Celebrating Lee Jackson Day?

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It may seem an obscure celebration to many of you but today's Lee Jackson Day is taken pretty seriously in some parts of the US. Especially in Virginia, where the combined anniversaries of the generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson have been celebrated since 1889 – over three decades after the civil war came to an end and the Confederate States had gone up into the United States once more. But under car fans General Lee may be better known for another reason: the 1969 Dodge Charger driven by the Duke brothers in the television hit series The Dukes of Hazzard was named so, too.

When I grew up, seeing the bright orange muscle car slipping and sliding over those dusty country roads was a weekly highlight. We did not understand the underlying meaning of the confederate flag painted on its roof and the tones coming from that horn – another reference - but reanacted the scenes on our bikes. And then there was Daisy Duke- the girl who took the term hotpants to whole new levels and still good to become one of the more sensual Friday ladies here. Of hundreds of General Lee Dodges crashed for the filming of the series, just 17 are believed to have survived, one of which went to golfer Bubba Watson in recent years. He supposedly painted over the Confederate Flag. Politically correct, perhaps, or disconcerting?

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture courtesy Warner Brothers)
 

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