Living

By Gerald Clarke

THE BICENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY done in Convention . . . the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth ARTICLE VII LIVING There's a Big Party On! The nation celebrates with superbashes and mini events

The party started several weeks ago, but don't worry -- you're not too late. The festivities will continue for many months, and you don't need to RSVP, buy a gown or rent a dinner jacket. Come as you are. The Constitution is having a / birthday, and all of America is celebrating, in a rather low-key way for a change. There is plenty of room and everyone is invited.

Philadelphia, where the words were debated and written, will of course put on the biggest bash. Preparations got off to a slow and shaky start, and only in the past few months has the administrative snarl been untangled. But local officials were justly proud of the Memorial Day weekend celebrations, attended by Vice President Bush. "Everything went without a hitch," says Sam Rogers, a spokesman for We the People 200, which is managing events.

Next Sunday Philadelphia has scheduled a hot-air balloon race that will cross the city and end in New Jersey; 13 balloons, representing the 13 original states will vie for the title of the nation's No. 1 gas bag. Representatives of Congress are expected to hold a symbolic meeting in Congress Hall on July 16, and on Sept. 17 -- the day the Constitution was formally approved by convention delegates -- President Reagan, former Chief Justice Warren Burger and congressional leaders will be present as a giant parade passes Independence Hall. A mammoth picnic along the Delaware River waterfront will follow the marching -- the "ultimate American picnic," according to planners.

Though it cedes first place to Philly, New York City also claims a piece of the Constitution. New York, after all, was the U.S. capital from 1785 to 1790 -- the place where Congress held its first session and where the Bill of Rights was drawn up. As befits that lofty history, the city's celebrations are mostly cerebral. The New York Historical Society has scheduled a series of lectures (one title: "The First Amendment: from the Age of Enlightenment to the Electronic Age"), and the New York Public Library has arranged some 70 events and five exhibitions. On show now through Sept. 19 is one of the original, handwritten copies of the Bill of Rights and one of only two copies (the other is in London) of the Olive Branch Petition, which marked the last American attempt to reconcile with Britain.

Boston will re-create New England town meetings in historic Fanueil Hall in July and August, with student actors arguing the issues as the delegates did in 1787. Although participants will work from an outline, there will be room for improvisation. "We don't want the audience to go to sleep," explains Playwright Mark Giesser. Finally, on Constitution Day, Sept. 17, the Constitution itself -- the U.S.S. Constitution, that is -- will leave her < berth and be pulled by tugs to the center of Boston harbor, where she will be saluted by every ship in port.

Television and radio are putting on even bigger exhibitions, covering the entire country. CBS is presenting Bicentennial minutes that run between programs, while PBS has 90 three-minute reports from Bill Moyers. Moyers is also doing eleven one-hour specials, interviewing such constitutional experts as Supreme Court Justices Harry Blackmun, Sandra Day O'Connor and William Brennan. ABC's entertainment division is preparing a one-hour tribute titled The Splendiferous Wham-Bam Constitution Special that will feature a number of stars, including Michael J. Fox and Barbra Streisand. On a serious note, both the ABC and NBC news divisions will present specials on differing interpretations of the Constitution.

Many communities around the country will present their own lectures and hold debates. In North Dakota, for example, the text of the Constitution is being read in halls across the state, with results that are somewhat surprising; after one reading in Bismarck, an insurance salesman became so excited that he closed his office, went home, sat his wife down and read her the whole thing.

Clay Jenkinson, a humanities scholar, has teamed up with Melvin Kahn, a professor of political science at Wichita State University, to play Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, Founding Fathers with very different ideas about government. Touring the Midwest, the actors have discovered that while most of their audiences sympathize with the populist views of Jefferson, they actually vote for Hamilton, whose vision of a strong central government they find more realistic. "I've come to the conclusion that we live in a Hamiltonian nation with a Jeffersonian rhetoric," says Jenkinson ruefully.

Other celebrations range from the spectacular to the frivolous. This week, on July 4, if some technical problems can be overcome, former Chief Justice Burger and Bob Hope will watch as St. Louisans raise the world's largest flag on the banks of the Mississippi. Measuring 208 ft. by 420 ft., the flag will be hoisted with the help of a helicopter. Illinois has printed long, canvas versions of the Constitution which it hopes every citizen in the state will sign. But at least one man has refused. "I never sign anything I can't have a copy of," he explained. (Too bad he didn't know that he could get a free pocket-size copy from the Commission on the Bicentennial in Washington. Many / other organizations are distributing copies as well.)

In mid-September, the little town of Bluefield, Va., will hold a Ben Franklin look-alike contest, open to women as well as men. No one yet knows if the winner of last year's Dolly Parton look-alike contest -- a man as it happens -- will try his luck again. In Georgia, the colonial dancers of the University of Georgia are already practicing their minuets and reels for a gala ball to be held Jan. 2 at the World Congress Center -- 18th century dress only, please.

California, as always, is someplace else again. Donating its services, Walt Disney Productions has created a mascot for the state's celebrations, Bisontennial Ben: a bison carrying a quill pen, just right for signing important documents. "We are making the Constitution user-friendly," says Peter Paul, executive vice president of the California Bicentennial Foundation, speaking in the argot of Silicon Valley. "We have taken California innovation and creativity and directed them to selling an important message."

In another example of California creativity, Orange County's Seal Beach is planning a tribute in sand. On Sept. 18, a team of twelve sand sculptors will gather on the beach to create miniature sand replicas of 60 of the world's most famous landmarks: the Parthenon, the U.S. Capitol and, of course, the Orange County Performing Arts Center. "The theme of the Bicentennial is We the People," says Judy Goffin, the project's promotion director, "and sand castles are dreams come true."

Some communities dream on a simpler scale. Many are renaming streets. St. Paul now has a Constitution Avenue, and in Roseville, Minn., you can now drive along Constitution Way. Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Ariz., is one of many places that will commemorate Constitution Day by planting a tree -- an oak in Fort Huachuca's case. South Bend, Ind., which already has plenty of trees, will paint its fire hydrants with the designs and colors of 1787, offering South Bend dogs a festive walk when they take their constitutionals.

With reporting by Debbie Price/Philadelphia and Melanie Stephens/Chicago