Episode 21 Patriotism and Peacemaking

In 1976, I found myself in the summer school reading program. One of the few perks of summer school was representing Lexington Fayette Urban County Public Schools in Lexington’s  Fourth of July parade. They asked us to dress as our favorite character from American history.  I knew I wanted to dress as a Native American.  In 1976, Cultural appropriation was a new idea on college campuses and would not appear in the Oxford Dictionary until 2018.  So in 1976, Mom and I read about native clothing in the World Book and I helped mom sew leggings and a breechcloth. Dad cut a heavy piece of industrial grade plastic into an ax blade and we affixed the blade to an old broom handle with a rivet and leather chorage.  I had the kind of headdresses often sold in tourist traps 40 years ago from a trip with the neighbors to Tombstone Junction. I put on my clothes, slipped out back and imagined myself slipping through the Kentucky Grasslands tracking the buffalo herds roamed there.  On the Fourth of July Holiday, I rode on a star spangled red-white-and blue float next to another nine year old dressed as Daniel Boone. We waved to the crowds and danced every time Les Anderson’s Fabulous Summer School Band broke into Elton John’s summer hit Philadelphia Freedom: