Letter From America: I'm A Yorkshire Doodle Dandy
Writing with his customary panache and humour Ronnie Bray tells us how he raised a few eyebrows on July 4, America's Indpendence Day.
I have to declare at the outset that I like Americans, lest any think that I speak out from a spirit of nationalistic criticism, but there was a lot of patriotic flag-waving talk from the pulpit on Sunday the Fourth of July.
I didn’t mind that. In fact, I expected it. I say this not unkindly, but Americans reach a level of ostentatious patriotism that is somewhat embarrassing to a timid English person like me.
The English enjoy an inner sense of self-worth which they hold private, absolutely secret, and which they never demonstrate, for reasons known only to the English, but it has to do with something God has said to them.
Americans live in a much more open society where patriotism is not only acceptable, but demanded, and that is based on something they wish God had said to them but which he has not yet said.
And there’s the difference that makes the difference.
In my church, the first Sunday of each month is a Testimony meeting when anyone who feels moved to do so can occupy the pulpit and testify of God’s goodness and blessings during the preceding month. However, in a not altogether unexpected flurry of national loyalty, many of the testimonies that Sunday were directly related to the achievement of independence by early colonists.
I could tell that my American brothers and sisters didn’t have a firm grasp on what really happened from 1776 to 1783 in a series of raids and skirmishes that Uncle Sam’s nephews and nieces have exalted into "The Revolutionary War." They are firmly under the impression that some people called "Americans" had trounced some people they called "The British" in a series of battles.
So, when I took the pulpit I undertook a little education in my understated English fashion. I explained to the congregation that what they had become accustomed to calling a Great American Victory was something of an altogether different order. In fact, it was a Great English Victory!
As expected, every eyebrow hit the ceiling, so I explained that the Revolutionary War was about English settlers fighting for English rights against George III, a German king, and his Hessian mercenaries! As I said, a Great English Victory!
Independence Day was the last full day of my son Matt’s visit. Before Church commenced, we had dropped him off along the route of Troy’s annual Old Fashioned Independence Day Parade, arranging to pick him up after church when the parade would be almost over.
When we drove into town to pick him up, we caught the tail end of the parade behind an ancient flivver, and rolled along right to the rear of it.
The Union Jack plate in the windshield attracted no small attention, so we rolled down the windows to give the delighted crowds the "Windsor Wave" as we rolled by.
To some, we explained that without the English, there would be no Independence Day. Gay remained suitably silent, enjoying the jest.
Whatever the cause of Independence Day, and I have sown seeds of serious doubt about its grounds, it is a day of good humour, good cheer, parades, flag waving, fireworks, flea markets, lots of sweets thrown out to watching children from the parade.
But, above all, it is the day of that great American institution, the Hot Dog!
For all the confusion about their history and founding, America is a country full of good people who open their arms to the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. I know this to be true, for I was that huddled mass. Not just any huddled mass, but a Yorkshire huddled mass direct from Huddlefield.
God bless Americans. Especially Yorkshire Doodle Dandies!
Copyright © 2004
Ronnie Bray
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
