The other day as we motored past Fort McHenry, Richard mentioned a little-known fact about American history.
According to Richard, the opening 5 words ("Oh say can you see") of The Star Spangled Banner were originally much, much different than what we know today.
As he explained things, Francis Scott Key was being held in the brig of a British ship some distance offshore, and because he was unable to look out and see the shelling of Fort McHenry for himself, Key relied upon a Mexican friend (who happened to be on deck at the time) for action reports during the bombardment.
Thus the national anthem originally began "Jose, can you see?" but was later changed during the Spanish-American War, to remove any pro-Spanish reference.
When he'd finished his tale Richard glanced over and shook his head. "Not many people know that."
I winced and shrugged. "I guess we're lucky his name wasn't Pablo or Miguel or Raul."
Richard nodded. "Raul can you see? Nope, that never woulda worked at all."
