Posted on 01/23/2015 4:06:11 AM PST by Tennessee Nana
On January 23, 1975, in a courthouse in Portland, OR, I sat with many other grateful immigrants and listened as a local judge, himself the son of immigrants fron Eastern Europe, congratulated us and expounded on our new responsibilities as American citizens. He was as teary eyed as we were.
Among our group was an 80 year old Jew from Poland. She had escaped with her family during the 1930s and had raised her children in America to be good citizens and to prosper. She cried and kept saying "Thank you" and we cried with her. Her attorney grandson explained that she had worked hard for her family and had not perfected her spoken and written English enough to qualify to become an American citizen until recently. Her decades long desire had been to be naturalized, and she worked hard to achieve her goal by learning English to the point that she was now finally eligible.
When we realize that illegal aliens who have entered our sovereign country are not required to learn our language, and have been excused by Obama and his minions, is it any wonder that this lady's determination to make herself presentable in all aspects for naturalization as an American citizen proves to be an even greater achievement?
That day for me will always be one of the crowning milestones in my life and I am misty eyed as I write, just as I was that wondrous day. As I stood will the others taking the pledge of allegiance to my new country, I was dazed and felt that it was not real but just a marvelous dream.
I served in the United States Air Force at the time, and I wore my uniform to the ceremony, and regards of the directives of the military, I showed emotion almost continually from my grateful and humbled heart.
January 23, 1975 will for me always stand out as the day I joined the millions of American citizens who loved and respected their country. What we have become since that day 40 years ago is sad, but my heart turns back to the time when it was a privilege to live in America and to be accepted as a new citizen, and I still rejoice in my country.
Tennessee Nana American citizen
Very nice, thanks.
Happy Anniversary and thank you for your service to our country.
Happy Anniversary, Tennessee Nana! We are blessed to have you here with us (US). (((Hugs)))
yesterday my wife and I took our sons girlfriend to take her oral exam to become a citizen.
She has been working on becoming an American since she was 12.
Working on her Masters in Business at Florida Atlantic U.
So very proud.
Happy American Citizenaversary!!!
Although born here in USA/TX, each morning our local radio station plays “God Bless America”, “The Star Spangled Banner” and an older man instructs us to cross your heart before he says the Pledge of Allegiance....it makes me so proud to be a citizen of this country, even with all its problems....and a blessing God placed me here!!
Thank you for your service and thank you also for sharing your thoughts and your wonderful story.
Not only do the lax policies (or complete lack of policies) concerning immigration insult, mock and demean those of us who were born as citizens, but it does the same to those, like you, who worked to achieve citizenship the right way. We are lucky you wanted to join us.
Peach
I see this so often an immigrant who struggles through many adversities to come to this country and to become a citizen displaying far more love, appreciation and dedication to their new home than many that are native born.
You don’t see this in so many illegals, they want to come here get on the ‘gravy train’ enjoy our standard of living make money to send home, but this country never becomes their real home and there is never love nor appreciation in their hearts for it.
Saaa lute! And thank you New Zealand for giving us such an active citizen in our midst. Because you came here, Nana, America has (how many is it now)five more citizens than it would have had if you had not been here. We salute you and your determination. Such a spirit is slowly dying in our more and more divided country under democrat rule which seeks to make everyone government dependents.
Happy anniversary and my sincere Thank You!
Happy Anniversary my fellow American!
So glad you came here...if only many regular American automatic citizens were as thankful. Congratulations. Send your piece to a newspaper...it should be printed far and wide.
Congratulations, I know it is an undertaking and quite a nig decision. I have a couple of friends who have gone through it and although I’ve never gotten the gritty details, I understand it was a challenging process. In fact, my neighbor (From Switzerland) just started the process himself. He was up in arms over the questionnaires the other day, tearing his house apart looking for travel records (he traveled back and forth from Austria, Germany and Switzerland multiple times a year for the past couple decades).
To me your posts fit your name, you think like a good ole Tennessee, or Texas girl, it’s hard to believe that you weren’t born and raised here.
Congratulations!! My wife will mark 20 years a citizen having taken her pledge in that same courthouse twenty years ago this May.
I’m so glad you’re an American. :)
Thank you for all the love and kind thoughts...
I was born in New Zealand...My great, great grandfather Guy Stephen Secord was born in Canada and was the grandson of American born Loyalists..he went to NZ as a young man..
I learnt of our US roots as a child...We had Guy’s Bible and his history had been written on pages that were then sown into the cover and fly leaf..
It said his father was also born in Upper west Canada (Ontario) the descendant of French settlers (Huguenots in New Rochelle, NY) and his mother had been born in the United States (Vermont) so for us America was the old country..
After immigrating to America, I visited Canada and found that the Secords were Huguenots, and Loyalists, and was able over years to find more than 70 ancestors here in the US before the family fled north to Canada during the revolution...
I have ancestors from Suffolk that were the first settlers and founders of Boston with Withrop’s Fleet in 1630, and also ancestors on the Neiuw Nederlandt to New York in 1623.. (the earliest date) Jesse De Forest also is my direct ancestor through Isaac De Forest who had one of the first breweries and taverns in NYC :)
Jan Peeke of Jan Peeke’s Creek (Peekskill, NY was my direct ancestor...and his wife Maria Du Trieux..
and so on...I have blood lines that some men would kill for just so that they could join the Holland Society LOL
My last Secords who lived in the “lower colonies” settled in Mehoopany, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, in 1773..by 1776/7 they were gone from there, the women and children to Canada, the men to Butler’s Rangers and the Indian Department of the Loyalists..
My De Forests line and extra families were gone from Albany, NY in 1777 to Canada and the refugee camps near Montreal..
A Secord boy married a De Forest girl after the war in Montreal, Feb 23, 1784..the grandparents of my GGF Guy Stephen Secord..
BTW Guy’s mother was visiting her youngest daughter who lived in Gowanda, NY when she died in 1888..Shes buried in Canada next to her husband..
Although I didn’t know all of our family history and characters on the day I became an American citizen, I knew some and I knew there was a lot to find out..
It was thrilling for me to be back in the land of my father’s so to speak ...
So the day I attended the ceremony to become an American citizen, it meant everything to me..and I meant every word I said and promised..
This is the greatest country in the world and no Obama, or Romney or Clinton or moslem terrorist can change that try as they might..
America was kissed by God at the outset, and He holds our future..
the Founding Fathers acknowledged God as the creator of these shores and He and only He will determine our path..
What a great post. I’m proud to call you my fellow American.
Pity no Southerners in you family tree. Only thing that keeps yours from being truly impressive.
Wait, you’re now in Tennessee?
That’s a horse of a different tune.
well I live in what was a Union county..
and Nashville was captured by the Union early in the War of North Aggression :)
Actually I had distant relatives who fought on both sides..
One of them was a doctor for the Confederate army...
My youngest daughter was born in Nuff Chaston, Souf Ca’lina though :) We lived there 10 years...
(I used to have a book on how to speak Charlestonian LOL)
My daughter speaks it like a native Yud be rart proud..
:)
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