Yes, I was born in Florida and grew up in Maryland (a border state, yet south of the Mason-Dixon line) as well as Virginia... definitely anti-Yankee territory.
But my parents are total northerners, I never picked up any sort of southern drawl (although Miguel has pointed out to me numerous times over several years that I say the word "what?" as "whut?," which seems more hillbilly than cotillion-worthy), and I hardly relate to those Confederate flag waving lunatics in that hot and humid corner of our country known as the Deep South.
However... however... today as I was riding my bike home from babysitting, I found myself singing "Dixie" in my head...
Here are the lyrics:
"I wish I was in the land of cotton,
Old times there are not forgotten,
look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.
In Dixie Land where I was born in,
Early on one frosty mornin' look away,
look away, look away, Dixie land.
I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray!
In Dixie Land I'll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,
Away, away, away down south in Dixie,
Away, away, away down south in Dixie!"
My god, I know every word.
And why, you might ask?
When I was in elementary school in rural north-central Maryland (in the farmland north of Frederick), we sang this song every week after the Pledge of Allegiance.
Some days we sang songs like "America the Beautiful" or "My Country Tis of Thee," but at least weekly, we sang "Dixie." And I'm going to admit something to you right now... it was my all-time favorite "patriotic" song.*
I LOVED it when the beginning of this song came over the loudspeaker (Yes! It's "Dixie" day!) and I sang it with gusto. Of course, mind you, I was like 10-years old and had no idea what I was saying... I just liked the tune (and it is very catchy).
This is a t-shirt design. Scary.
So I guess my point is that you might think Maryland today is more of a northern state, but I'm here to report from the inside that it is, in fact, not at all. ________________________________________________
* NPR reports that it was also Abraham Lincoln's favorite song so I guess I'm not a total freak.
To read the very interesting NPR story about the history of the tune "Dixie" and to listen to various samples of the song (which is apparently rarely sung in public anymore -- good grief, how un-PC my redneck school was!)... click here.
1 comment:
I was at the Y today with VM and she shared your little memory with me and I found your blog.
So, I DO remember these songs at MES, and I think Dixie might have been my favorite too, but I do not remember when we got kicked out of the final program at Greentop (which is not to say that it didn't happen, just that I don't remember it.) Sadly, I will never erase the images of the totally non private toilets and showers. Where else have you ever, as a woman, had to take a pee without at least a divider wall??? What an embarrasing time that was!
Maybe the three of us can get together when you get back to D.C.
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