Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published May 4, 2005

Happy Mother's Day! Also, do you really know our anthem?

It was a cold, dreary day last February when I trudged to the mail box and found an envelope with my daughter's return address on it. Back in the house I opened it and found a card with the words, "Today I stopped and thought, I'm glad you're my mom." Inside she had written, "This says it all!" No matter how many Mother's Day cards I get, that completely unexpected one will always be especially precious.

To all you mothers, may your day be one to enjoy along with remembering all the many days that were filled with frustration, laughter, tears, satisfaction, and all the emotions involved in rearing children.

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Did you see the story about the Canadian woman who tried to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" but forgot the words twice? She went to get the lyrics and on her way back she fell. The Quebec Coliseum was filled with 7,166 fans and they started booing so she got up and left and no anthem preceded the exhibition hockey game between the Canadian and U.S. teams.

Botched as the performance was the 24-year-old singer had the final victory when she was invited to appear on "Good Morning America" and this time she sang the whole anthem without a flaw. Proof that if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

It is easy to forgive this Canadian, but how many citizens of the USA can sing the first verse from memory? Too many cannot, according to the National Association for Musical Education. One survey showed that even though 61 percent of American adults polled said they knew all the song's words only 39 percent could correctly finish the line, "Whose broad stripes and bright stars..." with "...through the perilous fight."

This organization is made up of music teachers from preschool to graduate school and they decided something should be done. Earlier this year they kicked off the National Anthem Project in Washington, D.C. Laura Bush is the honorary chairwoman and the event featured the Oak Ridge Boys leading hundreds of school kids singing the anthem.

The executive director of the association said, "We want to remind all Americans to cherish our national treasures and to celebrate our unity and our values in song." The project will continue through 2007 with the emphasis on learning the lyrics to the anthem. There will be workshops, programs in schools and even public service announcements on the significant role the anthem has played in our national history.

Francis Scott Key wrote the words on September 14,1814 after watching the British attack on Baltimore's Fort Henry through the night. He put the words to the British melody "To Anacreon in Heaven." The song became very popular, but it was not until 1931 it was officially adopted as our national anthem.

In 1993 on September 14, the Francis Scott Key Park and the Star-Spangled Banner Monument were dedicated. The park is located by the Key Bridge in the Georgetown section of Washington. There is a bust of Key and commemorative plaques describing his life and the events that led to his writing the poem. A replica of the 15-star, 15-stripe flag used at that time is there. The flag that flew over the fort was a huge 30 feet by 42 feet and now is protected at the Smithsonian.

There are four stanzas to the anthem but if you know the first verse that should suffice.

Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.