Monday, Jun. 07, 2004 9:12 P.M.
From God to the races. Blame l-empress for getting me going on this one. She wrote an entry today about songs we had in school when we were children. Specifically, in one part she wrote: "The fourth verse of �The Star-Spangled Banner� is scary: �Oh, thus be it ever when true men shall stand Between their loved homes and the war�s desolation�� How about this one? �Our fathers� God to thee, author of liberty, to Thee we sing. Long may our land be bright, with freedom�s holy light, great God our King.� Not politically correct, is it? It�s the third or fourth verse of �My Country, �Tis of Thee,� which we thought was a neutral patriotic song."
That got me thinking. With all this �Political Correctness� going on, I can imagine there are some people rolling over in their graves right now, just waiting for the following songs to be banned from existence. 1. Irving Berlin for �God Bless America�, (not to mention Kate Smith) 2. Katherine Lee Bates for �America (the Beautiful) 3. Julia Ward Howe for �Battle Hymn of the Republic�. That�s just sad.
Back to work today. Karen doin� the Happy Dance! NOT! I should just be grateful I have a job, I guess. If it weren�t for insurance, I would work part time and spend my energies getting my business going. Oh to be young again when insurance meant boxing the Daily Double or the trifecta at Scarborough Downs racetrack. Ah the memories. I can still hear those three little words, ��.And they�re off!� Wow! I haven�t thought of the racetrack in years! Back when I was a young�un (oh shut up! I was once), my mom had a friend named John. He would come visit on his way to the races. He taught me how to read a racing form when I was about 10. Yup, I could handicap with the best of them. It was harness racing. I loved to go and watch. I loved it when I got a little older (22) and had a few bucks to put on them. I always played just $2.00 to show until I had won enough to put my $2.00 back in my pocket and play on their money. I just told Terry what I was writing about here and explaining how I loved to go. I still remembered the name of my favorite jockey. Ruel Goodblood. It didn�t matter if he was on the worst horse in the stable, he always went off at 1 to 9 or 1 to 5 odds. He was that good. That, for you laypeople meant that even if he won, you were only going to win back your $2.00 and an extra $.20 or $.40. Needless to say, I never got rich, but sometimes he would be in the first race of the 2nd Daily Double. So the trick was to play him in the first race and play a long-shot in the second race and then pray. You could win $60.00 or more if you hit. After awhile, I could name most ever jockey there by his colors. I can�t remember the colors after almost 30 years, but I remember the names, Leigh Fitch, Freeman Parker and many others. Nascar had nothing on them. Seeing a car go off the track is nothing compared to seeing a horse take off at the first flash of lightning. Yup, great memories. Boy, did this entry ever go from one unrelated topic to another! So I ramble. So sue me.
Later,
Cosmic
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