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I worked hard on our vacation scrapbook yesterday, determined to finish it up this week, and guess what I’m printing off online right now? Yes, my post title kind of gives it away: Patriotic songs.
You see, they were a big part of my childhood traveling days, before portable dvd players became necessities, when families learned relationship skills by having to get along for several more miles of the ABC billboard game or another round of The Minister’s Cat. My family traveled a lot.
While in the car, my mom taught us every patriotic song out there, and we belted them out from sea to shining sea. And she knew the stories behind them also. I’ll never forget our trip to the top of Pike’s Peak, how she told of Katharine Lee Bates, and how a wagon ride to the summit of this mountain stirred her to write the lyrics to the hymn, “America the Beautiful”.
So on our recent trip to the Black Hills we sang. We sang “God Bless The U.S.A.” by Lee Greenwood, “Grand Old Flag”, “This Land is Your Land”, “The National Anthem”, “My Country Tis Of Thee”…my eyes are watering just
remembering. They’re not just songs, they’re the spoken melody of those moments when we’re so inspired we can’t speak, such as that moment between dusk and dark when Mount Rushmore is illuminated to those that have lingered for the final ceremonies.
As we sang, certain songs brought back memories…for three years my older daughters and their cousin have sung the National Anthem to open the local youth rodeo. My oldest won alternate top blue for singing “This Land is Your Land” at 4H Club Days. We’ll never forget hearing Acappella sing live, and their rendition of “God Bless the U.S.A.”
With July 4th right around the corner, why not start teaching your children the great tunes of our nation?
The family car, surrounded by this great country and God’s creation, is a pretty good place to start!
…and I’m off to insert these lyrics into our scrapbook…
I love the patriotic songs. My memories of the ranger program at Mount Rushmore include about an hour or an hour and a half of patriotic music and ‘state’ songs until it got dark and they could start the program. You know, state songs like ‘Carolina Moon’, ‘Country Road (West Virginia)’, ‘I Was born on a farm down in Ioway’, ‘O K L A H O M A’, ‘Why oh Why did I ever leave Wyoming’, ‘Deep in the heart of Texas’….it was great. I grew up with a Mom who was humming or singing all the time and there are a lot of tunes that were familiar to me because of that. Thanks for celebrating that memory.
Hey, Mary!
I’m sooo glad we’re not the only family singing the songs of our country’s heritage with gusto. 😉 I knew we weren’t, but it’s funny how few of us talk about this beautiful tradition of passing on history in such a fun way. Thanks for the great reminder!
Tell us more about your camping trip, please! And while you’re at it, explain the South Dakota painting on your header. “The Prairie is My Garden” is by a S D artist and one of my favorites.
Hi Mom, I remember Grandma humming a lot, I just love the heritage of music that you and she passed down to me and my girls love to sing as well. I would have loved singing those songs. You know, I didn’t tell you, but the whole row behind us during the Ranger Program was some University group and they wouldn’t hush the whole time…cracking jokes about the Ranger and his talk. Very hard to sit there and listen to.
Amy! So glad you stopped by, I have been meaning to email you. Been busy here as you can see. 🙂 Love hearing that you guys do this too, just like you, I wonder how many people do this nowadays. I think most people might find it strange to attend the Rangers program that my mom described in her comment…singing those old songs would seem corny to so many of this generation and the college age crowd. I wonder if they are in danger of being buried in history if we don’t start singing them with our children…
Thanks for stopping in…my keyboard is weirding out on me…not letting me type certain letters…so my posting might be sporadic till we try hooking up our old keyboard. The blog’s spell-check feature helps me fix the letters that are being left out for the most part, but…
We didn’t sing but we sure played a lot of the Alphabet game, and other games while driving.
By that time, though, we had walkmens and my sister and I went into our own little worlds.
Hey Mary,
Thanks for the good reminders for the songs. Our family needs to do more of this.
I gave you a little award….come and see!
Leticia, I loved the alphabet game as a child, great memories!
Holly, I’m coming and seeing! Thanks!