MY AMERICA
Oh
Beautiful for Spacious Skies
for Amber
Waves of Grain…
Look
Little Johnny, just beyond the waves of grain
Quick
Little Johnny, duck and cover
and
pledge allegiance to the flag,
Oh say
can you see Little Johnny,
of thee I
sing,
and of
Dick and Spot and Jane
I sing
Mickey
Mouse
Donald
Duck
The Lone
Ranger
Lassie,
Tonto, Rin-Tin-Tin
Buffalo
Bill Buffalo Bob
Captain
Kangaroo
Mr.
Greenjeans…
Look
Little Johnny, up in the sky
it’s a
bird it’s a plane—
it’s a
white blinding flash of light…
Little
Johnny,
My
Country Tis of Thee, Sweet Land
of
Liberty
of the
A-bomb
H-bomb
Time-bomb
Bomb
Shelter
the
Russians are coming
the
Martians have landed
and the
Chinese, Communists, Reds
better
dead than Red
better
dead than Sputnik than
Lost in
Space in The Twilight Zone
better
just inside
The Outer
Limits
Oh Say
Can You See by the Dawn’s Early Light
Philadelphia
Cream Cheese
Minute
Rice
frozen
French fries
Hot Dogs
Cool
Whip Redi-Whip Jell-O
Kool-Aid
Velveeta Cheese
My-T-Fine Pudding
Aunt
Jemima’s Pancake Mix
Uncle
Ben’s Long Grain Rice
Nilla
Wafers Oreo Cookies Animal Crackers
The
Rockets Red Glare, the Bombs Bursting Through Air
through
Ex-Lax, Hayley’s M.O., Milk of Magnesia
Shredded
Wheat
through
Rice-a-Roni that San Francisco treat
through
Wheaties
and
Saddle Shoes and Penny Loafers and P.F. Flyers
all
running through the streets
running
from the Rockets and the Bombs
running
from the red glare of Heinz Ketchup
running
from the 57 Varieties…
Land
Where My Fathers Died
where
I Love
Lucy… and
Leave It
To Beaver…
The
Little Rascals
Dennis
the Menace
My Mother
the Car
Father
Knows Best or maybe
Horse
Cartwright does
or Mr. Ed,
Howdy Dowdy
or just
maybe Amos n’ Andy…
Land of
the Pilgrims’ Pride
and Queen
for a Day
From
Every Mountainside Let Freedom Ring and roll like
Hoola
Hoop
Slinky
Pensy
Pinky
Duncan
Yo-Yo
Duncan
Yo-Yo
Duncan
Yo-Yo
for
Purple Mountains
(try
Paint-by-Number, Venus Coloring Sets,
Crayola Crayons)
for
Purple Mountains’ Majesty
Above the
Fruited Plains of
B.V.D.s
Fruit of
the Loom
God, Shed
His Grace on
Jockey
Briefs
And Crown
Thy Good with
Betty
Crocker or Duncan Hines
and
Ready-to-Serve Chocolate Icing
flowing
down Breyer’s Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
and
Crisco,
vats and
vats of Crisco
From Sea
to Shining Sea
MY
PUBLIC EDUCATION
It was the time of Dick and Spot and Jane.
Each day we sit in perfect rows, one behind
the other, take turns reading aloud from our readers: See Dick run. See Spot run.
See Jane run. Run Jane, run.
It
was the time of the A-Bomb and the H-Bomb, and Little Johnny spotting the
bright blinding flash of light in the sky.
The teacher points
to the black and white newsprint photograph she is holding before us: “Does
anyone know who this man is?” No one
raises their hand. We stare on in wonder
at the shriveled-looking man with a few wisps of hair. She answers: “This is our president,
President Eisenhower. He is the
president of the United States of America.”
The walls of the
classroom are painted dull yellow. The
floorboards are shellacked to a high shine.
We sit at wooden deskchairs.
There is a round empty hole where an inkwell used to be, but since the advent
of cartridge pens, the inkwells have long since disappeared. The deskchairs are securely fastened to the
floor so that the rows stay in perfect order.
In the front of the room, over the chalkboard, hangs the alphabet--above
the alphabet, the American flag.
The teacher points
to the flag. She asks, “Do you know what
the stars stand for? Do you know what
the stripes stand for?” We stare on in wonder.
We are seated in
the auditorium, we are watching a grainy black-and- white film. The voice-over tells us, “Look it’s Little
Johnny riding his bicycle. Look Little
Johnny, up in the sky, it’s a white blinding flash of light!” Little Johnny jumps off his bike and runs to
the nearest bomb shelter located not more than ten feet away. In the background the pleasant voices sing,
“Duck and cover, duck and cover.”
Little Johnny is safe from the white blinding
flash of light.
We learn facts:
Columbus discovered America. George
Washington was the Father of our country.
The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution to insure liberty and
justice for all. All men are created
equal. Thomas Jefferson opposed
slavery. Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery.
We learn fears: we
fear Krushchev. We fear Russia, the
Reds, Sputnik. We fear UFO’s and
visitors from strange planets. We fear
our next door neighbor. We fear bombs, all kinds of bombs.
The bomb could
drop on us at anytime.
We are sitting on
the floor in the gray-drab hallway of the school. We are sitting on the hallway floor with our
coats over our heads. We are having a
drill. If the bomb drops, we know that
sitting on the floor of the hallway with our coats over our heads will protect
us.
We
are sitting at our deskchairs, hands folded, a yellow pencil on top of our
desk. We wait to be called to the window
by the Principal. One by one, by the
light of the window, she combs through our hair with our yellow pencil looking
for lice. She must check every head of
every child to see if they have lice.
We fear the bomb,
and we also fear lice.
In
the nurse’s office we are vaccinated against Polio, against TB, against Scarlet
Fever.
Every afternoon in
the cafeteria we open our tin lunch boxes and eat our sandwiches made of
Wonderbread; Wonderbread that helps builds strong bodies twelve ways. We had already eaten our breakfast, Wheaties,
the breakfast of champions or pancakes made from Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Mix.
We
are seated at our desks. The Principal
stands at the front of the classroom, gives the signal, “Now!” she cries. We
slide off our seats, raise the wooden chair, duck under the desk, take shelter
from the bomb that could fall on us. We
wait for some time in perfect quite underneath the desks. She gives the signal, “All Clear!” We resume our seated positions, some
classmates hitting their heads on the wooden desks on the way up. We hear children crying. “Well,” states the
Principal, “It could have been worse--it could have been the bomb.”
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