YCGL - Tuesday, October 17, 2023 (I Think) - Atlanta!!!

When I was in the fourth grade, I had a wonderful teacher named Carmelita Celia.  Her family was from Barcelona but she grew up in Brownsville, TX, just inside the border.  She taught us Spanish (with a bit of a Catalan accent, b’s for v’s, etc), but more importantly, she taught us poetry, as in memorize and recite for a grade. Some were fun, like Casey at the Bat, and others significant, like On Flanders Fields, which I still recite a lot for any war rememberance.  (ASCE Bridge Building competition in Auburn, GA.  Driving back, we ended up in Vicksburg, MS on Memorial Day. As we drove through the battlefield, the gravestones had flags on them.  We stopped on a hillside overlooking one of the cemeteries and I recited that. It made quite an impact, and one of the guys told me at a WES meeting a couple of years ago that that was the thing that impacted him the most on that trip. )

One of the poems we learned was “America for Me”.  I often think of it whenever I come home, whether from a trip overseas or a trip in the motorhome/travel trailer,  I’m going to cheat because I don’t remember the whole thing verbatim, and it’s a good one to know about. 

Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933)

                        "AMERICA FOR ME" (1909)

    'TIS fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down 
    Among the famous palaces and cities of renown, 
    To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings,— 
    But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things. 

           So it's home again, and home again, America for me! 
           My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be, 
           In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars, 
           Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars! 

    Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air; 
    And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair; 
    And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome; 
    But when it comes to living there is no place like home. 

    I like the German fir-woods, in green battalions drilled; 
    I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains filled; 
    But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day 
    In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her way! 

    I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack: 
    The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back. 
    But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free,— 
    We love our land for what she is and what she is to be. 

           Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me! 
           I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling sea, 
           To the bléssed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars, 
           Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. 

America For Me

I know it’s pure jingoism, but “The glory of the present….” still expresses my hopes for the future and for the future generations.  

It’s been a great trip, but I’m heading home!!!