Stars & Stripes salute America
Kids Robin Read and Libby Smart watched a crew unfurling American _lags while walking downtown for a patriotic snow cone.
Kids Robin Read and Libby Smart watched a crew unfurling American flags while walking downtown for a patriotic snow cone.
“Without our Star Spangled Banner, we wouldn’t have snow cones with cherry, vanilla and blueberry,” Robin said.
Our National Anthem’s history starts during the War of 1812. The Anthem wasn’t official ‘til 1931, nine decades after author Francis Scott Key’s death.
Lawyer/poet Key was inspired while on a mission for President James Madison to free Dr. Beane, a physician seized by British troops and taken to ships planning to attack Ft. Henry.
Though he and Key were freed to the American sloop, they and the ship were kept under British control during the furious 24-hour battle to control the fort.
Key watched the sky lit by bombs and rockets for a full day and night, until dawn the second day, Sept. 4, 1814, revealed the huge American Garrison flag marking America’s victory.
Illinois historian/journalist Tom Emery writes that when Key saw the flag, he grabbed the only paper he had — a letter in his pocket — to write key phrases of the now famous words about rockets’ red glare, bombs bursting in air, giving proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Key fleshed out the poem “Defense of Fort McHenry” the next day. Later, the poem was set to a popular tune, emerging as the Star Spangled Banner.
Ironically, the Star Spangled Banner’s design was never an official American flag, but rather a unique design for Ft. McHenry Garrison Flag, displayed during its rout of the British.
Flags with 15 stars and stripes (for Vermont and Kentucky joining the Union) flew from 1795 to 1818. Then, Congress set a 13-stripe banner with a star for each state.
Playing the National Anthem can inspire people or provoke protests.
Robin Read laughed at Emery’s article about a baseball brawl on July 24, 1949.
Two minor league teams from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Kewanee, Illinois had a vicious fight which was quelled when the stadium announcer did what six police officers and the umpires couldn’t — separated the two warring teams that sent two players to the hospital — by playing the Star Spangled Banner.
