This issue of Evansville Living is not designed to suggest how to celebrate the Fourth of July. There will be fireworks, flags, family gatherings, cookouts, parades, concerts, and no shortage of red, white, and blue to go around. The digital events guides we publish weekly in the Thursday newsletter Insider, as well as on our website, include all the regional semiquincentennial events. As our country marks its 250th birthday, we wanted to consider Evansville’s place in America’s story — how a Midwestern river city has reflected, contributed to, and been shaped by the nation. The feature package, “Our Chapter in the American Story” beginning on page 34, does a very good job of tracing the city’s footprint on U.S. history. The cover illustration by Las Vegas, Nevada-based artist Ryan Olbrysh and commissioned by Creative Director Laura Mathis ties it all together. (Please see the cover key on page 13 for details on Olbrysh’s illustration.)
For me, the approach of America’s 250th naturally takes me back to 1976 and the bicentennial. I was 12 years old, a sixth grader at Caze Elementary School, and I have vivid memories of the excitement surrounding America’s 200th birthday. In Evansville, as across the country, it was celebrated with ceremonies, school projects, patriotic programs, and the kind of community enthusiasm that lodges itself permanently in a child’s memory.
I remember collecting items, along with my Caze classmates, for a time capsule buried at the base of the Four Freedoms Monument in Downtown Evansville. (Please see Final Detail on page 136 for Kelley Coures’s reflections on the iconic monument.) Putting together this issue, I was determined to chase down the time capsule memory. What, exactly, had we contributed? What did grade school students in Evansville, Indiana, think should be preserved for the future in the bicentennial year? At the time, it was reported the time capsule would be opened in 2176.
This curiosity led me back to Caze. The network of retired teachers here is strong, and Becky Griepenstroh, a former Caze gym teacher and friend of mine and my mother, made some calls to locate a Caze 1976 yearbook. My mother, Mary Reeder, taught at Caze and was very organized and likely had the yearbook herself, which means I would have that copy in storage somewhere in my basement. After striking out — and not speaking with any fellow retired teachers who recalled the time capsule — Becky suggested I reach out to Caze Principal Kendra Renfrow and Media Aide Lindsey Schneider. Lindsey kindly met me at the school. When she came to Caze from Vogel three years ago, she was shown some storage tubs by the prior media aide and told to “guard them with her life.” I soon understood why. She showed me numerous tubs of carefully preserved archival items from the school’s history, dating back to its opening in 1926 (happy 100th birthday, Caze!), including the school’s yearbook from 1976.
I did not find a reference to the time capsule. But I did have a marvelous stroll down memory lane. (And, to my great delight, the reminder that I won the Caze spelling bee that year!) The clearest memory I have about the bicentennial is from the neighborhood where I grew up, Greencove Acres, on the East Side. Bicentennial excitement was palpable for my patriotic mother, and she encouraged her daughters to organize an Independence Day parade. The Instamatic pictures she took that day make an annual appearance on the Fourth of July and continue to be sort of a glue that holds together the friends, now in their 50s and 60s, who rode their decorated bikes around the “D-shaped” neighborhood, perfect for a parade. We may not be in frequent touch, but we all feel we shared something very special, totally Americana.
Happy Independence Day! As always, I enjoy hearing from you!
Kristen K. Tucker
Editor & Publisher
Follow Kristen on Instagram @kristenktucker.
