What America Means to Me

 

America is a tired farmer wiping sweat from his brow as he sits on a flatbed of hay that he’s baled in a central Indiana field.

America is the timeless beauty of the orange Texas sun glowing down on the ageless bricks of the Alamo at dusk.

America is a child with a red face full of Italian Ice swaying her heels as she looks at the Brooklyn Bridge in New York

America is a jazz procession following a casket in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

America is a proud old man thanking a soldier in an airport for fighting for all our freedoms.

America is high school kids with painted faces waiting for kickoff under the Friday night lights.

America is an under appreciated saxophone player wailing away on a street corner. He’s playing for a few dollars and the joy of sharing his talent with passers by.

America is a Mom giving her girl a kiss good bye as she walks into the same school mom attended years ago.

America is catching a whiff of smoked barbecue as you approach a street fair in Kansas City.

America is a determined mountain biker negotiating the rugged red rocks in Moab, Utah

America is a man with a straw hat and a freshly rolled cigar taking a puff as he strolls down the streets of Tampa.

America is a family sitting on Adirondack chairs in Maine peering at the Atlantic Ocean.

America is another family walking past dunes and willow weeds to a beach on Carolina’s Outer Banks.

America is the bells clacking on a cable car in San Francisco or a ferry boat horn blaring in Puget Sound Washington

America is a freshly painted church with a tall steeple standing in front of the shadows of a Wyoming mountain range

America is a flannel clad fisherman in Minnesota with an old fishing pole and two buckets. One bucket has bait in it, the other holds three rainbow trout.

America is a smiling teacher because she has a new smart board to show off.

America is a fountain on the town square in Savannah Georgia or two grand lions guarding the Chicago Art Institute.

America is lighthouses on each shore that have stood the test of time and guided sailors towards their destination.

America is Grandma sharing stories as she rocks on a wrap around porch in rural Virginia.

America is two twenty year olds in a coffee shop in Portland texting over lattes.

Americas is a corn hole game in Iowa and a pig Roast in Mississippi

America is a diner on Route 66 with miniature jukeboxes at every booth

America is seeing Buffalo roam free as you approach the mountains near Aspen, Colorado

America is a mechanic walking into a 50 year old hardware store in Idaho and coming out with a toolbox and a bottle of Coca-Cola.

America is an eagle soaring above the Alaskan wilderness.

America is a brother pulling his siblings in a wooden Radio Flyer wagon..

America is garage sale signs going up on Thursday night and coming down on Sunday

America is hundreds of tourists running up the steps of the Art Museum in Philadelphia just like Rocky did!

America is a surfer applying wax to his board as he prepares to catch waves on Waikiki Beach

America is coaches teaching kids in baggy baseball pants how to field grounders.

America is a red white and blue barber pole spinning around.

America is a chestnut colored horse running in front of a never ending white fence near Lexington Kentucky

America is moss hanging from trees in the low country of South Carolina.

America is scurrying through the arts district of Santa Fe as a lady hand paints pottery

America is a throng on the pier of Key West watching a reggae band and admiring the sunset

America is a Moose and her two baby moose wading in the water in Northern Montana

America is a Black Bear cub grabbing berries in the solitude of the Smokey Mountains

America is a little boy standing atop a hill in Ohio where the Wright Brothers tested their first glider imagining how it was way back when

America is a little girl reading a Laura Ingalls-Wilder book and telling her mom about life on the prairie as mom smiles back recalling memories of that same book

This is just a snippet of the America I know and love

It’s an imperfect collection of interesting places, inspiring monuments, beautiful scenery and fascinating towns.

Every day I am thankful that America is my home

As the saying goes “the best thing about a home is the people in it.”

That’s what makes America so great, the people that are in it!

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