ’76 trekking through museums, driving scenic byways, catching a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty as we drove around New York City heading to beautiful Maine – even eating lobster for the first time - all combined to show me the vastness of America the Beautiful, its diversity and destiny. In so many places, I gained a sense of how deeply religious many of our forefathers were as I read their words of dedication on plaques and buildings, feeling their hope for the future of the place they planted. I couldn't help but think how different the sixteen year olds of those days were compared to me, and how different my own teenage years were from my parents'.

We can never lose the founders' ethics of true liberty before God, and must share the generational responsibility to steward this gifted land. We must teach, model, and inspire a constant returning to the eternal values they taught their children who shared in their sacrifices, and make sure we are diligently communicating the same with our own kids. Ronald Reagan said, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction". What we do intentionally to preserve and protect that freedom is something we do for ourselves and our children.

But the Summer of '76 was not only marked by American celebrations. I remember watching the news at night when we would settle in our evening location - Hostages had been taken in an international flight hijacking and day to day tensions worsened. I will never forget the images of the most dazzling and unexpected rescue by Israeli forces of the Jewish hostages held in the Ugandan airport. It was a rescue mission that made a statement of force and ingenuity after years of abuse from Israel's enemies.

What had lead up to the summer of '76 was all the rest of the 1970s. There had been the horrific murder of Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Munich Olympics, a catastrophe that seemed to affect no one but Jewish participants. We were avid sports fans, watching all the television coverage then, and this shocking event and the fact it would even happen was unbelievable to me! Then I can recall the Yom Kippur War just a year later (1973), the surprise attack of Egypt and Syria against Israel. From the late '60s and into the 70's, I was a TV witness of tanks crossing the desert, fights in the Golan Heights, struggles in Jerusalem, mind-boggling attacks on Jewish people and places that made little sense. For me, the context included the Vietnam War that was also so readily on our TV set, Daddy's own brother in the Air Force perishing there in 1970. Was the whole world on fire? These were the questions and discussions in our home and community - how and why were these things happening?

Full circle decades later, imagine my joy in meeting a member of that awesome IDF team whose victory turned a tide in Israel... a member of the Sayeret Matkal Unit that rescued 102 hostages in spectacular fashion became a colleague and friend. Shortly after October 7, 2023, Gadi Ilan and I shared the stage with Rabbi Erez Sherman and Business leader Bob Lembke for a special collection of prayers that opened the Jewish National Fund-USA's Global Conference for Israel. Since then in Denver, we have all continued to work together, and we were delighted to have him as keynote speaker in Little Rock in the summer of 2026. Getting to hear in detail his experience during a world-changing event I remember as a teenager has been an unbelievable joy.

Congratulations Uncle Sam, for surviving the '70s... the 1670s, the 1770s, the 1870s (there's another batch of the good, the bad, and the ugly!) even the 1970s. What will we do to ensure this homeland continues into the next round of 70s as the land of the free & home of the brave? Will we preserve our historic and biblical relationship with the nation of Israel?

God bless this nation for our fathers' sake, for His Name's sake, pour out His Spirit as promised in His Word, and keep His hand on who He has called the apple of His eye.

"The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance." - Psalm 33:10-12

Give your kids a love and appreciation for this amazing nation!

In the photos from my Summer of '76:

·  We did whirlwind tours through Jamestown, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and most of the colonies. I loved Williamsburg! The Old State Capital is pictured & cannons were everywhere! The journey from Williamsburg to Washington, D.C. should be on everyone's bucket list, especially in taking your children.

·  Mom found the treasured Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay, a tiny place explored by Captain John Smith in 1608 with a small group that included a man with the last name PREWITT (my maiden name). Residents through the generations were descendants of Cornish settlers. We had to take a ferry to get there, enjoyed the overnight stay and biked across the island. Old ship wreckages were there.

·  I am standing on the steps at the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in New London, CT, where 18-year-old patriot Nathan Hale taught in this one-room school after graduating from Yale. He served the country as a spy against the British for General Washington and when hanged as such, declared, "I regret I have but one life to lose for my country!"

·  Mom & my grandmother, Lillian, at our BNB in Mistick, CT

·  In D.C., we visited U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers...Daddy voted absentee ballot in his office. Years later at another event, Sen. Bumpers still remembered Dad's name. Senator Bumpers had quite a legacy in Washington.

·  An All-American day of Baseball in Cincinnati: The Reds against St. Louis Cardinals! In one of my pictures, Pete Rose is on 3rd and Johnny Bench is at bat! Both were All-Stars in 1976. I took a picture while the National Anthem was sung, lyrics on the scoreboard ~ clearly before jumbotrons! It was an awesome feeling hearing the stadium sing the anthem during the Bicentennial Fourth!

Mom (Ellen) was the beautiful planner of the Bicentennial Summer Vacation. Her mother, Lillian, always dressed like the true Southern lady, was a great traveler!

Colonial cannons abound! From Williamsburg to chilly Cape May, we made many meaningful stops!

The Old Capital at Williamsburg, the strange & beautiful Tangier Island, and meeting US Senator Dale Bumpers...Quite a summer to remember!