Born in 1975: The Bridge Builder
Connecting Yesterday and Tomorrow
Born in 1975? Then you remember the orange foam headphones on your first tape player, the way-back seat of the wood-paneled station wagon, and holding your breath on the scariest bridge in town.
The story
The first thing Monique Manigault's grandmother taught her was how to start a basket, and the first thing she said was that it would come out crooked. First one always crooked. Mine was. My mama's was. Back and back, all the way to Africa.
Born in 1975: The Bridge Builder is a first-person life story of a girl born in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, across the Cooper River from Charleston. Her father works on the docks as a longshoreman. Her mother teaches school. Her grandmother, Mama Ruth, makes sweetgrass baskets in Snowden, the old Black settlement where the family has lived for generations.
The story follows her through a Christmas morning with a tape player that plays only knock-offs of the real thing, the night in 1989 when the TV weatherman drew a cone on the map that pointed at her kitchen table, and the long aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, when the money came to Mount Pleasant and the money wanted the marsh. It follows her up Interstate 26 to college at Clemson, and then into a job that few people dream of, inspecting bridges for the state. The new bridge across the Cooper River rises, and so does a family of her own.
She has to close a bridge that people want open. She walks the Bridge Run with her mother, who has never done anything like it.
The book is a gentle, honest look at heritage, work, and the way a person becomes the link between those who came before and those who come after. A timeline of 1975, a list of famous people born that year, and how other cultures read the year appear at the back.
It is a heartfelt gift for a sister, daughter, friend, or mother.
A few things that happened in 1975
- 1975-04-04 — Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico
- 1975-04-10 — Lee Elder becomes the first Black golfer to play in the Masters
- 1975-04-30 — Saigon falls, ending the Vietnam War
- 1975-06-20 — Jaws opens, becoming the first summer blockbuster
- 1975-07-17 — American and Soviet spacecraft dock in orbit in the Apollo–Soyuz mission
Also born in 1975
- David Beckham — Soccer midfielder; captained England and won league titles in four countries
- Angelina Jolie — Actor, director, and humanitarian; Academy Award for Girl, Interrupted
- Kate Winslet — Actor; Titanic and an Academy Award for The Reader
- Tiger Woods — Golfer; won 15 major championships, including five Masters titles
- 50 Cent — Rapper and producer; Get Rich or Die Tryin' was the best-selling album of 2003 in the U.S