August 25, 1976, is a Wednesday. In Monroe, Wisconsin, it’s the first day of school. In France, premier Jacques Chirac resigns in a dispute over political strategy with president Valery Giscard d’Estaing and is replaced by foreign minister Raymond Barre. President Ford is on vacation in Colorado. Among his activities today: attending a picnic hosted by prominent Vail restauranteur/hotelier Pepi Gramshammer. The Russian space mission Soyuz 21 returns to Earth early; a crew member has begun displaying psychotic behavior possibly linked to toxic gases in the ship’s cabin. The Lincoln Park Carousel, which has stood in an East Los Angeles park since 1914, is burned by vandals. In Allentown, Pennsylvania, Earl F. Hunsicker Bicentennial Park opens. Future actor Alexander Skarsgard, NBA journeyman Damon Jones, and New York Yankees pitcher Pedro Feliciano are born. The Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins 5-4 in a 19-inning game that takes five hours, 26 minutes to play. Yankee Dick Tidrow enters the game in the 7th inning and pitches through the 17th.
On daytime TV, Dinah Shore welcomes Chuck Berry and M*A*S*H star Mike Farrell. Merv Griffin’s guests on his daytime show include singers Mel Torme and Cyndi Grecco and the group Silver. In primetime, a pair of half-hour, four-week summer variety shows premiere back-to-back on CBS: Easy Does It, starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, and The Late Summer Early Fall Bert Convy Show, which stars the erstwhile game show host. Also in the cast is comedian Lenny Schultz, who performs as Lenny the Bionic Chicken.
Jethro Tull’s Too Old to Rock and Roll tour continues in Calgary, Canada, while Lynryd Skynyrd’s tour moves on to Lewiston, Maine. Frank Sinatra plays Holmdel, New Jersey, Tom Waits plays Cleveland, and the Band plays Los Angeles. The Electric Light Orchestra plays St. Louis, with opening acts Mahogany Rush and Pure Prairie League. The self-titled debut album by a new group, Boston, is released. At WLS in Chicago, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee is at the top for a second week. New in the Top Ten are “Let ‘Em In” by Paul McCartney and Wings, “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” by England Dan and John Ford Coley, and “Say You Love Me” by Fleetwood Mac. The biggest movers on the chart are “Baby I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton (up 10 to #27) and “With Your Love” by Jefferson Starship (up 14 to #29). The Beatles compilation Rock and Roll Music spends its fifth and final week at the top of the album chart. Next week, it will be knocked out by Heart’s Dreamboat Annie, currently at #2.
Back in Wisconsin, a newly minted high-school junior knows he is ready to return to school, because anything is better than driving a tractor in the heat. But the things he does not know are legion: He doesn’t know that he’s just passed the summer he will cherish the most as the years go by. Neither does he know that the coming fall will be a season he will never leave behind. He also doesn’t know that 35 years in the future, his 51-year-old self, on something called a blog in a place called the Internet, will try to recreate the summer of 1976 —and fail.
More about that in tomorrow’s post.
The Hits Just Keep On Comin' 
Awright! An Allentown name-drop.
I’ve been to Hunsicker/Bicentennial Park. It’s a goofy little park wedged into a city block. Right-center field is the deepest part of the park, and there are big nets hanging atop the fences to protect the neighbors’ houses.
A friend of mine called games at EH/BP “arena baseball.”
The “Dreamboat Annie” album by Heart…that was like catching lightning in a bottle. What talent! “Crazy on You” got me hooked right away in the summer of ’76. I first heard “Magic Man” on August 25, 1976 (I believe on KAAY/Little Rock…and all 5:25 of it!). I then became madly in love with Ann and Nancy Wilson. If you want to see Heart’s incredible talent on display, YouTube “Mainstage Heart Live” and you’ll see Heart performing on a local television show in Northwest Washington state in 1976 and doing a prog-rock instrumental featuring Ann Wilson playing the flute, Nancy Wilson and Roger Fischer jamming on guitars, and Michael Derosier tearing it up on the drums. They were a one-of-a-kind talent. Heart was a female version of Led Zeppelin. Ann & Nancy still perform to this day as “Heart.”