One of my favorite all time films is, Yankee Doodle Dandy.
When James Cagney, as George M. Cohan, tap dances down the White House Steps, I’m always up from my chair, tappin along with him.
I make no apologizes for being such a patriot, regardless of the events our noble Country is enduring.
There’s a reason I cry when I see the Statue of Liberty.
I simply love my Country, for better or worse.
When I went to the Antietam Battlefield, the bloodiest single day of war in American History where 3,660 men died and 17,300 wounded, and thought I heard the sounds of battle, I knew what George Patton was talking about, who heard them too.
The ground so soaked with the blood of the brave, can’t help itself.
It remembers…
it reminds….
it humbles, history, our greatest teacher.
July 4th is a great day, so my heart filled with remembrance, will joyfully celebrate my country on her 244th birthday.
She still looks pretty good, even after all she’s been though.
In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented, George M. Cohan, the Congressional Medal of Honor for his war songs, Over There and The Grand Old flag, the very first medal of its kind, given to a person in the arts. 
(1878-1942)
Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming
The Yanks are coming
The drums rum-tumming
Everywhere
So prepare, say a prayer
Send the word, send the word to beware
We’ll be over, we’re coming over
And we won’t come back till it’s over
Over there George M. Cohan…1917
James Cagney (1899-1986) won the 1943 Best Actor Award for Yankee Doodle Dandy as George M. Cohan, and to think he initially refused the role, feeling he was too old to play such a man.
God Bless America!
SB
Your love of our country warms my heart. We’re going to celebrate the Fourth as enthusiastically as we can.
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Hotdogs, potato salad, chicken sizzling on the grill, and John, your in-house patriotic historian. 🙂
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Susannah, I love that you tap along with James. I used to do the same. I love Yankee Doodle Dandy. At my grandmother’s I used to recreate Shirley Temple’s tap on the stairs in The Little Colonel. I drove the adults nuts, ha ha!
We’ve never been to the Antietam Battlefield, but I can believe if any place echoes its past, this would be it.
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Antietam is one of the few battlefields that have not gone commercial, because the town appropriated the land, so it’s truly kept as hallowed ground, unlike Gettysburg that looks like a theme park. sigh. Not that it’s any less majestic, but you know what I’m saying.
I can see you tappin there Colonel, with those longs legs of yours. Happy 4th Skinny, to you and Pookie.
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I’m with you, Susannah. God bless America. I too loved the movie. James Cagney was terrific in it. I hope you have a Happy Fourth.
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You too John. Long may she wave!!!
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Amen.
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When I was seven, we went on a 10-week vacation across the country. My dad, being a big history buff, made sure we went to a number of civil war sites. Bull Run and Gettysburg for sure. I think we may have gone to Antietam also, but I don’t remember for sure. I’m betting there were others as well. But anyway … a few years ago, we took our kids back east for the NYC, D.C. experience and stopped at Gettysburg on the way from one to the other.
One can’t help but feel the history and, as you say, the blood-soaked ground that you walk upon when you visit those sites. One of the things that struck me about the place and about the Civil War was what an absolute tragedy it all was. Brother fighting brother, men who had once been comrades on opposite sides of the line. I’m still struggling with this idea of destroying all of these statutes. I get it in some respect — what the Confederacy fought to preserve was so vile and abhorrent, there should be no reverence left. At all. But, at the same time, there should be some place where the memories of what happened are preserved — maybe it’s on the battlefields where that should remain. Just not in town squares.
Happy 4th to you, ya Patriot!!
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Oh Midget, the statues, you have no idea how awful I feel about all of that. I had a friend go off on me because I refused to see her side of it. For me, and we’re not the only ones by the way, who feel this way, they’re erasing history, and how can future generations understand what happened. History is our greatest teacher.
The south, if you read about it, truly thought they were protecting a way a life that went back to The Founders, and yes…was it wrong to own people? Of course? But, and no pun intended, nothing is black and white.
If you read The Killer Angels, or watch the film made from it…Gettysburg, right before George Pickett gives the order that will soon slaughter them, and they knew it Mark. You see that open field? They knew…but he screams….Pickett : Up men! And to your posts! And let no man forget today, that you are from Old Virginia. Their state was their country.
I can mewl about this all day, so I’ll end here.
Loved what you wrote. Touched you took the time.
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The sense I got when we were at Gettysburg and a couple of days later, at Arlington, was of a shared respect for those who fought and died on both sides. And that was the second great tragedy of the Civil War. The first great tragedy was, of course, the reason the war had to be fought. An ugly, abhorrent practice that needed to end.
But that second tragedy – there is something about that which needs to be preserved. Somehow, somewhere.
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I always find it fascinating Arlington is on Robert E Lees’ property. How Montgomery Meigs, also buried there, as Quarter Master General during the Civil War, started burying union soldiers in Mrs. Lee’s rose garden. Her house, the Curtis-Lee Mansion, now called the Robert E. Lee Memorial, that you know won’t be called that for long, you can tour…and those old first graves are right there to greet you. All so uncanny. But it tells you how much he loved Virginia because he knew, choosing the south meant, he’d lose his home. So sad and poignant, and sadder still, that no one now can even attempt to understand what it had to be like for him and those like him to make such a decision. sigh.
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Totally agree. This next statement will get me in trouble, but … the South was made up of people who loved their states, their land, and their way of life. They put those things ahead of their country. Today, we have people putting their identity (skin color, gender, etc.) ahead of their country. Just kind of gobsmacking to me.
All people should be treated fairly and without bias. People of color and women and homosexuals have been discriminated against for years. In horrible ways. And it all must end. But we are going in the wrong direction by focusing so intently on identity, other than as humans and Americans.
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I couldn’t agree more. You have to read about the early south for a better understanding, but no one wants to. They just want to judge. Troubling, so troubling.
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I’m feeling a blog post coming on. Title: The Balkanization of America.
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You should write it. 🙂
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Writing it in my head at the moment. Check back later. 😉
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Good…you’re inspired. My Yankee Doodle is tanking. Doesn’t surprise me. Patriotism is pass’ sigh
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Well, the deed is done. Somewhat repetitive of other things I’ve written recently, but hopefully put a little differently.
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Let me remind you, the most important thing is, you expressed yourself. You sat down and wrote. Bet it felt good. 🙂
Happy 4th Mark. Long may she wave.
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It IS a grand old flag, and we do live in a place that is worth fighting for. Not warring for . . not politicizing for . . but fighting for, yes. Definitely.
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Happy 4th to you Marc. It’s a great day.
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That it is Miss Bianchi, that it is. Same to you. 🙂
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Over there…over there…send the word, send the word over there….I’m tapping. 🙂
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Your Yankee Doodle is just dandy.
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Nice Pun !!!
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Just showing my stripes
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Better than spots. 🙂
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True
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Just saw this. Puns are fun.
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On the 4th TCM showed Yankee Doodle Dandy…such a happy, American thing. Quite an odd comparison to this year’s patriotic 4th. Armed protestors rambling through one National Park in the south…Stone Mountain. Oh for more Yankee Doodles.Glad you put toe tapping in the mood.
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It’s a wonderful film that still holds up. He almost didn’t make it since, he felt he wasn’t up to all that dancing. I love the whole score, Mary especially. When he sits at the piano and tenderly plays it for her, with all his Broadway bravado, he was filled with sentiment.
My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, and I thank you. 🙂
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You do great patriotic posts, Susannah. One of the things you shine at. I always learn a lot from you too.
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Thanks for reading it, and putting up the video for the cyberly challenged thin girl. 🙂
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