Macaroni

Those of you who know my children well, may think I am going to post about their love for pasta. You would be wrong.

You see, I have been doing some research in preparation for the history lesson tomorrow about the shot heard round the world. (April 19, 1775).

One of the sources included a lesson about Yankee Doodle.

Yankee - An American
Doodle - A fool (from the low German -dodel)

Macaroni - The height of fashion in the 1770's was the Maccaroni wig which was warn by the most sophisticated British noblemen.

So the song is saying basically - That foolish American thinks that he can be sophisticated and fashionable by putting a feather in his hat instead of buying a fancy wig.

Originally the song was sung by the British to mock the Americans. But as the Americans began to win the war, they took the song as their own. In a since they were taking pride in their lack of sophistication. (I'd rather wear a hat with a feather in it than some silly wig).

Over the course of the years the British and Americans made more and more lyrics to the song and taunted each other back and forth with it.

If the British had won, would the song have survived in some other form? Who knows.

I learn so much more by teaching my children than I ever learned in school.