America's Spirit

JE SUIS REVEILLE.

September 1976 at the Hyde School, Bath, Maine:

Our Bicentennial- Based Show, “America’s Spirit” has come off of a very successful run. This show, a collaborative effort between faculty and students, portrays various “sections” of American history such as Religious Liberty, Slavery and the Civil War, Westward Expansion and the controversial Altamont scene complete with stabbings and Hell’s Angels. I am just 16 years old and new to at Hyde, which I have often described as a combination of Military Academy and Free School.

This fall, we are beginning to flesh out what next year’s show will look like. One of the areas of American history our headmaster, Ed Legg, would like to add is the Acadian Experience. Growing up in Texas, Ed had many Cajun influences and his move to Maine reinforced this growing interest with exposure to Longfellow’s “Evangeline” and Maine’s Acadian population. Ed’s favorite music is the acclaimed roots group, The Band. Their iconic song, “Acadian Driftwood”, is chosen to build a scene upon.

My friend Gail Kelly and I, ever the background singers, composed the harmonies and the dance was choreographed. Costumes were drafted and sewn together. Instrumentals are developed and we are off. That summer of 1977, we performed “America’s Spirit” up and down the Eastern Seaboard, on Broadway, the steps of the Smithsonian, in small and large auditoriums and at School for Bath residents. “Acadian Driftwood” got into me in ways I could not understand. (Even now, writing about it brings tears to my eyes...) I sang that song from my gut. It was about injustice, home, hope, survival, and recovery. I had no way of knowing that that song would send me on a journey that has, in some way, defined my life.

The Bicentennial Celebration of 1976 was set in an America that was in the midst of upheaval. The Vietnam War has ended only the year before. President Nixon has resigned in shame because of the Watergate Scandal, and our current President, Gerald Ford has been the victim of two assassination attempts. Heiress Patty Hearst has been arrested for robbery in San Francisco. Lines stand still at gas stations due to an energy crisis and subsequent rationing. A growing sense of multiculturism is growing with the American Indian Movement, Feminist movements and protests, African-American and Latino awareness movements and others. We grow in our understanding that our history is not simple or always pretty, and that the core of what it means to be American is evolving.