June 30, 2005
Dear Everyone:
So I was standing in the parking lot at work earlier this week, looking at a parked car and thinking, “Tony Orlando and Dawn are going to burn in hell.”
The car had one of those flexible magnet signs with a yellow ribbon and “Support our troops” on it.
What’s the connection? If you are not mature enough to remember the early 70’s, (or just had better taste in music) you can be forgiven for not knowing about Tony Orlando and Dawn. They were a musical group who had a few modest hits like, Knock Three Times and Candida. They also recorded a song called, Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree.
The song was about a young man who had done something stupid, but not too bad since he was sent to prison for only three years. (This was before the draconian anti-drug laws that could send a nonviolent, first-time offender to prison for decades while the drug kingpins walked away scot-free because they could rat someone else out.)
In any case, the stupid young man realizes that his lady might not want him back, so he writes her a letter. In the letter, he tells her to tie a yellow ribbon around an oak tree that is visible from the bus stop. If he doesn’t see the ribbon, he will understand that she wants nothing more to do with him and will move on, leaving her alone for good.
While riding on the bus, he tells his pitiful tale to the person sitting next to him and sings the refrain:
“Tie a yellow ribbon ‘round the old oak tree
It’s been three long years
Do you still want me?
If I don’t see a ribbon ‘round the old oak tree,
I’ll stay on the bus,
Forget about us,
Put the blame on me;
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon ‘round the old oak tree.”
As they get closer to the bus stop, he starts to get nervous. He can’t bear to look; so he explains to the driver and sings the refrain again. Then he sits in the back of the bus with his eyes closed. The bus turns a corner and…
“Now the whole damn bus is cheering,
And I can’t believe I see
A hundred yellow ribbons ‘round the old oak tree.”
(Repeat refrain.)
Evidently, he was stupid, but still lovable. Of course, the reason everyone on the bus is cheering is because they won’t have to hear about the damn yellow ribbons anymore.
Or so we thought.
Then in 1979 a
revolution
broke out in
It was an event that began a long, involved process to try and recover the hostages and which gave birth to Nightline with Ted Koppel on TV. Every evening brought “fresh” news about the prisoners.
And people in the
Over time, a new President was elected, the hostages were freed, and the yellow ribbons died down. Until 1991.
When the (first) Persian Gulf war began, yellow ribbons began to appear again. Here on the West Coast, a large grocery store chain sent a memo from top management to the floral departments, cynically recommending that they put yellow ribbons on all their most expensive arrangements. The store denied attempting to exploit the war, but a copy of the memo was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle.
And now the yellow ribbons are back, having morphed from “stupid, but still lovable punk” to “support our troops”. On the plus side, those magnets are so much better than bumper stickers.
Love, as always,
Pete
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