In a Foreign Country

July 29, 1993

If all the small-town drum-and-bugle bands from your childhood were combined to go snapping down the main street that you used to know; if all the boys with raised bugles and cornets suddenly blew; if all the girls with batons twirled; if all the men from old wars threw their hats in the air, then you would understand your surprised feeling suddenly seeing the old red, white, and blue.