Editor’s note: This column was originally published on July 3, 2016.

Here we are ready to celebrate our country’s birthday right smack dab in the middle of one of the most contentious elections in its history. To me it’s just a reminder that we have celebrated many of her birthdays with our flag waving through the storms of wars fought abroad and at home. I strongly believe she will survive this year’s election.

We sing about Yankee Doodle and talk about Uncle Sam with a sense of humorous pride and wonder. But, did these people really exist in our history, or are they fictional characters? Here are a few “Do you know?” facts that I discovered.

The first thing I found out about Yankee Doodle is that he was more than just a song. Actually, it wasn’t a “he” but rather a “they.” The song was popular in the early 18th century. Yankee Doodle didn’t actually stick a feather in his cap and call it macaroni. That referenced the fashion of the young men of London during the 18th century; the rich young men who toured Italy and brought back the tasty pasta known as macaroni. People began calling them the Macaroni Club for their dandy fashion styles and outlandish powdered wigs.

During the Revolutionary War, the British soldiers laughed at the colonial army of backwoodsmen and teased them about thinking they were dandy enough to put a feather in their coon-skin hats and call themselves “macaroni.” However, those same British soldiers stopped laughing when the backwoodsmen began winning the battles. Yankee Doodle became the victory song for the colonial army of backwoodsmen.

Uncle Sam was actually a man named Samuel Wilson (1766-1854). He and his brother lived in Troy, N.Y., where they owned the E&S Wilson Company that dealt in meat packing and other goods. During the War of 1812 they were awarded a government contract to provide the army with meat. They shipped the meat in barrels and because it was property of the U.S., Samuel Wilson stamped each barrel with the letters “U.S.” The army began referring to the supply company as “Uncle Sam” in reference to Sam Wilson. From then on any reference to government property was known as “Uncle Sam.” Cartoons of Uncle Sam began appearing to the masses through political cartoons, and he soon became an American icon.

Although neither Yankee Doodle nor Uncle Sam signed the Declaration of Independence, we can still include them in our country’s birthday celebration on July 4. These icons have become symbols of our country’s freedoms and we treasure the history they left us.

Our country has a treasured history, and though both good and bad changes have been made through the years, she still stands as a strong symbol of liberty and peace for all who live here or come to our golden door.

As the famous poem of Emma Lazarus that appears on the Statue of Liberty standing in New York Harbor states:

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Email Betty Heath at begeheath690@aol.com