Patriotism is difficult to define, it’s a broad concept, like love.

But — at least in the Miss-Lou — the concept seems inseparable from military service and the community’s role of supporting those in the armed forces.

So when Donnie Verucchi got his draft notice, even though he wasn’t thrilled about it, patriotism meant going to Vietnam.

“I wasn’t interested in being in the military. I had started work and was going to school part time,” he said. “I knew there were people who went to Canada, but I felt it was my duty to defend the country no matter what, and I am proud of it.”

Verucchi was a young man when he was shipped overseas, only 20. But his patriotism wasn’t something that was learned through his military service — it was magnified.

“Patriotism is something we were taught in school from an early age and I have always had it,” he said.

“It is something that is in your heart, a love for your country, a love for fellow man, a love for how this country became great.”

There’s no denying that a patriotic current runs deep through the Miss-Lou.

“You can see it, especially on the national holidays like the Fourth of July or Flag Day, in these small towns, where they have flags just lining the streets,” said Jerry Stowers, who is also a veteran.

There is also no denying that, at its core, the concept of being patriotic still has a lot of support in the schools.

Retired teacher Dorothy Ulmer started the Vidalia High School Veteran’s Day program nearly 10 years ago, and while students were required to attend, community members weren’t, but they showed up anyway.

It was shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks when she decided to start the program, the kind she felt everybody in the community could support.

And the students who helped her put the program together couldn’t seem to learn enough about America’s past, Ulmer said.

“It interested me that the students wanted to research it more,” she said.

Part of that is because in small towns, everybody knows somebody in the armed forces, and nearly everybody knows when a given person from the town is killed or missing in action, she said.

“You end up touching base with a lot of people when you’re putting something like (the Veteran’s Day program) together,” she said. “Everybody in the community was so supportive of the (armed) services.”

Stowers said he believes it is that way in many of the small towns across the country.

“Everybody knew everybody, and I think a whole lot of being patriotic is because everybody shares and knows somebody who has been touched by the war,” he said.

With the Vidalia memorial program, Ulmer said one thing that was particularly popular — and that seemed to illustrate the interconnectedness of everyone in the area’s ties to the military — was what she called the Vidalia version of the Vietnam wall.

Students would write down the name of someone they knew who had died or served during the wars of the last century, or who was currently serving in an overseas operation, and they would post it on a large bulletin board in the school gym.

“It meant a lot to a lot of people,” she said. “You would be surprised how many people would ask, ‘Can I put a name up there?’”

In the 1970s, when Ulmer was teaching at Ferriday High School, a local boy — Michael Varnado — was missing in action in Vietnam, and students all wore metal bracelets as a way to show support for the soldier.

But then one evening at a basketball game sports officials said that the bracelets were against uniform regulations.

“One of my basketball players was very upset, they told her she had to take it off, and she almost didn’t play that night,” Ulmer said.

But patriotism isn’t just pride in what you’ve done for your country, it’s a living concept, Stowers said.

“You have to love your country, and that is what I do,” Stowers said. “I am 60 years old, but I would go back (to war) and do what I had to do again today.”

And that love, even taken in a context of service, is difficult to describe, Verucchi said.

“The hair stands up on the back of my neck when the flag goes past me in a parade or someone is singing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ It’s something in your heart.

“If something doesn’t happen when you see the flag flying, something must be wrong with you.”