Mapping the American spirit

Shani Hedden, a young singer from nearby Harrison, Tenn., starred in the show as Patsy. "I always loved to entertain my friends when I was growing up," she said during a July rehearsal session. "I would stand on the couch with a stick microphone and try to make everyone laugh."

She moved to Nashville a few years ago, singing country-western in little clubs around town. "Honoring Patsy Cline's memory is very important to me," Ms. Hedden said. "In her short life she opened up doors for so many women country singers."

Being an American: "I absolutely love the sense of community that Americans have with each other. And the fight to end racism, sexism, homophobia – that is super important. Sure, there are excesses in America, like consumerism and corporate fraud, but there is no magic system anywhere. In America I feel comfortable and safe, and here I can go after my dreams...."

Summer 2002: At 3 a.m., Capt. Dean Hobbs stands in the pilot house of the 410-foot S.S. Badger, staring at Lake Michigan's dark waters. Tonight the ferry is carrying 125 passengers, 27 cars, several RVs, and a few tractor-trailers. "I grew up along the St. Mary's River in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and left high school to work on the Mississippi," he said. But it didn't take long for Hobbs to figure out that a captain had a better life than an ordinary seaman. "One winter day, in Peoria, Ill., the temperature was about 10 below, and I'm working on the deck of a ship, wearing every piece of clothing I own, watching the captain standing in the pilothouse, nice and warm, drinking a cup of coffee. The next day I ... enrolled in the Great Lakes Maritime Academy...."

When the lake freezes and the ship suspends service, Hobbs takes the winter off, but can't wait to get back. "By the end of October I'm ready to leave the lake, but by spring I'm thinking of the crew, and the sound of the gulls, and the pure excitement of taking the ship across this big lake."

Being an American: "I've spent a good deal of my life traveling around the country ... and I am always impressed by the magnitude of this country and how diverse we really are. I'm proud to be ... part of a people [who] tamed this country. When you get on the Mississippi River, and see parts of the river that are several miles wide – and it keeps churning with so much energy – and you see the seawalls that were built all along the river, and how the people keep rebuilding after floods – all that impressed me as a young man, and it still does. The fact that we, and all those people living in the river towns, are still here is a testament to me about what it means to be an American."

Summer 2002: "I came here for the first time in 1954, at the invitation of other black Americans, who said this was the only place where we could go for a weekend of fun and entertainment without feeling any kind of racial prejudice," said John Meeks, as he stood outside his motel in this quiet, rural, lakeside village. Idlewild was started by middle- and upper-class blacks as a place to bring their families for summer weekends. "Visitation to Idlewild declined after the civil rights era, when individual blacks could then travel and stay anywhere they wanted. The village lost a lot of its luster, so I bought this motel because I want to revitalize Idlewild and make it a prosperous and fun place again for everyone. I think it will come back, because I see that lots of new people, blacks and whites, are buying lots near the lake and putting up their own cottages. Our goal is to keep planning activities every week so the kids and the families will enjoy Idlewild as much as we used to."

Being an American: "To be an American, to me, means the greatest freedom, the greatest opportunity. This is the only country in the world that you can come to and make all the money you have the knowledge and time to make."

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