Happy! - Oct 19 (Yorktown Day)

19 Oct 05 - 08:03 AM (#1586085)
Subject: Happy! - Oct 19 (Yorktown Day)
From: GUEST


Happy Yorktown Day!
(An official Day in Yorktown, Virginia)

After the last major action of the Revolution, (although the Treaty was not signed until Sept 3, 1783) Cornwallis surrendered on 10/19/1781. The British, surprised apparently, fifed "The World Turned Upside Down." The Yanks played "Yankee Doodle."

          If the mamas sold   their babies to the gypsies for half a crown,
          If summer were spring   and the other way round,
          Then all the world   would be upside down.
  
  

  -Abby Sale-             &nbs  p;    "The World Turned Upside Down;" Burl Ives   Song Book

Per Lesley Nelson, the Contemplator: The ballad was first published on a broadside in 1643 to be sung to the tune "When the King Enjoys His Own Again." It was a protest against the ending of all the favorite English Christmas traditions which he feels were destroyed by Cromwell's victory at the Battle of Naseby (1645). There is some debate as to whether the British actually played this tune at Yorktown.. "Tosh!" say I. It's in the folklore that they did and, therefore, True.

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
What are Happy's all about?    See Notes and Index

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