What To Do On A Summer Roadtrip

From Memorial Day through the Fourth of July, we see and hear many expressions of our love for the USA. We put up flags on our houses, we sing the national anthem with gusto whenever the opportunity arises, we watch parades enthusiastically. I want to share one of my little family's most memorable patriotic moments, dating back more than 35 years ago.

Each summer we drove from Chicago to Portsmouth so that our children could spend two to three weeks with my parents. Most years my husband had to stay in Chicago for work, but the children and I enjoyed these road trips either way. We listened to lots of Raffi's music, played 'auto bingo' till we dropped, and just hung out in the car for two days. One year remains unforgettable, for a good reason. My sister was driving with us, my daughter was 7, and my son Peter was 3. We were well down the road when Peter announced that he wanted to learn the words to the "Star-Spangled Banner".

We didn't take him seriously at first.

He, however, was quite serious.

So we began to sing. Fortunately, my sister and I knew the words, and Jennifer was pretty solid on them, too. Peter kept an intense focus on the task at hand, and slowly but surely progressed. Mile after mile we sang that song.

I longed to switch to "God Save the Queen" because it's a much shorter anthem!

I subtly tried to switch songs or play a game or two, but Peter was not to be denied very long. I retain quite a vivid image of rolling along the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Pittsburgh and Breezewood and all of us bellowing out the song.

By the time we hit the final stretch of our trip (the mind-numbing stretch of I-95 south of Fredericksburg), Peter was word and melody perfect. Not a mistake remained. Now we were singing quite joyfully, as a matter of fact. He was quite proud of himself and I was quite proud of him, too. I don't remember exactly, but I feel like he might have burst into song as soon as we hopped out of the car at my parents' house! Regardless, there was surprise and delight all around when Peter shared his achievement.

I have never asked Peter if he remembers why he needed to learn the anthem at that particular time. I recently reminisced about what might have been his reason. Blame it on the Cubs. Every time we went to Wrigley, the game of course began with everyone singing the "Star-Spangled Banner". Peter, with his hand or hat over his heart, wanted to sing along but didn't know the words. He most probably was very frustrated with this problem. Peter likes to know things. I think he just seized the opportunity to collect all of us in the car for long stretches of time and forced us to teach him. Makes sense to me!

Now I have to ask him if he's up-to-date with his twins on this achievement.