Meet The World: America's 250th Birthday & The American Freedom Train (at the L.A County Fairgrounds)

Fifty years ago, our nation was celebrating it's Bicentennial birthday. At that same time, the American Freedom train was traveling the country as a part of the Bicentennial celebration.

Here are some images of the American Freedom Train, when it made a stop at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. These photos happen to be from the Ralph and Florence collection. They were all hand-labeled, and stated specifically that the train was, "In the west parking lot of the L.A. County Fairgrounds, Pomona." These were dated, "December 1975." Many of America's Bicentennial celebrations began in 1975, in anticipation of the upcoming bicentennial. This also included Disneyland and Walt Disney World's official celebrations, which began in June of 1975.

Note how each of the train's cars had large windows, for viewing some of the exhibits.

Here's Florence waiting in line to enter the train. According to what was written on the slide's mounting, they waited for two and a half hours!

This is Ralph and Florence's son, Alfred. The vehicle in the window next to him has the NASA logo on it. It appears to be a lunar rover/moon buggy. According to Wikipedia, vehicles like this were used in the last three missions of the United States' Apollo program (15, 16, and 17) during 1971 and 1972. Since all three of the actual vehicles used were left behind on the moon (following each mission), this one must have been one of the "test" vehicles or "trainer" vehicles, which are still around today, and on display in various museums.

The sign posted for this next item reads, "Friendship No. 1 (1849) - Hand pumped fire engines such as this beautifully restored vehicle were pulled to a fire by long lines of running men. The early machines have long since been replaced by sophisticated fire equipment, yet it is still the men, the firefighters of America, on who's courage and sacrifice we depend for protection of life and property."

Unfortunately, those are the only photos they took during their visit to the Freedom Train. But among Ralph's and Florence's set of slides that I acquired, were these two shots of a display created by Ralph. This first one was dated December 24, 1975, and labeled, "Bicentennial Christmas display - created and painted by Ralph."

The date on this slide was January 1976, and Ralph's hand-written description was, "Comedy Paul Revere scene for Bicentennial."

Here's a random photo from June of 1975. I'm including it here, because it sort of fits in with the Freedom Train exhibits, except that Ralph took this one at a Pasadena City College "camera show." The image shows an Edison Home Kinetoscope and it's companion phonograph, which were used for early sound movies and were both patented in 1897. The sign has a couple of misspellings. First, is the actual name of the item. The other is the spelling of the word, "Attempt." A black celluloid cylinder, which predated flat disc records, can be seen on the phonograph. The (phonograph's) sign also states, "For use in connection with the Edison Kinetoscope only."

Here's a vintage image from the internet, showing a row of Edison's Kinetoscopes.

To finish out this post, I'm including some Bicentennial items from my childhood.

These commemorative postage stamps and special "cover" envelope were officially postmarked on July 4, 1976. My dad gave a set of these to both my brother and me. The stamps are a representation of the 1817 painting by John Trumbull, "Declaration of Independence."

The flap on the reverse side included these logos.

A card containing a facsimile of all the signatures on the Declaration of Independence came with the envelope.

Both items came in this special "leatherette" folder.

Production of the two-dollar bill had been discontinued in 1966, but was resumed 10 years later and reissued on April 13, 1976 (Thomas Jefferson's birthday). My great-grandmother went to her local post office in Long Beach, CA, and had a two-dollar bill stamped and postmarked for both my brother and me. According to Wikipedia, you could only do this on the first day of issue for the bill, so the postmark on these reads, "APR 13 1976."

This block of stamps shows all three from this particular commemorative set.

The reverse side of the two-dollar bill was redesigned for it's 1976 reissue. The reverse previously had a picture of Jefferson's Virginian home, "Monticello." The new design (below) featured an engraved version of John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence" painting.

I don't remember where I got this Bicentennial decal, but I've had it since childhood and never "stuck" it on anything.

I've also had this box of note cards since 1976.

They were manufactured by Hallmark.

There are still two unused note cards inside.

I posted both of these bicentennial-themed puzzles in 2020, in a post about "Vintage Disney Jigsaw Puzzles." This first one is a Whitman "Frame-Tray Puzzle" for children, featuring only 12 pieces.

And this larger boxed version contains almost 500 pieces, and was manufactured by Springbok, a division of Hallmark Cards Inc.

In case anyone is interested, back in July of 2015, I posted several other Bicentennial items from my childhood, including a couple commemorative Pepsi cans, a pressed penny, and the Sunday comics section from the July 4, 1976 edition of The Los Angeles Times.

Happy 250th birthday, America!

****UPDATE****

I just found another issue of My Weekly Reader from elementary school (dated September 17, 1975). I previously posted an issue from 1971, which had a cover story about the opening of Walt Disney World. Interestingly enough, this issue did not have any more info about "America On Parade" at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, other than the very brief description below the cover photo. There is a note at the bottom, stating, "See the Teacher's Edition of this issue for a special New Awareness Enrichment Section." I think the Teacher's Edition had more info, because I do remember after these monthly papers were passed out to us, the teacher would review them with the class.