OPINION
4th of July music

Today is the 4th of July! Barbeques, picnics, firework and of course patriotic music are always part of this day. The patriotic songs that have become staples of U.S. Independence Day celebrations reflect the nation’s history and the contributions of immigrants to the country’s diverse culture (http://usinfo.state.gov).
The Star-Spangled Banner”, written in 1814 by lawyer/poet Francis Scott Key was declared the national anthem in 1931. It is played on Independence Day.  The song’s rousing refrain recalls the early struggles of a nation. Then a few years later “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” was writer by the Reverend Reverend Samuel Francis Smith. In the late19th century, other classic songs of the Civil War era were added to the national repertoire, notably “Battle Cry of Freedom” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
The author of “America the Beautiful,” Katharine Lee Bates, was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts in 1859. Bates, who eventually became a full professor of English literature at Wellesley College, made a lecture trip to Colorado Springs in 1893 and there she wrote the words to “America the Beautiful.” As she told it,
“We strangers celebrated the close of the session by a merry expedition to the top of Pike’s Peak, making the ascent by the only method then available for people not vigorous enough to achieve the climb on foot nor adventurous enough for burro-riding. Prairie wagons, their tail-boards emblazoned with the traditional slogan, “Pike’s Peak or Bust,” were pulled by horses up to the half-way house, where the horses were relieved by mules. We were hoping for half and hour on the summit, but two of our party became so faint in the rarified air that we were bundled into the wagons again and started on our downward plunge so speedily that our sojourn on the peak remains in memory hardly more than one ecstatic gaze. It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.” (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/)
It’s nice to think that our area is known for one of the best patriotic songs. The next time you drive up the Peak, sing the song!
Bonnie Nelson is a freelance writer living in Fountain, CO. If you have comments or questions, email her at waltbon@comcast.net

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