On Driving over "Yankee Doodle" Bridge...

Hear this right…. HERE!


On "Yankee Doodle Bridge" approaching EXIT 14 I-95s:  to South Norwalk & Connecticut Ave, Norwalk Connecticut   


Right now, you are driving across the Yankee Doodle Bridge over Norwalk, Connecticut. So Road Trippers, time for a Road Test.


If you get this correct, the person in the driver’s seat will pay you $20. 

Driver, keep your eyes on the road.  Time for the Fast Facts: ​

The traditional American song "Yankee Doodle" has Norwalk origins. The song’s lyrics go: “Yankee Doodle went to town, Yankee doodle Dandy. Yankee doodle went to town, Riding on a pony. Yankee doodle went to town, Stuck a feather in his cap, and Called it Macaroni.”

Fifteen years before the American Revolution, during the French and Indian War between the British Colonies and French Canada, Connecticut towns were required to provide citizen soldiers to augment the soldiers of the British Army — the most well provisioned and powerful fighting force on Earth.  American Colonials were dirt poor back then.

Reporting for duty, a regiment of poor Norwalk chicken farmers arrived outside Quebec. The smart British cavalry in their bright redcoats, burnished leather bandoliers, and tall thoroughbred horses looked down on this rag-tag crew. 

​They began to ridicule the rag-tag Connecticut troops. ​

These Norwalk famers had used chicken feathers to decorate their tattered uniforms.  No doubt too, these Yankee doodles came to town, riding a single pony.


A British Officer sang a popular melody of the time but he added words―“He stuck a feather in his cap and called it Macaroni.” 

"Macaroni" was London slang at the time for looking like a foppish dandy.  You called something “Macaroni” when it was too chic, too stylish — Italian.  So the British redcoats were making mockery of these dirt poor partners in arms.  The Norwalk Chicken Farmers were humiliated by their own poverty. ​

Twenty Years later, in the American Revolution, these same Norwalk Chicken Farmers sang the same song. They sang it proud. They sang it loud. 

This time, Yankee Doodle Dandy was a victory chorus.  The poor troops of the American Colonies rolled back the fancy Red Coats and kicked them into the sea. ​

Now for the Road Test.  What did Yankee Doodle ride, a horse or a pony?  I'll give you three seconds: Three. And Two. And One.

You said pony!  Correct!

Now Driver pay the winner. You owe twenty dollars.

Cough up friend, and and don’t be a poor sport.


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