The bedraggled image of Uncle Sam still hangs on my front door, surrounded with red, white and blue bunting, and a forlorn miniature flag ripples on the back landing. I‘ve been too busy to take them down. Oh, who are we kidding? I just can’t stand for holidays to be over. Even when they’re not perfect.
We did have a nice Fourth here in Never Never Land with bands and barbecues. The celebration was marred by the fact that the band didn’t play any patriotic songs. There was no Yankee Doodle Dandy, not a note of Stars and Stripes Forever and the audience — composed of folks 70 and up (way up) — grew restless when there was not even a chorus of You’re a Grand Old Flag.
The audience appeared ready to pelt the musicians with leftover potato salad when the young band leader confessed that his group didn’t know any of “those old songs” and offered instead Snoopy’s theme from the Peanuts movie. Well, OK, but it’s not the same. There’s no getting around it. Summer is half over. The second half had better be good…