"The Star Spangled Banner"

On Sunday, the 24th (which is a state holiday in Utah to celebrate Pioneer Day), we sang three verses of our National Anthem--You don't often hear the second and fourth verse and I loved the words and was struck by how they still apply after all of these years. (The third verse of the anthem doesn't appear in the LDS Hymnbook)

our flag--its first posting

Here they are for you to read:  (you know the tune)

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Beehives posting flags years ago

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

A flag posting when Jena was a Beehive

Our flags today.  It is a Monday
holiday since the 24th was actually
on a Sunday.  

Not much wind to fly our American flag and our Utah Flag

The Neighborhood Flags line the street

How great to be an American even during
these troubling times,
here at home and abroad.
I am grateful for Austen, our nephew, John,
and all of the men and women who
serve in our military for their sacrifices
for all of us.

"Long may it wave over the land of the free
 and the home of the brave!"