Everything's turning red, white and blue

I hope you’re stocking up on your red, white and blue merchandise. Because businesses are going over the top with gimmick sales in celebrating America’s 250th next month.

Is it too much, when you’re clad head to toe in American’s colors, eating star-spangled foods of all kinds and loading up the car with shopping carts overflowing with tacky items?

We haven’t seen this level of marketing, in my memory, since we celebrated the year 2000 (remember those 2000 glasses that someone thought were cool?).

It’s making me want to reach for my red, white and blue Tums.

A healthy diet may or may not include star-spangled snack cakes. (Photo by John Naughton.)

Within a month, much of the merchandising frenzy will be over. A lot of stuff will be placed in the clearance bin.

I suppose this was inevitable, this Independence Day…

Fifty years ago, America was swept up by bicentennial fever — the Spirit of ‘76.

Red, white and blue were everywhere. As a Des Moines schoolboy, I remember the anticipation of the Freedom Train, a collection of Smithsonian Americana riding on the rails. Students waited in line to wander through rail cars for a glimpse of Dorothy’s ruby slippers, the Constitution and a moon rock. An estimated seven million visitors saw the exhibit in 48 states.

I remember watching the movie musical “1776” in a theater.

Get your T-shirts here! (Photo by John Naughton.)

My family loaded up the station wagon and we visited Philadelphia (highlights: a parade, seeing a homeless man digging in the garbage and my first taste of Italian water ice… it would be years later before I devoured my first actual cheesesteak in Philadelphia) and Washington, D.C.

I’m planning a trip next month to Philadelphia for festivities, but that’s a future column.

Americana, even the cheesy, commercialized version, is something I enjoy. I love history and American culture and decorated a bathroom in my house with a red, white and blue theme.

I don’t watch much TV, and so my exposure to that hype is limited.

Apparently, cats will be celebrating America’s independence, too. (Photo by John Naughton.)

There are lots of tacky T-shirts to choose from. How about one with a cat wearing an American flag-like top hat and bow tie? The shirt read “Meow’s the time for Freedom.”

Grocery store shelves are starting to bulge and strain with colorful treats that have more to do with sales than patriotism or American values.

You’ll find me on July 4, dressed in red, white and blue while I celebrate freedom with that American blend of tacky clothes, fireworks and wondering what the founding fathers would think.

Tums, please.