With Memorial Day this weekend, we would like to wish all of our readers a very happy holiday. Since Memorial Day if the unofficial start to the summer here in the United States, we have always shared the short story SUMMER ’58. The short story was the basis for NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION. We will share that story sometime next week on our Facebook page but this Memorial Day we would like to share something very different.
I am a big fan of public domain films and watch hundreds every year. This past year I came a across a film that really captures the true meaning of Memorial Day and America.
The film is called FREEDOM HIGHWAY. The film was produced with Greyhound Bus Lines. The film documents a bus ride from California to Washington, DC. The cast includes Fred Schroder, a man upset that his one and only son was killed in Korea. He is traveling to Washington, DC to accept the country’s highest award on his late son’s behalf. Other bus riders include a Boy Scout traveling to his first Jamboree, a famous football player, a very young Angie Dickinson, Tex Ritter, and a man in a dark suit whose identity is not known but who transforms the outlook of the passengers on the bus. The film is part travelogue and part a history lesson, looking at our country’s freedoms and the people who sacrificed their lives so we can be free. The film is full of great stories and insights. The film ends in Washington, DC with lives changed and questions answered. Do yourself a favor and watch the film this Memorial Day. You will see America and know who our friend in the black suit is. It is the only trip worth taking this Memorial Day weekend.
The film is the winner of the Freedoms Foundation Special Award.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwjRTSCps2U
