I was thrilled and felt so patriotic when I ushered my two young grandchildren into my room and had them listen to the song “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” It was playing on the TCM channel with James Cagney dancing up a storm!

     I sang my heart out knowing all the lyrics to the song in the movie produced by the Warner Brothers in 1942.They hummed along with me as I gave them a wee bit of history explaining how the term “Yankee” was derogatory and used against the colonists who were seeking their independence exactly 250 years ago this past Saturday.

     It is believed that the term “Yankee” originated in the 17^th century from Dutch colonists in New Netherland. They were actually mocking the English settlers in neighboring Connecticut.

    I couldn’t think of any other way to show our allegiance to the American flag then on the 4th of July, also known as Independence Day. The grandkids knew about the Declaration of Independence and how my home town of Philadelphia played such a role in the creation of the nation.

 They also liked the image of the three band leaders playing a flute, a base drum and a regular drum. The man in the center has white hair (like me) while the soldier on the right is playing the flute. A teenage boy accompanies the patriots as they march along.

I am hoping that someday that Jameson and Denalia both get to watch the entire movie and enjoy all of the songs, including the patriotic ones such as “It’s a Grand Old Flag” and my other favorite George M. Cohan song “Over There.”

    “The Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming and we won’t come back ’til the war is over, over there.”