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| A le a bay |
A bay in Hawaii. |
| A shape in the moonlight,
a bulk in the dark |
This is what Paul Revere looked like riding
his horse that night. |
| amber |
Yellow like the fields of wheat waving in
the wind. |
| April 18 of '75 |
April 18th in1775. The battle of Lexington
(near Boston Massachusetts) was fought on the 19th of April
1775. |
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| Battle Hymn of
the Republic |
This song was popular during the Civil War.
The words were written by Julia Ward Howe, and they came
to her in a dream. She woke up and wrote the poem in just
15 minutes. The melody was from another song about a man
who fought against slavery, and was killed for what he believed. |
| bay |
A light brown color for a horse. |
| Bayou |
Swampy area that is a common in Louisiana
near the end of the Mississippi River delta. |
| Belfry |
The place in an old church where the bell
was hung to signal people that church services were starting
soon. |
| Bluegrass |
A type of music that comes from Kentucky
where the grass is a blue green color. Kentucky is also
called the Bluegrass state. Blue grass music is also called
Hillbilly Music or Old Time Country. |
| bobtail nag |
A female horse. |
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| Camptown Races |
A horse race in Camptown, West Virginia. |
| Cap |
Short for Captain. |
| church tower |
The colonists thought that the British might
try to land that night and capture a couple of the leaders
of the Revolution and take the Colonists guns, making them
unable to defend themselves. So Paul Revere told his friend
to watch from the old Church tower, where he could see the
British first. |
| colossal |
Big. |
| Company 'B' |
The people in the Army are divided into different
groups called companies. They are named Company 'A', Company
'B', Company 'C' and so on. |
| cow cow |
Term for the best. |
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| Dayton |
This is the hometown of the Wright Brothers…And
Obediah. This is where they worked in their bicycle shop,
and designed and built the first plane. This is also where
Obediah learned to juggle and play trumpet. |
| draft |
In war, men were drafted and forced
into military service for their country. |
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| fiddle, spoons, banjo,
cider jug |
Bluegrass and Hillbilly instruments. |
| folks |
People. |
| fortitude |
Determination, or sticking to what you know
you should be doing. |
| fossil |
Something very old. |
| from sea to shinning
sea |
This is about the two oceans that surround
America: the Atlantic and the Pacific. |
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| Harlem |
A section of New York City. |
| "He
is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are
stored" |
This is like saying that people have hate
and anger stored up inside them and the lord will stomp
those places out so we no longer have hate and anger. |
| Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow |
Wrote the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
poem about 75 years after the Revolutionary war. It contains
real history about what happened on the evening before the
very first battle of the War. |
| Hillbilly |
Is a term for the people who live in the mountains,
the mountains are the hills and Bill is a common name there. |
| Hukilau |
A Hawaiian phrase for a party on the beach.
It's like saying "barbecue" to a Texan. |
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| Jambalaya |
A stew that is very spicy and has things like
crawfish and tomatoes and sometimes shrimp. |
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| lingers and gazes |
Stops to look. |
| loosed |
This means to "let go", or "fire." |
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| macheramio |
A French word for a girlfriend. It's like
saying "my darling". |
| mine |
An old way of saying "my". |
| muffled oar |
Paul Revere would row with muffled oar (his
oars would be wrapped with rags so they would not be heard
by the British) across the bay. On the other side his horse
was ready to ride. He'd tell the Minutemen to get ready
to fight. If one was captured the other rider could still
get through to the minutemen. The men in the Colonial Army
were called Minutemen because they had to be ready in a
minutes notice to fight. |
| muley cow |
A cow that wandered onto the track by mistake
and messed up the race. |
| musket |
What the old guns were called. A ball is a
round bullet of lead fired from it. It looked like a metal
marble. These riffles could only fire one shot at a time,
so after a shot they had to be reloaded. |
| "my hat caved
in" |
Meant that he came with just a ragged old
hat but he went "back home with a pocket full of tin".
That is, he won some money at the race. |
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| One if by land
two if by sea |
They weren't sure if the British would come
by land or by sea. So they had a signal "one if by
land, two if by sea." meaning one or two lanterns shinning
in the belfry tower. |
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| pedal extremities |
Feet. (pedal refers to foot, like in bicycle
pedal, or pedestrian) |
| Pilgrim's
pride |
This is about the first people to come to
America from Europe. They were called Pilgrims and they
came here to have religious freedom. |
| pole the pirogue |
The pirogue is a boat. It moved through the
swamp by taking a pole and pushing through the mud. |
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| Redcoats |
Another name for the British Soldiers. They
wore bright red jackets with a two white bands that crossed
their chest like a big 'X'. They wore tall hats and white
pants. The Colonist had no uniforms and wore the same cloths
they wore in the fields when they were farming. However
because the British wore such colorful clothes it was easy
for the Colonist to spot them from far away. So the Colonist
could hide easily from the British. |
| revelry |
This was played on trumpet to wake up the
troops in the morning. The Bugle (or trumpet without valves)
would be used to gather the men in formations, put them
to sleep at night ("Taps") and send them to lunch
and dinner. It has been used in America since the Revolutionary
War and in Europe beyond that. Obediah would like you to
remember just how incredibly important the trumpet is to
the defense of America. |
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| Spark struck
out by the steed in its flight |
A horse. This is about a spark from the horses
horseshoes that was made by horse running over the pebbles. |
| Stephen Foster |
America's first professional songwriter. |
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| Thibodaux,
Fontaineaux |
Two French names of people who
would be at the party. |
| 'tis of thee |
This is an old fashioned way of saying "It
is of you". Thee = You, and 'tis is a contraction for
"it is". |
| To every
little village and every little farm, for the country folk
there to be up in arm |
These men did not get paid to be in the army
like as did the British soldiers. They were farmers and
just served when they were absolutely needed. |
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| Uncle Sam |
This is another name for the US Government.
As if it was a single person |
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| vulcanized rubber |
This is what made rubber strong enough to
be used on tires, which made it possible for cars to go
faster and longer. |
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While one was safe
asleep in his bed,
Who at the bridge would be the first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball |
This is about a very brave minuteman who was
home sleeping until he heard Paul Revere come and tell him
to get ready. He chose to defend his country and went to
the bridge at Lexington and gave his life for our country.
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| Yankee Doodle |
During the time of the American Revolution
British soldiers first sang this song to make fun of the
American colonists. The British thought of the colonists
as poor people who tried to act rich and fancy. A "Doodle"
to the British was a fool. Yankee was the term for all Americans.
To have him riding a "pony" instead of a horse
was insulting, like today saying someone rode a tricycle
instead of a car. "Macaroni" was the old term
for something fancy. Today we might say "cool"
or "awesome" or "off the hook". So in
the song Yankee Doodle, "Stuck a feather in his cap
and called it macaroni" was like saying, "John
turned his hat around and called it awesome."
The colonist didn't like that the British were making
fun of them. But if they acted like it bothered them,
the British would think that they were doing a good thing
by making fun of them. So the colonist took the song and
made it their battle song - a song they would sing to
themselves to cheer up the troops. So it took away any
negative power the song had. They added more verses to
tell about a boy who went with his father to see Captain
George Washington training his men. Washington later became
the General of the whole colonist army. After that, he
became our first president, and is now he's on our $1
dollar bill.
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| yumma yumma |
A type of fish. |
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| zeal |
Good positive attitude with energy. |
