Thankfully we have a generation that is continuing the ‘tradition’…
The kid has gone to the Colors
And we don’t know what to say;
The kid we have loved and cuddled
Stepped out for the flag to-day.
We thought him a child, a baby
With never a care at all,
But his country called him man-size
And the kid heard the call.
He paused to watch the recruiting,
Where, fired by fife and drum,
He bowed his head to Old Glory
And thought that it whispered:”Come!”
The kid, not being a slacker,
Stood forth with patriot-joy
To add his name to the roster,
And God, we’re proud of the boy!
The kid has gone to the Colors
It seems but a little while
Since he drilled a school-boy army
In a truly martial style.
But now he’s a man, a Sailor,
And we lend him a listening ear,
For his heart is a heart all loyal,
Unscourged by the curse of fear.
His dad, when he told him, shuddered,
His mother-God bless her!-cried;
Yet, blest with a mother-nature,
She wept with a mother-pride.
But he whose old shoulders straightened
Was Grandad-for memory ran
To years when he, too, a youngster,
Was changed by the Flag to a man!
by W. M. Herschell
h/t JP
Made me all goose-bumpy!
Dang it … must have dust in my eyes.
That’s good, right there, and captures
“the moment of decision” better than anything else I’ve seen. Thanks for sharing it.
Very moving.
PH- Thanks
Rev- We walked that walk…
Agirl- Your hubby did too (and you by extension)…
Beautiful! And going to my grandson who is thinking of joining.
Well said.
CP- Thank him for me!
Ed- That it is!
The flag is more than a union of states, it is a symbol of the men that provide substance to the flag, as the flag builds the man.