Enjoy a good old patriotic song this Fourth of July

I’m not sure if grade-school kids actually have a music class these days, one with a teacher equipped with a piano and sheet music, but I did.

Each student was shuttled through a music class and an art class. I believe we did one or the other each week. The music building, an old WWII-era barracks, was across the street near the equipment playground. I guess that way the racket didn’t disturb students studying other subjects.

Bless her heart, Mrs. Brasell tried her best to teach us about music and what all those symbols on the sheet music meant, but it didn’t stick with me as I’m sure it didn’t with lots of others. I did come out knowing by heart a lot of the old standards, especially songs of patriotic importance. She also put the music of John Philip Sousa and George Cohan on the record player regularly.

We worked on the “Star Spangled Banner” every time and also sang songs like “God Bless America,” “You’re a Grand Ol’ Flag,” “My Country Tis of Thee,” “America the Beautiful,” “This Land is My Land” and many more.

For the most part, the only place I sing them anymore is at Rotary meetings. But I belt ‘em out there.

We also learned both “Yankee Doodle” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy” in Mrs. Brasell’s class. I’m sure she tried to explain that song, but to me it was just a silly little song — maybe from a nursery rhyme or something. But it’s actually much more.

Who can sing the words, “stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni without grinning. The song, and that phrase in particular, were meant to make fun of the British troops in their fine uniforms, marching in rank.

The stylish and well-bred Brit back then was a bit on the sissy side, especially in the eyes of the Continental Army. That type of dressed-up-fancy-British gentleman was known as a macaroni. I guess we’re lucky Cancel Culture has taken a run at getting rid of “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

I guess it was an early day protest and war anthem all rolled into one. It was, for me, the first patriotic tune. I like all the American patriotic songs, though.

When I have been charged with organizing fireworks displays I didn’t have a clue about pyrotechnics. But when they showed me the soundtrack my first direction was always more traditional songs, especially Sousa.

The best memory I’ve got of patriotic songs happened just a few years ago at a basketball game. The announcers’ booth folks couldn’t get the CD with the “Star Spangled Banner” to play. The crowd waited quietly for a few seconds maybe a full minute before we just broke into song as a crowd. It was the first time I’d ever heard that happen in a hometown gym, and it sent chills down my spine.

Enjoy the Fourth of July like a Yankee Doodle Dandy this year, shoot fireworks if you must and at some point in the day sing an old-fashion patriotic song.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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