My Country 'tis of Thee
Samuel Francis Smith
This is doubtless the first patriotic song that American children learned. As schoolchildren, all we ever sang was the firt verse.
My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrim's pride
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring.
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers' God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King.
Canterbury GHS
In the new school year of 1965, my parents managed to get me enrolled at Canterbury Girls High. I don’t think the Headmistress liked us from the start. I imagine my father’s American-ness and attitude would have been anathema to her. I certainly never felt welcome. I was in Form Three, now more logically called Year Nine.
I auditioned for the choir – I loved singing and had been in school choirs in America. The requirement was to sing God Save the Queen. I didn’t know the words, but I knew the melody because it’s the same as My Country ‘tis of Thee, so I sang that. The other girls giggled, the teacher was unencouraging, and I faltered. I felt humiliated. I didn’t get in to the choir, which really hurt.
Canterbury Girls High School Badge
I didn’t understand the supreme importance of The Uniform. The winter shirts and summer socks were both a certain shade of light blue. There was a brand of shirt called Glo-weave that was disallowed because it was the wrong shade. When time came around for summer uniforms, we were instructed to buy a certain brand or buy white socks and bring them to school, where they would be dyed the correct shade. Outside the school, you had to wear hat and gloves. I got in trouble for removing one glove so I could eat an ice cream.
While in uniform, we weren’t allowed to talk to boys. I got in trouble for talking to one of my brothers, in a Camberwell High uniform, on Camberwell station.
The two best things about the school – which made it bearable - were Margaret Scott, who became my best friend, and the blue-haired Mrs Mazorini, who helped me to unlock the wonders of Shakespeare and other works of literature.
I lasted one year, then the family moved to Ringwood. I was to remain at Ringwood High for the remaining three years of high school, but that’s for another story.
