Capital Region Scrapbook: Bicentennial events among happenings in 1976

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jeff Wilkin

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Dancing and drumming were parts of summer for people at John Boyd Thacher State Park in Voorheesville on Aug. 22, 1976.

The Hamilton Hill Drop-In Arts Center finished its seven-week day camp at the park with lively African arts. Food and athletic events were also part of the program.

There were other August happenings. Colonie celebrated the nation’s bicentennial with a parade and play. Fifty-three amateur thespians were on stage for “America 76,” which took place at Lisha Kill Junior High School on Aug. 25, 26 and 27.

Kids at Shenendehowa High School were also into the spirit of ’76. Students in the school’s German-American Partnership Program received a bicentennial flag from state Congressman Edward “Ned” Pattison and packed it for a road trip. They later presented the banner to teens in a sister high school in Porz, Cologne, West Germany.

For others, there was enough summer left for bites and bicycles. The parents’ night buffet at Schenectady County Community College was a smorgasbord of foods such as steamship round of beef, shrimp, lobster, turkey and Cherries Jubilee a la Strianese — named after SCCC instructor Anthony “Toby” Strianese.

Ben Serotta took orders for bicycles. The young Saratoga Springs bike builder had opened his shop in the city in 1972, and had already won respect from cyclists who bought his handcrafted frames.

Serotta was in the news earlier this month when new management at the company he founded decided to fire him.