Hey Boomers!

Remember the Bicentennial?

The year we turned 200. I kinda do. Not the details. The hype.

the American Freedom Train launched in Wilmington, Delaware to start its 21-month, 25,388-mile (40,858 km) tour of the 48 contiguous states. (Wikipedia)

This train hit 48 states. Making plenty of money for the hustlers. That’s good! That’s what we’re all about.

The Queen showed up. Nice of her. Gerald Ford was president so no big deal. Betty stayed sober the whole time her Majesty was here. Except when Prince Philip slipped her a mickey….maybe that spun her off on that three year bender I read about in the National Enquirer.

The Prez couldn’t care less. He was busy with the world series.

Johnny Cash was the Grand Marshall of the U.S. Bicentennial parade. I mean, come on. Could you do better than Johnny Cash? They oughta Canonize the fucker.

What else?

Oh, yeah. Everything was red, white and blue. That’s okay…that’s okay. Fine art was already Red White and Blue so no big deal.

Flag by Jasper Johns.

Okay, so nobody remembers the Bicentennial year.

47 years later I’m still alive. I could be alive another 47 years. Shit. Maybe I’ll never die. Somebody spiked my food. Slipped me an elixir that keeps me alive forever.

I’ll live forever but I’ll look like shit.

My passport photo will look like shit.

This is concerning.

What the hell happened?

Yankee Doodle

Okay, so I’m still alive.

Here we are at 247.

Good old Yankee Doodle’s still around.

Who came up with Yankee Doodle anyway?

Yankee Doodle is this old-ass song (early seventeen hundreds) rewritten by the British to make fun of American Colonists during the Revolutionary War. The British looked down on us as dumb shits. Too stupid to be cool.

We didn’t know how to dress.

We stuck a feather in our hat and called it macaroni.

To be “macaroni” was to be sophisticated, upper class, and worldly.

“Yankee Doodle,” was the British mocking what they perceived as the Americans’ lack of class. The first verse is satirical because a doodle—a simpleton—thinks that he can be macaroni—fashionable—simply by sticking a feather in his cap.

Lives and Legacies

That’s what Yankee Doodle means. It was just a way of making fun of Americans back then.

Well….I think we got the last laugh.

Rising from the bottom and kicking ass

Tuesday 4 July, around eleven a.m.. It’s been a long ass weekend.

I’m still hanging at Joan’s pad.

I’ve been here since Friday. I gotta get back to Scruffy. Why? I don’t know why. I do know why. I’m wearing out my welcome around here. I gotta get back to my seagull. Not because I miss my seagull. I gotta get back because…my seagull misses me. That’s no reason to get back. The seagull can fend for himself. I gotta get back because.…because I’m wearing out my welcome around here.

Anyway, today’s the 4th of July.

That’s why I’m still hanging at Joan’s. It’s a holiday. A real long weekend holiday.

The 4th of July.

So it’s the 4th of July. What’s the big deal?

The 4th of July is a day when we remember what we are.

That’s a big deal!

Plenty of us shout out how we’re all about FREEDOM and JUSTICE FOR ALL and how we are the best because we wrote a Constitution and created this Land Of Liberty. And there is truth in this. But let’s get to the core of what we’re ESENTIALLY all about, shall we?

We’re all about this:

We came up from the bottom and kicked ass.

The British looked down on us. Said we had no class. No macaroni.

They thought they could push us around. Tax our asses.

Why?

Because they owned us and we had no class.

Shit. Even we thought we had no class. We were proud of it. Never mind we had all kinds of classes. Rich Planters. Merchants. Tenant Farmers. Indentured Servants. Slaves. Lots of Slaves. Lots more the farther South you went.

We were not a classless society.

No more or less than we are today.

But we had this illusion of being a classless society…compared to the British. We took pride in having no class. Then we kicked ass on the British. The baddest motherfuckers on the planet at the time. We beat them badly. Stuck their noses in the shit. From then on we were on a roll…

That’s what it means to be an American.

That’s the whole potato…

Yankee Doodle Dandy

I grew up in the Sixties. Back when it was fashionable to be Un-American. Nowadays it’s fashionable to be Pro-American. Where do I stand today?

Fuck fashion.

This country is my nest. I’m not gonna piss on my nest. Not today. I’m part of the fabric of this country whether I like it or not. Once in a while it doesn’t hurt to take stock of yourself and feel good about it.

We came up from the bottom and kicked ass.

That’s our legacy whether we like it or not.

Happy 247th.