July 1, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Tuesday, July 1. We continue today with a patriotic series leading to our nation’s birthday this Friday, July 4th, Independence Day.
It seems like summer’s getting a little shorter every year. In just about a month, school bells will be ringing again all over America. Students are making the most of their brief vacation - and so are teachers. The story behind a famous patriotic song begins with a teacher’s summer vacation trip.
Katherine Lee Bates was an English professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. In 1893 she was one of the very few female professors in the country. That summer she traveled to Colorado Springs. Been there? It’s the home of the impressive Air Force Academy, with its beautiful, inspiring chapel. It’s also the home of the majestic Pike’s Peak. One afternoon Katherine and some friends made the trek to the top of that mountain. I’ve made that trip on a train, but in 1893 the journey was by prairie wagon, with the last leg on the back of a mule. When she finally stood at the summit, exhausted and exhilarated, she said, “It seemed like all of America was laid out before me.” In that moment she was inspired to write a poem she titled “Pike’s Peak.”
Her poem was set to a moving melody by church musician Samuel Ward. He wrote it one summer day as he took a boat ride across New York City harbor. In New York’s Time Square, on New Year’s Eve each year, a soulful rendition of this song by Ray Charles is played as the “ball drops.” Jennifer Lopez sang it for Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, and Carrie Underwood sang it for Donald Trump this past January 20th.
There’s a Katherine Bates Elementary School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. And there’s one in Colorado Springs, Colorado, too. “America, the Beautiful,” written by a teacher on summer vacation, speaks to us again today.
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
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
