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Show Celebrate Constitution now and forever p.g. blab i i By MARCELLA WALKER Tomorrow is the 200th anniversary an-niversary of the signing of the U. S. Constitution. I believe that every school in the area will be having a special patriotic program. That is great. The biggest event which will take place in Pleasant Grove is the ringing of the bell in the Pioneer Museum, also known as the Old Bell School, which will take place at 2 p.m. Bells all across the country will be ringing at that time for 200 seconds. Locally the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers will be in charge of the very brief program which will precede the ringing of the bell. The public is invited to attend. Have you all noticed how nice the Old Bell School looks these days? It has been reroofed, repainted, re-windowed, re-windowed, re-belled and enlarged. The bell has been spruced up and fixed so it can ring again. The rope had been tangled so that the bell could not be rung. In a recent local daily newspaper, the writer was noting what the American people know and don't I know about the constitution. In recent weeks I have found that I did not know a great deal. For one thing, when we had the bicentennial of the country in 1976, 1 just thought that was the whole ball of wax right there. It did not dawn on me, although I know a bunch of history teachers had tried to teach , us, that the writing of the constitution con-stitution would have taken place some time after the Declaration of Independence and our break off with England. So one time last year I read that this year on Sept. 17 we would be commemorating the 200th anniversary an-niversary of the U. S. Constitution and this came as a big surprise to me. Did it to you? I had forgotten that the states bickered and argued over the why's and wherefore's of this wonderful document. I am sure glad that someone was on the ball and with help from the Almighty was able to write a document which provides for the best form of government on earth. The checks and balances which were written in, the states rights, the Bill of Rights, the individual guarantees are second to none. How farsighted the writers of the constitution were to make allowances for all these things. It has stood the test of time and we had better leave it as it is. I am a very patriotic person. I get goosebumps when I hear the "Star Spangled Banner" and when the flag goes by. When Kate Smith used to sing "God Bless America," the tears would come to my eyes. "Stars and Stripes Forever," a Sousa march, makes my blood race and my heart pound. (Although this march was also the music for our Junior High School Song and those words often return to my mind when I hear it, as does the famous words of "Be kind to your web-footed friends, for a duck may be somebody's mother.") This is a little off the subject, but we used to have a history teacher in junior high who was white-haired and stood to teach us right in front of a picture of George Washington with his white wig on. They could have passed for twins. We thought she was old enough to be his sister, too. That poor lady. Her room was on the third floor of a very old building in Ogden. It had been a hospital near the turn of the century before it became a school. We used to tie her chair to the cord on the window blinds and hang it out the window. One time they filled her chair cushion with water and we all waited with baited breath for her to sit down. She must have seen the looks of anticipation on our faces, because as she bent over to sit down she stopped in mid-sit and studied our intent faces. She stood up and looked down at her cushion. I have a feeling that she had had the same trick pulled on her before. We all stayed after school that day. We also all had to stay after school every time the boys hid her cushion in one of those old air shafts that they had in this ancient building. She said we had to stay until the guilty party confessed or someone tattled, whichever came first. No one every confessed and no one ever tattled, so finally she gave up in exasperation and let us go home. One of the classes, not ours, set her famous fern on fire. She had had the fern for many years. It sat in the front left hand corner of the room. It had sat there for eons of time. One day these kids set it on fire. It died and did not reappear. It is ironic, but every time I see a picture of George Washington in his wig, I think of Miss Doxey. She was a dear. But back to the subject at hand. Tomorrow as we hear the tolling of the bells, and listen to children sing patriotic songs, let us remember how proud we are to be an American. Let us thank God that we live here and not in some dictatorship dic-tatorship or third world country. Let us stand up and be counted with those who were willing to give their lives to protect this form of government. gover-nment. Let us ask God to "stand beside Her and guide Her . . . from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam . . . God bless America, my home sweet home." Happy bicentennial to you all and may we have many more! |