It seems impossible but I pretty clearly remember the nation’s Bicentennial celebration 50 — was it really 50? — years ago. Wissahickon magazine didn’t yet exist but its sister publication, the Chestnut Hill Local, was alive and well.

So, given that this year we are celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday, I decided to go through some old issues of the newspaper and see how we covered the Bicentennial half a century ago. And in keeping with our “then and now” theme for this issue of the magazine, perhaps I could determine some of what’s the same and what’s changed since then.

I started with the Local’s July 1, 1976, issue. The first thing I noticed was that there were no color photos (color was expensive). The stories, though, were not much different from what we’ll likely publish this July in celebration of our nation’s founding. They announced holiday events such as an upcoming dance theater production of “Benjamin Franklin” at Pastorius Park, and the Water Tower Independence Day party and bike parade, all topped by a confident headline proclaiming, “Freedom for All Our Children.”

A week later, the July 8 issue offered a banner headline, “Bringing in the Bicen Spirit,” to introduce a full page of festive photos, with families dressed in colonial garb and Revolutionary War-era uniforms, covered wagons displayed at Valley Green, and children riding their bikes decorated in red, white and blue. I remember my kids being in those parades and love that they’re still a community institution.

Then I turned to the inside pages and some other things caught my eye:

A real estate ad for a lovely, four-bedroom twin in West Mt. Airy. The price was $47,500.

A car ad for a year-old Chevy Malibu Classic (power steering! factory air! power sunroof!) for $4,295.

And at the local market, pork loin was 98 cents per pound; American cheese was $1.29 per pound; and frozen chopped spinach was four packages for $1.00.

Using the government’s inflation calculator, in today’s dollars, the price of the house translates to $277,868, the car to $25,125, and the pork loin to $5.73. The thing is, real prices today are often much higher — especially for the house and car, items that are harder and harder to afford. Don’t even mention the price of food.

I reflected on how much things had changed as I continued to page through the paper, where I found a small story, “Long-Range Planners Will Look at Projected Problems.” It announced that a committee was going to study issues such as public education, population trends, and real estate development. The committee would “ask where we’ll be on each one, 10 or 20 years from now, and where we’ve been during the last 20 years,” explained one committee member.

We’re still talking about those problems today, of course. And that takes us back to the “then and now” theme of the current issue of Wissahickon. We’re examining some local stories through the lens of our history.

Let’s start with Abby Weiss’s article on artificial intelligence data centers. Back 250 years ago, Americans revolted over tea. Now, as Abby explains, there’s a new revolution, this time over the massive data centers being proposed along nearby stretches of the Schuylkill River. If approved, will they mean higher electricity rates, water scarcity and other environmental issues? She’ll explain.

Next, Sean Marsala goes underground — literally — to find some fascinating people. They include a young Roxborough woman who ferried Continental soldiers across the Schuylkill River to save them from a massacre, a West Oak Lane doctor who narrowly escaped beheading, and a Germantown baker who left a charitable legacy that today still educates poor children, 225 years after his death.

Maggie Dougherty gives us an updated look at an organization we may have thought we knew, the Daughters of the American Revolution. Once denounced for their treatment of singer/activist Marian Anderson, of Philadelphia, now their members seek to embrace inclusion and focus on service projects involving historic preservation, education and veterans. “It’s not your grandmother’s DAR,” one official said.

Bob Calandra examines the medicine of the 18th century, and how much of it survives today. Turns out it’s quite a bit, including vaccines, herbal remedies and the nation’s first hospital, which is opening its own museum in Center City just in time for our 250th birthday.

And to toast that accomplishment, Elie Bekelman gives us some history of early American beverages. Yes, there was wine, beer and cider in colonial America, but there’s another brew with an ancient lineage that’s now gaining some local fans: mead.

We hope you enjoy the issue and the birthday celebration.

Donna Shaw