Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Just a story, dated 9/17/85

I just saw a beautiful sight.


At the Cracker Barrel. A 4 year old girl having breakfast with her father, alone.

He was eating and listening and reacting. She was talking, jestering, questioning. A little blonde girl with a pony tail.

When the father had finished eating, he sat back. light a cigarette and studied the check for errors. Then he relaxed. The little girl continued talking, asking, inquiring with her hands and verbally.

Soon they left their table and walked out of my life, as they had walked into it.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Dust On The Rose

I think it's time for this poem. I wrote another one titled Homeless. It says what it says and means what it means. Another writing can't really be called a poem. It's mainly just a message
to myself.

Standing high on the mountain side,
Lookomg at forever,
The barren land and the single rose
Reach deep into my memory.

Running far across the plain
The wooden statues stand
The barb threads run to the end of time,
Stealing your freedom from you.

The old weather beaten shack
Atop the mountain range,
Its tumbled and gone now
Left empty for so long.

Now he lives in a sea of grass.
The clear blue sky to share his day.
The soft blowing wind forever there,
Caressing the rose of the morning.

There is dust on the rose in the quiet
Of the morning--as the last petal falls.

Written in 1975.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Dear Santa

The year was 1936. A mother had a child out of wedlock but would tell no one in her family. She named the child Ellen. The mother had no idea what to do. A nurse, Ru th, found the new mother in tears and offered to help. She arranged for her parents to take care of the child until the mother could get things in order. She never came back for the child. Ruth's parents, Jesse and Evertt, never formally adopted Ellen but raised her as their own. This is where I skip a very great part of Ellen's story.

Ellen married Ted in 1956 and Ted became part of Ellen's family. Ted must have impressed someone because "out of the blue" in 2010 he received a call that he should contact Met Life Insurance. It seems he was named contingent beneficiary on an annuity life insurance policy purchased around 1970 by Ruth on her daughter, Pamela. Pamela had twin girls around 1967. The primary beneficiary was Ruth. Ruth died around 1980. Pamela died around 1990. Met Life finally found me in 2010. I'm suprised that Ruth didn't name one of her sons as contingent beneficiary. Anyhow I contacted Met Life, received the money for the annuities issued 40 years ago and sent one half to each of the twins.

Merry Christmas!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Hands

Read Kathleen's blog of Oct 30 and was going to comment but thought my comment was a little long and I needed to a blog anyway.

I was walking across the campass here at Sagar Brown last January when a new employee
responsible for a program called Circles (A family support service) said to me. I'll bet you are
a minister down here to help out. I smiled and answered, no I am not a man of the word, I am
a person of deeds.

In the search for life I was born, I was a child, I was a teenager (fun) , I went to school, I went to
war, I went to college (loved it), I engineered, supervised, managed, directed, was a father ( the
best of times), built things, and fixed things. I have found that using my hands to perform any
task is my strengh. Without this I would just wither away. I wonder what Epictetus would say?

But then, Epictetus would remind me not to be concerned with what he would say.

I like that because on the day I elected to start blogging my main thought was not to worry
about any negative feedback it any form that I received about what I wrote.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Sitten of the bayou

Saturday is laundry time. I gather up the dirty duds, soap and dryer sheets, my coffee and my
book and head for the campers bath and laundry facilitity. The is located on the bayou.
After I get the loads started I pull a chair out of the broom closet, grab my coffee and book,
sit outside the door to drink, read and watch the tide roll in. This morning the tide was moving
big islands of green folage created by the sugar cane harvest up the bayou really slow. I dropped my observation to read a little and take a sip and when I looked up the islands were flowing
down stream. The only activity was fishermen heading out to try their luck in in their not so fancy boats.

After the laundry was completed I started to make a picture frame for the lady in charge
of the depot. I was almost done but came up short of material I needed to complete it. So
I repaired the old frame instead. They have the various tools and material I needed
scattered in three different buildings. So even a small job takes a lot of time hunting and
gathering just like our ancesters had to do to survive.

The other day I heard that some lady doesn't believe in the here after. The way I feel
about it is that if you are not her after, what I'm here after, you will be her after I'm gone.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Joke and more

The Methodist Church moves their ministers from church to church every few years. This
little church received a new minister who happened to be female. Of course this set some
of the congragation on edge and concerned that this might not work. One fine gentlemen
decided they should try to make the right moves to help her out so he and his wife invited
to go fishing with them. She allowed that she didn't know how to fish but would love to go with
them. So in due time they reach the boat and motored to a good fishing spot. As time passed
it grew cooler and the minister got cold and needed to go back to get her sweater she left in the
car. The gentleman quickly offered to take her back to get it. But the lady said, no I can get
it my self. Where upon she got out of the boat and walked on the water to get her sweater. When she was about half way back the gentlemen said, wouldn't you know it. She not only doesn't
know how to fish, she can't swim either.

That was not part of the message at vespers but I thought the first part of what she said
was good and the second part was a waste of time. The part I liked was that a church
was where people gathered to meet and get to know their neighbors and community
members, become friend, develop helping and lasting relationships. She said that was the
primary benefit and purpose of the church. The second part was to praise an individual
who had past away that most of us did not know. It would have been ok in their local
church where he was well known.

The title of her message was, "Do We Really Need the Church?"

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Hands

We went to a celebration in a nearby town Saturday and Ellen stopped at a booth for battered
women and bought a funnel cake and in the process won a tee shirt. On the front of the shirt
it reads, Hands Are Not For Hitting. On the back it tells you, Hands are for....Hugs, helping my
mom, building tree houses, eating ice cream, planting vegetables, shaking, high fives, writing
stories, playing games, throwing baseballs, waving hello, waving goodby, signing, raising,
petting a kitten, brushing my hair, making paper airplanes, washing the dishes, hand-stands,
jumping rope, making art, playing the drums, riding my bike, picking flowers, walking the dog,
brushing my teeth, tying my shoes, playing catch with my friend, making pancakes with my
grandma, catching dragonflies, fishing, coloring pictures, playing the piano, "rocks, paper, scissors", pinky swears......hands are never for hitting.

NEAT!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The Job

Have heart Kim. Mark Twains autobiography is ready to be published one hundred years
after his death at his request.His notes for in the form of blogs. Mark Twaim was the original
blogger. I think his book is more about other people than himself and he didn't want anyone
that he offended to be around to read it.

Here it is Sunday evening. Ellen is in bed and I have the TV, the computer, etc all to
myself.

Daytime during the week I load trucks, unload trucks, fill boxes, empty boxes, sweep floors,
move pallets of material, cut down boxes, crush and bale cardboard, move the bales outside,
build items they need to make things keep on ticking, etc. Once a day I get a reprieve. I
get to take the truck to the post office to pick up the mail. When I get to the post office the
reprieve ends. Awaiting are boxes of material and kits that churches have send that weigh
anywhere from ten to fifty pounds to be loaded onto the truck, taken back to the depot,
unloaded, unpacked and placed in a large container to be processed. The process also
includes identifying the sender so we can send them a thank you.

We are situated between a state highway and a bayou. During the day the haighway
carries monster trucks loaded with sugar cane just harvested headed for the refinery.
During the night barges carry the refined sugar down the bayou to the rest of the world.

More later.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Veterans

I see where the White House turned the family of a Medal of Honor winner away from an
exclusive tour because the late veterans 10 year old grandson was wearing shorts. The
black veteran recieved his medal in for action in WWII in 1975. In 1945 the veteran
rallied black troops after their white commander deserted and captured a German
stronghold.

Now the Supreme Court is to determine if the Constitution will permit so called religious
groups to spout hate at a veterans funeral. If I was on active duty at this time and the US
Supreme Court voted to permit this to occur, I would say that I might be willing to go in
harms way but I would not be willing to put my family though something like that. Get
someone else to fight you stupid wars.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

It's All About Time (And Space)

As I dwell in time and space contemplating the efffect of relativity on my longevity, I can say that if I had a twin and he was a truck driver, he would come back from a trip younger than I.
However, if he sit in a hot air ballon at 100 feet above me tethered to the ground, he would be
older than me when he landed. In either case, the age difference would only amount to a tiny
fraction of a nanosecond. Did you know that if you stationed yourself two thirds of a mile above
the earth you will be three seconds older over the course of a million years than if you were on
Earth. You can overcome this aging if you travel from the stationary spot at the correct speed.

Everyone suffers from or gains from Einsteins famous theory of relativity in slight amounts, but
I want to experience it bigtime. So a trip into the outer reaches of space at a speed measured at
some fraction of the speed of light would be useful. All I need is a sponsor with the funding and
the where with all under my control.

Now comes the good part. I will need a space mate who can help me with my spelling, etc. This
partner (mate in space) must be of the opposite sex so is we encounter something or someone
they can observe the difference in hair length. This expert may be African, Asian, South American, European, Australian, blond, brunette, red headed or gray. She also has to able to
fly a space ship and have all the attributtes afforded a lovely, intelligent lady and be able to
fish and cut bait. I have made a vast number of space flights but thay only lasted a fraction of
a nanosecond. The experience should count for something. I be out looking for my partner
soon.

I wonder how much space we can cover in one year traveling at some fraction of 186,00o miles
a second and how much time we can shave off our age by the time we get home.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Bigotry

Watched the movie ,"To Kill A Mocking Bird" a few nights ago. It was a very good movie with very good acting. Gregory Peck is always good. I was impressed with the girl who played the part of Scout, Mary Badham, when she talked to her father about her mother.

The events of the movie occured as you would expect. The black man was found guilty and ended up dead. I ask myself the question. Would all of my grand children stand beside thier
parent facing a hostile crowd bent on doing harm to someone the parent was trying to protect
as the movie depicted. You know they would just like these 8 and 9 year olds did. If you have
not seen the movie, its worth your time.

On the same subject, I have been reading The KU KLUX KLAN IN AMERICA-THE FIERY
CROSS. I will relate only one of the items that I read that really threw me for a loop.

Nguyen Sinh Cung, from Indochina, spent time is America, did research and wrote
articles about Negro lynchings. About the furious hordes commiting crime without rick.
About blacks being beaten, trampled underfoot, slashed, insulted, bloodstained. etc.
About tying them to a tree, pouring gasoline on them, smashing in their teeth, burning them,
and killing a second time by hanging. He predicted that the clan was doomed to failure.
Ten years later, Cung returned to Indochina and change his name to Ho Chi Minh.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

High School English

I know its weird but these lines below pop into my head every so often but I can never
remember the story or poem source. The challange is for you or some of your friends to
help identify the source for me and the author.

The stag at eve has drank his fill
Where danced the moon on monans rill.


All the world a stage


To be or not to be,
That is the question.


Out out brief candle.

Not very much to go on. Gives you some idea of poorly I performed in English Class.
I assume all these come from different stories or poems.

I htink I'll take up time travel. It should be a lot easior than thinking.
Accuracy of the whole thing is in question.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Snowball

It was a dark and stormy night. My trusty dog, Snowball, and I were out trying to find and round up the missing culprits. On the road which runs by our little farm a high speed car screeches nearly to a halt. The driver swears, swerves, and continues on her way. I didn't
have my rifle or my hand guy to ward off the evil ones we were hunting but I felt really safe
with my trusty dog, Snowball, at my side. As we crept down into the bottom of the deep
depression (its called a ditch by the less informed) we sensed movement directly ahead.
Those two masses of fur had no chance of getting away with my vicious dog, Snowball, on their
trail. We soon gathered up the two errant varments and stuffed them in a cage. I gave the
the rabbits and their cage away the next day.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

True Confession Time

I was going to write an episode about the evacuation of refugees in Korea but I'll save that for another time.

There is some question about which of my children is my favorite.

Now in the first place I suspected that three of my youngens with dark hair and brown eyes
were born by you mother without any help from me. Each time we had one of these children
I would run out and look to the East. I never did see any bright star.

To tell the truth I decided my most favorite is illegitamate with the name of Mostest Mae.
My least favorite is Leasta Lena. Mostest Mae is really ugly, so I had to show her the mostest
favoritism. Leasta Lena has to take ugly pills to keep the boys away.

My favorite Aunt is Bertha. My least favorite Aunt is Emma. My favorite Dad is Claude Grant.
My favorite Mom is Mary Margret. My favorite Grandad is Theodore France. My least
favorite Grandad is Ulysess S. Grant Tingley. I don't know enough about my Grand Mothers
to decide. I think one of them sold the farm out from under us. M favorite Uncle is Wendell.
My favorite brother is Wendell, Rex, Merle, and Gale. My favorite sister is Carol, Elisabeth,
and Barbara. My favorite Grand Child is all of them. My favorite Wife is Ellen. My favorite
girl friend is secret.

You don't even have to read between the lines to get it right. I love all my legtimate children equally.

My Christmas starts Oct 3rd and ends temporarily on Dec 10th. So if you have a present
for me you will have to bring to Baldwin, Lousiana.

Call me if any of you have questions about what I do, when I do it, why I do,where I do it,
how I do it, and who I do it with.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Little Girls

A sunday school teacher told a friends little girl that girls don't use screw drivers.
Little boys use screw drivers. So all you girls have got to get rid of your tool boxes.
I have been out using my screw driver and other tools to disable the rain barrel
and get it ready to empty so we can run off to Lousiana. Also reinforcing the mole
rejecters so they will last through the three months we are down there.

That first line up there reminds of the poem I have that starts out by saying "Balloons
don't belong in church". I belive you have all heard it.

Went to get a part for my gas leaf blower today since I couldn't find the company's
telephone number on the internet. Found out the company has gone out of business.
I gave the folks at Ace Hardware the manual with the model number but the animal
has two possible engine types. If you will bring in the unit so we can indentify the
engine, we have the part for both. So back to the store we go this evening but its going to
mean eating dinner out. Mom likes Ace Hardware.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Sabotoge

It was a dark and stormy night. The wave were high. The wind was strong.
The rain was horizontal. The ship was in the water half the time and out the other
half. Snoopy and the Red Baron were no where around.

Of course this is precisely the time when something would malfuction and it
did. The syncro motor between the radar and the antenna quit working. The
results of this is you can not get a true bearing of the objects in your way.

The Captain was in the radar room immediately. I told him what was wrong.
He ask if I could fix it. I advised that I could make it work on a relative bearing
basis until we got to port and picked up a new synro motor, but I would have
to climb the mast to the antenna to do it. He said "Will you do it." I said I would,
but he said it was to dangerous. I probably would have ended up hanging upside
down in my climbing safety belt with my head bouncing off the mast if I had tried it.
I told him I could interpet the radar well enough to give the relative bearing every
ten seconds until morning when the storm abated and the lock it in on relative
bearing. That is what we did.

This goes on to a part two of the story. When a new Third Class Petty Officer came
aboard (this guy was my new boss) he put a modification in the radar but got it in
backward. I took it out and put if in right and told him not to touch another item of
equipment on the ship. He didn't. During the next few days after the storm I
noticed someone had taped over the switch that controls the synro motor. I ask
the new Third Class Petty Officer if he did that so someone wouldn't turn it off.
He said yes. I said, good idea. We were on our way home and stopped in Pearl Harbor.
This is where the Petty Officer left the ship and was flown home. I was getting ready
to repair the radar and had to turn the syncro switch off to do it. When I removed
the tape, the switch was off and had been every since the storm. I climbed the mast,
removed the relative bearing lock on, went back down, threw the switch to ON.
There never was a defect in the syncro system. I never did find out what happened
to the Petty Officer. Maybe I should have been suspicious. Earlier in our tour in Korea
the Captain called another Technician and me in for a conference to ask if this Petty
Officer had ever done anything to damage any of the equipment. I could only tell
about the mod kit he put in the radar backwards.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

So goes the Enlish Navy

It was a dark and stormy night. No actually it was a very dark and
quiet night. No moon. We were sailing along the west coast of North
Korea, minding our own business. We had the ship completely darkened.
There was a blip on the radar, but that wasn't unusual. As we approached
the object that showed up on radar we receive a coded challange that we
were suppose to answer with the answer code. Well, the challange was
yesterday's code, so we didn't answer it. They send the challange a couple
of more times and evidently got fed up. The next thing we saw was a shell
fly across our bow to wake us up.

Time for action. No we did not go to general quarters. The captain had the
signal man light up his trusty signal light and advise the other ship who we
were and that their code was a day old. At this, they turned tail and left
the area at a very high speed. The captain had a meeting with the captain of the
British Frigit and an an incharge Admiral next time we were in port. I Don't
know what the outcome was. It could not have been very pleasant the captain
of the Frigit.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Beating The Odds

I have a neighbor and a good friend a few houses down the street who is one of the good guys. He gets to wear the white hat. Now I can't let him read this because he would get the big head and his hat wouldn't fit.

He moved here from Texas a few years ago. Before that he lived in California and New York and places in between. He worked at some jobs that kept him on the road. At times his wife would meet him at the airport with a suitcase full of clean clothes and take the one he had home with her.

Now Jonesy was raised in southern Illinois. There's an old saying the folks in central Illinois are fond of saying. " Well I'll be dipped in Southern Illinois."

Now my wife is always giving Jonesy a hard time, but he gives in back more then he gets. The real story here is about an individual who made it against all the odds of living with an alcoholic mother and no father. He now says," "Hard work never hurt anyone." He started young.

During the time he was living with his mother he had a Sunday morning paper route. This was before he reached the fifth grade. He carried his papers in a two wheeled cart. After picking up his papers, his first stop was the Catholic Church just about the time Mass was going on. He was not a Catholic and I sense his church was The Wild Side as he grew older. He would complete his first sales there after Mass and then he would start on established route. If the customer left money out for the paper, they would get a paper. No money, no paper. He would make a second stop to fill his cart and then complete his route. Then to the paper pick up point to turn in the money based of the price and the number of papers sold.

On his way home he would sometimes have to stop at the local tavern, knock on the window for his mother to come out to take about 90% of his money. If she wasn't there, he would fork it over at home.

When he was about 11 years old he went to live with his sister who was 15 years older and now married. He no longer had his paper route. He got himself a job mowing yards for a group of customers once a week. He purchased a mower on credit which he pulled behind his bike. His brother-in-law cosigned for him. He felt good about buying a mower for his business on credit at the age of 11 years. He still sent money to his mother to live (drink) on. His parents were divorced before he was born. He has never seen his dad.

While he was in high school, his sister moved to another town. He moved with them but soon
came back to his home town and lived with foster parents. Any time he got into mischief or
trouble his foster would hold out his hand for the car keys. Sometimes he would he would keep them for as long as six months. You never ask for them back. He would return them when he was ready.

During all this time he was still sending his mother money. At this point his foster parents wanted to adopt him. His mother would agree to the adoption for a large cash payment to her.
At this point his foster father put a stop to Jonesy sending any more money to his mother. He
still bailed her out of debt in later years. He always had a job. Sometimes two or three.

Then Uncle Sam took him under his wing for two years during which he got married and soon had two young ones. When he was about 25 years old the State of Illinois was going to force him and his brother to support their mother. Jonesy's lawyer indicated that the only was to avoid this was to prove to the judge that she was an unfit mother. He said that was the hardest thing he ever had to do. He plead his case and won when he told the judge that she had tried to sell him. His brother had to pay until he passed away. His mother lived until she was a couple of weeks shy of 100 years old.

Can it be true or was true in 19 65 that the State if Illinois can force a child to support his parents and their drinking problems. The story has two endings. The main subject of the story is ok and is leading a normal productive life. His sister didn't fare as well. She will hardly leave the house and will go into the back bedroom when someone comes to the house for fear they might hve know her mother.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Music

To all of you that were with me in the rain forest of Equador I want
you to know that I watched The Grapes of Wrath on a Netflex dvd
last night and the theme song and the song they played through out
the movie was ----"""""RED RIVER VALLEY"""""-----. TADA.
My harmonica never sounded that good. The book was a lot better
than the movie.

My next blog will be about a neighbor and his life with his mother who tried
to sell him when he was a youngster. TUNE IN EARLY.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Hunt

I have spend the last few weeks trying to get rid of some moles.
I was able to dispatch two of them the first day of the hunt with
my spade but the third one was very elusive. I tried waiting it out
at a spot he was espected to surface each day for many days but
the heat drove me to seek a different solution.

First was the poison pellets. The mole would have none of that. Next
was the mole trap. The mole set the trap off twice but escaped
unharmed. Now was the time to put out the noise makers. The effect
of the noise makers kept the mole from ranging far enough to obtain
enough food to make him happy. Next, I sprayed the area with mole
repellent. So with each of the above in use all at the same time, the
mole finially got hungry enough to eat some of my poison pellets.
Just decided to commit suicide.

Now with this under control I find a new challange. I discovered we
have a bag worm infestation in all the new 500 small pines I put out
two years ago. This pines are now about 8 feet tall. Also infested are in
several 30 to 40 foot tall cedar. I have been able to spray the small
pines and pickoff and burn the bag worm but I am in the process of
cutting down all the infested cedars, collecting and burning the bag
worms and using the tree to prevent erosion on a neighbors property.
There are about 15 trees to cut and pick off the worms. I have completed
four. It sure is hot out there.

Monday, August 2, 2010

My thought for today

Its may be ok to burn your bridges if you don't want anyone to pursue you,
but you had better be able to walk on water if you want to come back.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Olio

Have any of you who read my blog now and then read my profile?
If you don"t recognize some of the stuff I'll fill you in.

Mark is in town for an annual party and we finished three cross
word puzzles today. Missed one letter on one. Some kind of Spanish
name.

In the year 1944 we lived near an army base. There were several
civilians working in some position on the base. One of those was my
future sister in law. She worked in a place that served food and was
there late in the evening. There was some concern about her walking
to her car late at night. There was a big black soldier that started showing
up ever night and would stay around till closing time. At first if was a little
scary. However he walked her to her car ever night that she work there
to make sure she got there ok. 1944

After WW II my brother, Merle, had a restruant in the small town of
Vermont IL. In 1949, just before I went into the service, I was working
at the restruant. One night near closing time, Merle went out the front
door and found a black man sitting on the step. This was something that
never happen in Vermont that I knew about. He wanted to buy something
to eat so Merle invited him but he refused to enter. Merle work up an order
for him and he disappeared into the night. 1949

A family who had moved to the area shortly after the army base was build
had to depend on handouts from area farmers to survive. The husband had
skipped. There were four or five boys and the helped out by delivering papers
on the army base. One of the boys was so small that he had to drag his paper
bag. Each morning before he went to school he would go to the base to do his
job and each morning there was a big Sargent that woud be there to meet him.
The Sargent would pick him up in one hand and the paper bag in the other.
They would then go to the mess hall. The Sarge would deposit the papers
and a collection box at the entrance and take the boy and provide him with
a full breakfast. He would then advise the soldiers that no was to leave the
chow hall until the paper boys money box had the correct amount of money.

I went through the process of obtaining a Band Album Cover. The results were:

Band Name--q Velorum ( dwarf star)
Song Title--We Can Solve This
Album Cover --An untitled picture by Alex Soybel"s Photo Stream of
lovely blonde lady, head, shoulder and clevege view. Cannot get it to save.

TO BAD

How many blogs are in this olio?

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Challange number one

Mike, Sam, Bill, Sue

For all those experts who can use the internet better than I
can. That should include everyone.

When I was growing up my father would sing a song to us
that included some of the following. The title may have been
Ole Dunderback.

Some of the words included pussy cats and long tailed rats.

Another part included the following "Ole Dunderback, Ole
Dunderback how could you be so mean as to grind up all
the little boys and girls up in the sausage grinding machine".

Thats all I remember. The challange is to get on the internet
and find the title and the complete song.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

GEORGE

You all knew I would get bad to my hero sooner or later.

George was Gunners Mate and as such, when we aquired the
LST 914 back from Japan for use in Korea he was responsible
for finding, stealing, trading or what ever, the armament for
the ship. The first job being the Inchon landing he mounted
a three inch army cannon and a couple of 20 mm weapons.
So with this and a crew one third the size to properly operate
the ship they completed the task. The rest is history.

The most interesting accomplishment was during the ship board
contest to grow the fanciest mustashe. There was a Boatson Mate
with a real hansom handle bar mustashe. This guy was three times
as big as George. The Boatson Mate was fast asleep when George
cut off half his mustasche. The Captain said that half mutashes
can't enter the contest.

George wasn't a very big guy and was a little crippled up from his
ordeals and advancing age. We were touring an aircraft carrier
and my wife thought I should stick close to him and make sure
he could climb all around and not get hurt. I told her "He was
tough." She should go talk to Bob, the one who lost his coat. And
she did. This occurred at a ship reunion some 50 years after the war.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Lesson learned!

As some of you know I try to make wine. Some people like
it, two people don't. I like it.

Had three bottles that I made in Jan. 2007 in the cooler.
It was to sweet for anyone's taste so it was never touched.
Last week two of the bottles blew their corks. Had a mess to cleanup.
I opened he third bottle to a large puff. Should be good stuff
but to sweet for my taste.

This, of course is better than the time a few years ago when I
had a gallon jug full still fermenting. I had sealed a cap on, not
knowing it wasn't ready. We had a blast heard throughout the
house. The explosion was so strong that it shattered the glass
jug, sprayed wine all over and inbedded glass in the walls.

Took a while to clean up and repair and paint the walls.

Lesson learned.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

My Hero

The year was 1950 and the time was after the Inchon landing, and after the UN
forces had reached the Chinese boarder and after the Chinese hoards had crossed
in Korea and after the Chinese had driven the UN forces well into The South.

A massive evacuation of men, equipment, and North Korean civilians fleeing the
Chinese army was taking place at Hungnam. Every type of boat imaginable filled
Hungnam Harbor to evacuate men, material. and the nearly 100,000 civilians from
North Korea.

During this evacuation the Marines and Army unit were holding off the Chinese
until the evacuation could be completed.

It was here that my buddy (we'll call him George since that was his name) decided
he would go give the Marines some help. Since he was Gunners Mate, he had access
to weapons and was able to pick up a rifle. Next he borrowed a Marine field jacket from
his friend Bob. He joined a Marine unit that was in the process of being over run.
To slow the Chinese advance they called in aircraft to strafe the Chinese. George was
hit by three bullets from the aircraft. As the Chinese came through their lines they
were making sure everyone was dead. They looked at George but did not bayonet
him. Shortly the Chinese were pushed back enough so medics could come and pick up
the dead Marines. The first medic checked George and went to look at others. The
second medic saw George eyes move and hollered "HEY this one alive". George was
moved to a MASH unit in Hungnam which was in the process of evacution. During his
time laying on the ground it was so cold the blood from the wounds froze. The doc's
were so busy they didn't detect the extent of the wounds until the heat in the medical
unit started them bleeding again.

At a reunion of our ship some fifty years later, George and Bob meet again. Bob asked
for his coat back. George advised him that it was full of bullet holes and no use to anyone.

The Marine officer wanted give George a medal. The Captain of our ship wanted to give
him a court martial. He didn't get either one.

There are other stories about George but I'll hold them for a later time

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Shameful Incident

Since I spent two tours of duty in Korean War I guess I can comment on the subject
without anyone raising to many objection.

I have a couple of items I will touch on. One is a recent story by Charles J. Hanley,
Associated Press. The other is about a friend of mine who served aboard ship with me.

I will cover the AP item today and the other later.

The primadona five star general and his kiss butt staff intentionally
ignored intelligence reports that China was moving troops into North
Korea and the 8th Cavalry had been sent to a position just 50 miles
from China. The Chinese troop quickly closed the trap that they are famous for
setting. Higher headquarters rejected requests for a pullback. Then they
refused to send artillery forward to support a rescue. Finally they ordered
a pull back. Trapped by two Chinese divisions, troops of the 8th U.S. Calvary
Division were left to die. The 3rd battalion lost some 600 of their 800 men.

This is just one of the shameful and little know incidents caused by a sickness
in leadership in the military and inadequate leadership at home. Our president knew
that our military leadership needed to be replaced but did nothing. The loss
of so many lives was completely unnecessary. Mass grave at Unsan still holds
260 of the MIA's from this Division. This abandonment at Unsan was without
a doubt one of the worse and most shameful to have been thrust on a military
unit.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

FAMILY DEMANDS

Well I started to write a blog about very bad leadership
during the Korean War but two children under 12 years
old interuped and wanted to use my computer to fly an
airplane. I then grabed a book and went to the other room
to lie on the couch. Very soon they appeared in the room
where I and the TV were resting. It was time for THE PRICE
IS RIGHT. So I took my book to the bed room and lay down
to read.

Soon Ellen come home, started on plans to either go conoeing
in 95 degree weather. We soon ate lunch and headed for the
river to swim instead of conoe. The river was low and the
current was swift. Ben and Jordan would go upstream , flow
down with the current and hope that I would catch them before
they were swept on by. I was fully dressed an soon had to add
to the fun by accidently fallig down an getting wet.

A good time was enjoyed by all. We are going back tomorrow.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Horoscope

Libra: You expect yourself to behave in a certain manner,
but it's not the only way. Why be so controled? Trust yourself.
Give yourself permission to express yourself however the mood
moves you.

SO I WILL!

Hello

This is a test. This is only a test. It is a test of Ted's new blog.

If this were an actual blog entry there would be something by Ted written here.

Thank you and check back again soon.