That summer Scott toured Europe with his school’s award winning band, and on July 4th they performed at an international competition in Vienna, Austria. It was a big deal–Radio Free Europe even broadcast the performance into the former Eastern Bloc countries then under the heel of Soviet Communism. Scott recalls that his fellow American classmates felt a little down that day, though, because they were missing the once-in-a-lifetime revelry back home.

Just as they lifted their instruments to play for the Austrians, their concert hostess politely interrupted Scott’s band leader. She took the microphone and told the surprised man, “Before you play, we have something for you.” Then she motioned to the sizeable audience, they stood, and began singing:

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear America,
Happy birthday to you!

For several moments, no one in Scott’s group moved as the singing reverberated in their ears and settled into their spirits. You know that old saying, “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house?” I think it originated there. When the band director finally lifted his baton, it took awhile for his students to pull it back together. Several of them missed the first few measures, but no one seemed to mind.

I didn’t realize, for example, that in our distant past there were so many blended families. In fact, our nation’s first First Family was blended. George Washington married widow Martha Custis, who had two children, whom he adopted. This was a common pattern because disease and childbirth claimed the lives of so many husbands and wives. It was also a reality that lasted for a very long time; when Abraham Lincoln grew up a century later, he had a stepmother and stepsiblings after his widowed father remarried.

I recently discussed this on American Family Radio. You can “see” part of the discussion on YouTube:

I’ve been driving my son back and forth to day camp this week, and my route takes me through Valley Forge National Park where General Washington wintered his troops in 1777 during the Revolutionary War. They weathered a hard and bitter season in which hungry soldiers left footprints of blood in the snow because so many lacked adequate footwear. I love traveling through that peaceful place, seeing the soldier’s spare cabins, surveying the rolling acres where General von Steuben drilled them in the spring. My son likes to imagine that he’s back in those days scouting the area, watching out for Red Coats.

We are, of course, also close to center city Philadelphia, home of Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the National Constitution Center, and the Betsey Ross House, as well as many colonial homesteads scattered around the area.

How about you? Do you live near any historic places? Please tell me about them!