THE WAR

I have been ravenously interested in Ken Burns' new series on PBS, THE WAR. I hope all of you are enjoying it too. So much of the happenings in WWII, "the big one," as the vets like to call it, was never told to us at the time or ever got into the history books during my educational years. In addition to the historical aspects of such a large scale war it had so much cultural and social impact. That interests me as much as the history.

I had an uncle in the Navy during that war but he spoke almost nothing about it. Finally once in casual conversation, shortly before his death, sitting around the dinner table after a meal and probably because my British friend was present he opened up and said a few words about it. When he died his family found a small piece of paper folded up tightly in his cuff link box with all of the places that he saw duty written on it. They had never seen it before.

My father got drafted just about a month before the treaty was signed and never went farther from home than Fort Knox, Kentucky. After his basic training he came home almost every weekend of his time served. I believe his total time served was around 4 or 5 months. My family felt so fortunate because there were 2 small children at home.

I have heard people talk about rationing of food and supplies, giving all kinds of scrap to the war effort, victory gardens, blackouts and other war stories from the home front. Then as an adult I began to get interested in the war from books and the movies. All of the movies I saw in younger years glamourized war and didn't show the blood and guts part. I guess it wasn't until about the mid eighties and especially the nineties the movie industry began to portray what the war was really like. "Saving Private Ryan" was probably the first really realistic one that I saw. Then I saw "Memphis Belle" and was greatly interested in it because I had a brother-in-law who was a tail gunner on a WWII plane called "Satan's Lady." The Lady never lost a mission or was hit--I can't recall the number of missions she flew but I think it was a lot--and was retired after the war and eventually scrapped. I saw a documentary recently with "Satan's Lady" parked on a tarmac with a couple of other planes and it was a thrill to see her in her prime and how I wished that my now deceased old vet brother-in-law could have seen her.

I guess it takes 50 or 60 years for us to be able to stomach the real sights of war. You may realize that we aren't seeing many pictures in the news of our dead boys in Irac or Afghanistan. It is too fresh and personal, I guess. Maybe we don't want to see what we can't fix. We are so accustomed in this country to fixing things and putting new faces on things including our worn out old faces and bodies. We still are unable to watch much about the Viet Nam War. None of my friends have any tales to tell about it and we haven't seen many movies about it--at least not like the previous wars. I don't recall any movie dealing with the Korean War. Korea and Viet Nam haven't even been glamourized by romantic movies. Maybe another 30 years and our children will be seeing it. Probably none of us alive today will ever begin to know the horrors of this present war in Irac and Afghanistan.

So I am sucking up all of the present stuff about "The War." I appreciate the historical aspects of it because I was never exposed to it except in bits and pieces. We now know that there were mistakes made by commanders that cost a lot of lives and dragged out the time that it took to finish the war. We also understand that many of our men (boys--we always send the youngest and most naive) had no notion of what they were getting into. I remember being so stunned when watching "Pearl Harbor," the movie, at how young our boys were on that island. I remember thinking, "we send our babies to war." "The War" is making it so vivid that we were sending youngsters who were ill trained and ill equipped to do the work of men. Their lives were forever changed if they did make it home. Maybe war is always like that. Maybe an army can never really be prepared for the conflict because we can't know in the beginning the escalation that will follow and how good the other fighters will be. We are certainly learning that a rag tag army with a will to fight and kill can get the job done.

So I will finish watching the series with all the pathos that it evokes and hope that my fellow readers will too. I hope that it makes me a little smarter, a little more careful about how I vote in the future and a little more caring about life. I hope that our political leaders see it as a refresher course in history and a predictor of things to come if we do not keep the lines of communication open with other nations.

AMAZING WEEKEND

I had an amazing time in Chicago last weekend. We didn't do any high rolling just lots of fun little stuff and mostly hanging out together in the evenings and weekend at Jerry and Natalie's home and eating the wonderful meals that they prepare--vegetarian gourmet. I alway have something new there and of special interest was Grandma's Energy Bars. I need one right now. Actually they are amazing chocolate chip cookies made by Jerry with sugar that has not been highly refined thus giving them a crispy outside and texture. Of course he uses pure butter. I still had reached my 10 pound weight loss goal by the time I got back so I guess the vegetarian diet made up for the energy bars that I ate. I climbed lots of stairs too while there.

Amanda and Amber have a cute little apartment to die for. Their back deck--third floor--is up in the top of a big tree growing beside it and gives one the feeling of being in a tree house. The tree branches wrap around one end of the deck giving it this serene enclosure like I have never seen. I suppose the squirrels will avoid the place because of the cats but it will be a great place to enjoy. They live near a wonderfully beautiful big park where they can run and bicycle. Seems like they found a perfect spot and I can't help but envy them a little.

So, this week has been all downhill since I got home. Actually I shouldn't say that. There have been good occasions but I have really been tired and spent a lot of quality time on the sofa. I read two books while I was traveling and during quiet times there. That was nice. I read a children's book that I had never before read, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH." Yes, it is about lab rats that escape the National Institute of Mental Health laboratory--I had always wondered--and it is highly entertaining even for an adult.

Happy weekend to everyone.

OFF TO THE WINDY CITY

Tomorrow afternoon I will be up,up and away to the windy city of Chicago for a long weekend visit with my girls and families. Amanda has now moved to Chicago so I will get to see both in one trip. I am really excited about that although my bag isn't packed yet. I understand that the weekend high temoperatures will be around 65. That in itself makes the trip worthwhile after more days than I can count in the 90's +. So I will be pulling out the long jeans and a couple of sweaters when I finish writing. I think I can feel my wings growing.

PLAYING 'POSSUM

Most of you are probably understand the above mentioned phrase. It is what we taught our children to do when we wanted them to be quiet for awhile--like having a dog play dead. I had an interesting experience with "playing 'possum" on Labor Day and I wasn't the opossum.



I went to my back door to pitch some recyclables into the bin when I noticed that the lid had blown off a garbage can that I also keep in that spot. In the bottom of the can was about an inch of water and a dead baby possum. I was planning its funeral and thought that since John and Cheryl would be arriving soon that John could be the grave digger. I would have him dig up a big shovel of dirt under the grapefruit tree and hold it while I dumped the can into the hole and he could put the dirt back in the hole. Seemed like a smooth operation to me. While he was getting the shovel I moved the can and the little opossum began to scurry around in it. He truly had been "playing 'possum." I dumped the wet little critter on the ground and after sitting there looking dazed for a moment he began to move on. He looked pretty pitiful. I hope his mommy welcomed him back to the nest and cleaned him up so that he would look like a decent baby opossum. I think he was saved just in time for another day in the hot sun would not have promoted good opossum living conditions. It is funny how animals can get the last laugh on us humans.

LABOR DAY

It is what you make it. It is a day of some labor for me because I put off Saturday and Sunday what I would have to do today. I know none of the rest of you are like that. It is noon + five EST and between now and 2 p.m. I have to clear off the dining table--a huge task--run the vacuum, shower and go to the grocery. The newlyweds come at 2 for a swim and cookout at my brothers house. I'm to do the big salad and I have to buy the greens--maybe I'll just stop at the store on the way and assemble it there. The reason I want to tidy up a bit around here is that I hate for my children to know what a slob I have become.

So the news today says that people are working more for their money these days. So who of us didn't already know that? And those of us on fixed incomes sink deeper into the hole of poverty everyday because our $$ don't buy what they did 5 years ago. We take odd jobs to help us try to come out even and pretty soon we can't make ends meet without the odd jobs. Two years ago I took an odd job thinking I would have a little pocket change. It changed from the "in" pocket to the "out" pocket. I guess having a holiday for labor at least makes us think about our lot in life and in all fairness we do have a lot by comparison to those in most countries even if it isn't what it used to be.

Have a happy holiday and eat a lot of burgers and hotdogs. Life is pretty good, afterall.