FReeper Canteen ~ The Star Spangled Banner ~ 14 September 2023

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World !! | The Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

~ The Star Spangled Banner ~
Written by Francis Scott Key (1814)

Canteen Mission Statement

Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies military
and the family members of the above.
Honoring those who have served before.

The War of 1812 had been a particularly nasty conflict with the British. They had burned down the Capitol and the White House in Washington, and were set on taking the port of Baltimore, which was protected in part by Fort McHenry, just to the south.

On September 7th, 1814, during the build-up to the attack on Baltimore, two Americans, Colonel John Skinner and a lawyer and part-time poet by the name of Francis Scott Key, had gone out to one of the British ships. They had come to negotiate the release of Dr William Beanes, a friend of Key who had been seized following the attack on Washington. The British agreed, but all three had learned too much about the forthcoming attack on Baltimore and so were detained by the British on board the frigate Surprise until it was over.

The attack started on September 12th, 1814, and after an initial exchange of fire, the fleet withdrew to form an arc just outside the range of Fort McHenry's fire.

Skinner, Beanes and Key watched much of the bombardment from the British deck. The major attack started in heavy rain on the morning of September 13th. Just under three miles in the distance the three men caught glimpses of the star-shaped fort with its huge flag - 42ft long, with 8 red stripes, 7 white stripes and 15 white stars, and specially commissioned to be big enough that the British could not possibly fail to see it from a distance.

In the dark of the night of the 13th, the shelling suddenly stopped. Through the darkness they couldn't tell whether the British forces had been defeated, or the fort had fallen.

As the rain cleared, and the sun began to rise, Key peered through the lifting darkness anxious to see if the flag they had seen the night before was still flying. And so it was that he scribbled on the back of an envelope the first lines of a poem he called Defense of Fort M'Henry.

O, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming

More info here...

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

Boston Pops

Barbershop Quartet

Josh Groban

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Mannheim Steamroller

Francis Scott Key

Lynyrd Skynyrd ~ Red, White, and Blue

Mannheim Steamroller ~ America The Beautuful

The Jones Brothers ~ There’s A Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere

Lee Greenwood ~ 911 Tribute

Randy Travis ~ Heroes and Friends

The Star Spangled Banner

Please remember that The Canteen is is here to support
and entertain our troops and their families,
and is family friendly.

[luvie]

Chris Botti~Star Spangled Banner
Live At Halftime

[luvie]

Mmmm....Maine has THE best blueberries...best bought along the side of a road. Haven’t had any as good since, or before tasting those.

[luvie]

I was in band and can relate.

[radu]

Howdy, luvie.

How much rain did you get today?

[lightman]

Good evening, Pro...a piece of our history that I am sure is never taught these days.

Sigh

Mrs. L. retired four years ago...not sure what her successor is teaching on September 14...

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thank you, EvilCapitalist, for the great link.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Any chance of getting to catch your breath this evening?

Not a whole lot, but today was very productive. And I'm quitting early. LOL!

[radu]

Kick that “I don’t care” mode into gear. LOL Quitting early sounds like a good plan.

[luvie]

Hey there, radu!

I don’t think there was enough to measure, but then we didn’t look at the gauge, so I have no idea. LOL! It was just nice to hear the drops hitting.

Was it cooler at your house today?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hi DoodleBob...I hate it when our National Anthem is done slowly. It is NOT a dirge!!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening/morning, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.

Hurrah for us! We made it thru hump day.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hello Veterans, wherever you are!!

[lightman]

Finest instrumental version of our National Anthem:

"The Union" by Louis Morreau Gottschalk, performed by Leonard Pennario

National Anthem begins at 1:43

[radu]

Well drat. At least you got a little more to wet the grass.

We had comfy temps but it started out a little muggy. By mid-afternoon the dry air had moved in and it felt nice. Kinda cool out there right now and it’s supposed to drop to 55 or so by morning.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Nice day!! And a visit with your brother...more nice.

We are having sprinkles on and off...not much finds the gauge, but the street and deck are wet.

[Political Junkie Too]

From the Sept. 19, 2011 issue of ESPN The Magazine:

History of the national anthem in sports

---

The song's wartime roots are unmistakable. Key wrote it to bear witness to a bloody battle during the War of 1812. But its origins as a game-day ritual are murkier. It's not as if every other country in the world plays its anthem before every game. So how did we, the people, get here?

THAT STORY BEGINS, as so many tales in modern American sports do, with Babe Ruth. History records various games in which "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played dating from the mid-1800s, but Ruth's last postseason appearances for the Boston Red Sox coincided with the song's first unbreakable bond with the sports world, in 1918. Game 1 of that year's World Series was notable for many reasons...

There was also World War I, which blackened everything, including the national pastime. The U.S. had entered the war 17 months earlier, and in that time some 100,000 American soldiers died. Veterans who survived often came home maimed or shell-shocked from encounters with modern warfare's first mechanized mass-killing machines. At home, the public mood was sullen and anxious. The war strained the economy and the workforce, including baseball's. The government began drafting major leaguers for military service that summer and ordered baseball to end the regular season by Labor Day. As a result, the 1918 Series was the lone October Classic played entirely in September.

World War I wasn't the only issue weighing heavily on fans. On Sept. 4, the day before the first game, a bomb ripped through the Chicago Federal Building, killing four people and injuring 30. The Industrial Workers of the World were thought to be behind the attack, a retaliation for the conviction of several IWW members on federal sedition charges...

Although the Cubs festooned the park in as much red, white and blue as possible, the glum crowd in the stands for Game 1 remained nearly silent through most of Ruth's 1-0 shutout victory over Chicago's Hippo Vaughn. Not even the Cubs Claws, the forerunners to Wrigley's Bleacher Bums, could gin up enthusiasm...

With one exception: the seventh-inning stretch. As was common during sporting events, a military band was on hand to play, and while the fans were on their feet, the musicians fired up "The Star-Spangled Banner." They weren't the only active-duty servicemen on the field, though. Red Sox third baseman Fred Thomas was playing the Series while on furlough from the Navy, where he'd been learning seamanship at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Chicago...

Upon hearing the opening notes of Key's song from the military band, Thomas immediately faced the flag and snapped to attention with a military salute. The other players on the field followed suit, in "civilian" fashion, meaning they stood and put their right hands over their hearts. The crowd, already standing, showed its first real signs of life all day, joining in a spontaneous sing-along, haltingly at first, then finishing with flair. The scene made such an impression that The New York Times opened its recap of the game not with a description of the action on the field but with an account of the impromptu singing: "First the song was taken up by a few, then others joined, and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field. It was at the very end that the onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day's enthusiasm."

The Cubs front office realized it had witnessed something unique. For the next two games, it had the band play "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the seventh-inning stretch, to similarly enthusiastic crowds. By Game 3, a bigger crowd of 27,000 was in attendance. Not to be outdone, the Red Sox ratcheted up the pageantry when the Series relocated to Boston for the next three games. At Fenway Park, "The Star-Spangled Banner" moved from the seventh-inning stretch to the pregame festivities, and the team coupled the playing of the song with the introduction of wounded soldiers who had received free tickets. Like the Chicago fans, the normally reserved Boston crowd erupted for the pregame anthem and the hobbled heroes. As the Tribune wrote of the wounded soldiers at Game 6, "[T]heir entrance on crutches supported by their comrades evoked louder cheers than anything the athletes did on the diamond..."

Still, the Series' most enduring legacy belongs to a song. Other major league teams noticed the popular reaction to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1918, and over the next decade it became standard for World Series and holiday games. In subsequent years, through subsequent wars, it grew into the daily institution we know today...

Congress didn't officially adopt the "The Star-Spangled Banner" until 1931 -- and by that time it was already a baseball tradition steeped in wartime patriotism. Thanks to a brass band, some fickle fans and a player who snapped to attention on a somber day in September, the old battle ballad was the national pastime's anthem more than a decade before it was the nation's.

---

-PJ

[E.G.C.]

A very pleasant good Thursday morning and ((HUGS)) to everyone at the Canteen and to all our military at home and abroad. Thanks for your service to our country.

Yesterday at Wichita Ridge:

How's everyone doing this morning?

[luvie]

Sounds like we can both be happy tonight. Our low will be 65 instead of your 55, but we’ll be a bit less humid, so it will probably come very close.

I’m just plain ol’ happy to be have that furnace turned off for a few months.

[radu]

The Lake Hood cam is still down but I’d read in chat that it was raining a little up there today. And on the nippy side. brrrrrrrrr

I hope they can get the cam up and running again so we can see the fall colors when they start.

[radu]

Howdy, E.G.C. ((HUGZ))

Looks like another good romp around the lake yesterday. And smelly spots for Gizmo to roll in. LOL

Y’all really need some rain. The lake is getting mighty low.