Flag Day

I was so busy yesterday, that I missed posting this on time, but I still wanted to share! Monday, at work, I received an e-mail from a gentleman that is a retired fire fighter and he is on the local chamber of commerce board with my boss. He told me in the e-mail, “Don’t forget, tomorrow is Flag Day!” And I wrote him back thanking him for the reminder and telling him that my patriotic decorations are up from Memorial Day to September 11th. I wore my flag pin to work and made sure that my girls both had their red, white & blue on today (even my little one who was only hanging out at home with Grandpa today!). I realized though, that I am missing the biggest part of my usual Flag Day celebration – the Flag Day celebration at our elementary school! For the past four years, as my eldest attended elementary school (now she’s in the middle school, as our town calls the 4 – 6 grade schools), her little school always hosted a wonderful event for parents to come to, where the kids educated us on the flag through speeches and songs. Back in December, before Christmas, I had said to my daughter, “Oh! It doesn’t quite feel like Christmas without going to your annual holiday sing-a-long at school!” And my girl said, “It’s ok, Mommy, you’ll get to go again next year!” When her sister is in kindergarten… I realized yesterday that I feel the same way about Flag Day! This year, my eldest is in middle school and they were still celebrating – the 6th grade band was going to play the National Anthem and they were all going to sing “You’re a Grand Ol’ Flag” I believe. But I guess when you’re a “big” kid, the school doesn’t invite Mom and Dad!

Tonight, she told me, "Do you know what they apparently sang at the elementary school flag day yesterday? Bruce Springsteen's song 'America!'" I said, "Do you mean, 'Born in the USA?'" And she said, "No, 'America!'" I said, "Hum a few bars of that..." "No way!" she said. So I said, "Does it go, "We're coming to America, we're coming to America, today?" And she said, "Yep!" I told her, "Honey, that's Neil Diamond's song, and he's quite different from Bruce Springsteen!" I'll have to tell her father, who's a big "Boss" fan, that one! ;)