HAPPY 4th!!

Happy 4th

I know, it’s a little late to be wishing you felicitations for the 4th, but you see I have had a busy day.

Now if you’ve read my blog here and there it didn’t take you long to deduce that I am a holiday freak. I have been like this ever since I was a little girl. Any holiday just gave me chills, but especially ones that had lots of good songs associated with them. So when Easter and Christmas and the Fourth rolled around you could always find me warming up in the wings, so to speak. We didn’t get a television until I was about 5, and I confess that I was immediately in love with this magical box. I was mesmerized and would often just sit in front of the tube watching the test pattern—this is true, not made up for effect. After I hit the school years and had homework I would finish it first. Then I would sit for hours (especially when I was recuperating from Polio in bed) memorizing show tunes and belting them out.

And that is just what I have done today. I sang on my own for most of the day, but finally Turner Classic Movies ran YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, and I was “on.” I sang along with every tune, scaring the cat, and even danced a bit too—as much as a 77-year-old can “dance” with a rollator in tow.

This particular movie has a special draw—James Cagney, whom I have loved forever. He is long gone, but his movies are still with us, and I never miss one. He reminded me of an Uncle I had, only with talent, along with avuncular appeal. Jimmy could sing, dance, recite—a class act. And I just know deep in my soul like people who truly intuit things about others, that he was a good guy along with his stellar talent.

There were other things to do today as well, I had to cook my celebratory hot dog or two. I just cooked them in the oven, as a grill mixed with the Georgia heat outside sounded like a bummer. And I bought cheesecake which I will have later with coffee. A perfect Fourth.

But never think that I just eat and sing. I also sit and thank God for my country. Now I will admit it is pretty much in whirlygig mode right now, but I solve that by taking to my knees and praying for my country. Not for candidates especially or about too many specifics. I pray generally and let God handle it from there. I also remind myself that we are still a republic and many of us are out here trying to preserve that. Names like Washington, Jefferson, Adams and most of the presidents and soldiers who led our troops in wars rush through my mind. And I am thankful on days like this that my parents raised me to be a little corny or as I prefer, patriotic.

We will probably mess up for years to come, but I am hoping at this juncture that we will put on our thinking caps and devise a plan, that we will all get on our knees and pray, that we will settle down and just get along together—that principles will return and we will think on the birth of this nation every day, not just on special days.

I do always realize that when I say things like this I seem really old and pixilated, outdated, simply by harking back to days that did seem calmer. But, I am pretty much that way—the phrase with old dogs and teaching new tricks comes to mind. I still hope and pray and hope some more and . . . sing! You should try it. Just go to a quiet room if you are shy and hold forth with a couple of lines from Yankee Doodle Dandy, and you will feel better—I promise.

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Patriotic quotes about America from Reader’s Digest:

“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” —Benjamin Franklin

 “America. It is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time.” —Thomas Wolfe

 “I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.” —Theodore Roosevelt

 “The essence of America—that which really unites us—is not ethnicity, or nationality or religion—it is an idea—and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things.” —Condoleezza Rice

“America is a tune. It must be sung together.” —Gerald Stanley Lee

 “Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.” —John McCain

 “The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful and virtuous.” —Frederick Douglass

“America is hope. It is compassion. It is excellence. It is valor.” —Paul Tsongas

“The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.” —Franklin Roosevelt

“America without her soldiers would be like God without his angels.” —Claudia Pemberton

 “I don’t believe in the Constitution because I’m American. I’m American because I believe in the Constitution.” —J.S.B. Morse