WEST LEBANON — If you were a New England baby boomer in 1975, there was a lot to be excited about that summer.
Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, the Gold Dust Twins, roamed the Red Sox outfield in remarkable rookie debuts, with Lynn winning both the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards, while Rice was launched on a Hall of Fame career.
Also that summer, Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run album hit the stores and record players, and the movie version of Peter Benchley’s Jaws made millions of people think twice as they dipped their toes into the Atlantic Ocean along the East Coast.
The summer came after tough times in the spring. National unemployment had reached 9%, top aides to President Richard Nixon, including former Attorney General John Mitchell, were sent to prison in the Watergate scandal, and the North Vietnamese had captured Saigon, ending that war with an American defeat.
Here in the Upper Valley, some tourism watchers were concerned that more motorists were zooming up the interstates to the White Mountains, though Lebanon did its best with an information booth for tourists at Colburn Park where travel brochures — remember those, pre-Internet — were all the rage.
In Hartford, a bicentennial committee preparing for the big national celebration in 1976 was active, with re-enactors portraying Whitcomb’s Rangers showing Quechee residents how to use a flintlock musket.
Tradition continued in West Windsor, as the Brownsville Bean Supper marked its 40th year.
And Vice President Nelson Rockefeller flew into what was then known as the Lebanon Regional Airport to attend a memorial service in Hanover for Victor Borella, an Enfield resident and longtime aide who had been a 1930 classmate at Dartmouth.
And, of course, swimming holes were as popular as ever, with kids splashing in places like the Norwich Pool and in Thetford Center.
No sharks were to be found anywhere.
John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.