March 21, 2020
Lessons From the Farm
Forevermost Farms
Rose Bud, Arkansas
March 21, 2020
Target Audience: Ages 8 to Adult
From the Farm: The Farmhouse Dining Room Table
Word of the Day: Legend: a visual explanation of the symbols used on the map. It typically includes a sample of each symbol and a short description of what that symbol means.
Today in history:
1939 : Kate Smith (Not one of Charlie’s Angels) records the patriotic song “God Bless America” This song is still sung today at events and celebrations in combination with the National Anthem.
1965: Martin Luther King Jr led 3,000 civil rights demonstrators in a march from Selma Alabama to Montgomery Alabama under protection of army units deployed by President Lyndon B Johnson.
1981: Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married in one of the most widely seen weddings in history. Many aspects of the recent Great Britain Royalsweddings paid tribute to this weddding. Both of Charles and Diana’s sons have been married recently.
Song of the day: America the Beautiful as sung by Ray Charles
America the Beautiful
O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress,
A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country love And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
Oh beautiful for halcyon skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties Above the enameled plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
Till souls wax fair as earth and air And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress,
A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought
By pilgrims foot and knee!
Oh beautiful for glory-tale Of liberating strife,
When once and twice for man’s avail Men lavished precious life!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
Till selfish gain no longer strain The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
Till nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee!
by Katherine Lee Bates; (1859-1929) Inspired by a trip to Pikes Peak in 1893, Katherine Lee Bates wrote the poem America the Beautiful. Her poem first appeared in print on July 4, 1895 in The Congregationalist, a weekly journal. Ms. Bates revised the lyrics in 1904 and again in 1913.
Ms Bates wrotes the lyrics and Samuel A Ward (organist and Choirmaster at Grace Episcopal Church
in Newark New Jersey) wrote the Music. The two never met.
Ms Bates was a professor at Wellesley College and had taken a train trip from Massachusetts to Colorado Springs. On this trip, she encountered America’s Heartland, Wheat Fields, the Great Plains and the beautiful peaks of the Rocky Mountains. When she reached Pike’s Peak, the words of the poem began to come to her and she began writing the poem as soon as she made it back to her hotel. She originally released the poem to commemorate the Fourth of July. Amended versions were published in 1904 and 1911. Before the hymn version was published by Samuel Ward, there were about 75 different melodies written. The musical version written by Ward was inspired as he returned home from Coney Island to New York City. He died in 1903, never knowing how important his song would become to the fabric of our nation.
There have been many efforts to give “America the Beautiful” legal status as a national hymn or even to have it as a National Anthem, equal to or in place of The Star Spangled Banner.
The Ray Charles version of the song as shown, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005.
“thy whiter jubilee” refers to a nation that was greater than America, the Kingdom of God. This was changed later along with several lines of the poem.
This was originally written as a poem, called “Pikes Peak”. The version by Bates and Ward was published in 1910.