Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue - Memories with Toby Keith
Fellow Millenials, I wonder how many of you can relate to this...
We’ve grown up in a crazy time. From the invention of the internet, to the fads and crazes of the 90’s and early 2000’s and of course, the moment that changed our lives forever – September 11th, 2001.
I was in the 5th grade, I understood what happened, but I didn’t understand why. The reasons for such a senseless act were beyond the comprehension of an 11 year old. I lived on the west coast, that means by the time I was off to school, it was almost noon in New York City. I had watched most of the events take place from my own house, as I was getting ready.
Now this nation that I love have fallen under attack, a mighty sucker punch came flying in from somewhere in the back.
On my walk to school with friends, we looked at the sky and saw airplanes flying high above us and we wondered out loud if our school was the next target. Like I mentioned, we didn’t understand the reasoning behind the terrorism, or really what terrorism even really meant, we just knew that we were under attack.
That day we stood on the playground, standing on the blacktop, looking fearfully towards the sky, which was clear of clouds, an odd thing for early September in Washington state. We had no idea how much it would affect the rest of our lives.
Soon, as we could see it clearly through our big black eye, man we lit up your world like the fourth of July
In 2002, Toby Keith released the Song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” and it became the rallying cry for the country music community and much of America. I remember hearing the song everywhere I went. It didn’t help that he ran into some controversy after refusing to “soften the lyrics” for an CBS special. The entire country seemed to be focused on one thing. AMERICA.
Little did I know, or any of us know, how much of an impact this event would have on the next 20 years of our lives. Never, as a 5th grader, did I think my friends would be going off to fight the same enemies, in the same war, but that is exactly what happened. For me, the conflict became a much larger part of my life.
Hey Uncle Sam, put your name at the top of his list. And the Statue of Liberty started shakin' her fist. And the eagle will fly man, it's gonna be hell
Since that day, until this year, we’ve been at war, with the same country. Sending our young men and women to rattle the cage. It’s become an incredibly important part of our lives, and mine in particular, but we’ll get to that in another blog. This isn’t a post about the travesties of war or the ineptitude of our politicians, though. It’s about memories that surround a large portion of my life.
The song is the beginning of what has become the rest of our lives. Even this year, the troops in the middle east were in the news, some of those kids, weren’t even alive when this song was released, but I would be willing to bet that nearly all of them are familiar with the song.
When you hear mother freedom start ringin' her bell. And it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you. Brought to you courtesy of the red white and blue.
That ringing of the bell was the call to duty for many of my friends. I really buried the lede though, because this song is most important to me, because like most Toby Keith songs, because it makes me think of my stepdad, a 20 year Navy Vet that I met about 5 years prior to his retirement, but right in the middle of the conflict in the middle east.
I basically became a “navy brat” overnight, we moved to be closer to his duty station and he went out on deployment with the USS Abraham Lincoln. It was tough watching my mom deal with the struggles of having the love of her life in the military, at war. This song brought me comfort when I learned that he’d been redeployed, even though the ship was supposed to be on it’s way home. We constantly had sailors in our home. These men, even though much older than me, have become life long friends and we’ve all screamed this song together at the top of our lungs.
Justice will be served and the battle will rage. This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
When this song comes on the radio, or the Touchtunes jukebox at the bar, I’m immediately taken back to that day. When our entire lives changed in the blink of an eye. It’s more than that though. It’s about more than patriotism for many of us, it’s about memories of a time that shifted our lives, sometimes more than once.