One of the categories of postcards that I collect is “Dogs”. This is certainly a handsome St. Bernard!
Among My Favorite Postcards
Month: March 2021
What Is Your First Memory?
This is an interesting topic. It was an assignment in my creative writing class in Dublin 25 years ago.
What is your first memory? I mean your very first memory, the very first thing you can recall from your past.
Our minds are capable to remembering things from a long, long time ago. However, everyone’s memory seems to have different limitations on how far back they go. Some can remember things from their infancy and others only recall their lives beginning at various ages in childhood, often in grade school. Still others seem to block everything out before a certain point. Where do you fit in?
Personally, I can recall quite vividly stomping on cockroaches in Des Moines, Iowa when I was very, very young. How young? According to my mother, I was six months old and just learning how to walk. I recall the basement of the house where we lived. It had a grated drain in the middle of the room where an old washing machine was located…
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Intermission Story (2) – Biggest Airlift of WWII – The Hump
Robert Graves, the English author and poet, wrote a classic account of his experiences in the First World War, Goodbye to All That. Graves’ son David fought in the 2nd World War. David died somewhere flying the Hump Route.
C-47 flying over The Hump
In April 1942, the Allied Forces initiated an airborne supply line that crossed the Eastern Himalaya Mountain Range. This airlift supplied the Chinese War effort against Japan from India and Burma to the Kunming area and beyond. The C-46 Curtiss Commando and the DC-3/ C-47 Douglas Skytrain in the China- Burma- India Theater of War (CBI), also dubbed as the Hump operations. Other Cargo aircraft types that were also activated in this operation: the Douglas C-54 Skymaster, the Consolidated B-24 Liberator converted as a fuel transport C-109 and its Cargo version C-87 Liberator Express.
Loading in a grasshopper, (Piper L-4, observation or ambulance aircraft)
The Allied Forces supplied the war effort of Chinese Nationalists first by road, later by air. They flew day-and-night missions from airfields in eastern India over the Himalayan Plateau known as the “Hump.” The 500‑mile air route to…
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Jigsaw Puzzle Trouble
Something is wrong with my jigsaw puzzle. I thought I was nearing completion of this “delightful” 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that I have been working on for about a month. It’s unusual for me to take so long to do a 1000 piece puzzle. But difficult as it has been, it has been compelling and I didn’t yield to the temptation of giving up along the way. But this is annoying to be so near the end and to find that there is a mistake or maybe more than one to foil me..
While hunting for a photo of my 90% finished puzzle I found the image below. Now that would make a great jigsaw puzzle
Ave Verum Corpus
Ave Verum Corpus has often been described as one of the few perfect pieces of music ever written. It is a mere three minutes long and simple in musical structure but ranks among Mozart’s best works. Ave Verum Corpus (Hail, True Body), (K. 618), is a motet (a short piece of sacred choral music, typically polyphonic and unaccompanied) in D major composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1791.
Mozart composed the motet in 1791 in the middle of writing his opera Die Zauberflöte. He wrote it while visiting his wife Constanze, who was pregnant with their sixth child and staying in the spa Baden bei Wien. Mozart set the 14th century Eucharistic hymn in Latin, Ave Verum Corpus, to music to be used in the Baden church. He wrote the motet for Anton Stoll, a friend of his and of Joseph Haydn. Stoll was the musical director of…
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Aimless Knitting
I have a huge stash of yarn for knitting and weaving. One of my long term goals is to reduce this mountain of yarn to a more reasonable accumulation. Of course every threadhasa memory attached so I can’t just throw or give the whole lot away. Every knitter and weaver knows this. I should convert all this yarn into useful items. Consequently I find myself knitting scarf after scarf after scarf – scarves with blocks of color – to be converted into blankets?
I refrain from buying any more yarn. I refrain from succumbing to the temptations of trying new or old patterns – with yet another brand new yarn in a brand new color fresh from the dye pot. Temptations abound.
World War II Army Adventure (110) – Dear Dad – Wishing You A Very Happy Birthday – September 1, 1945
A very moving letter from a son to his dad. A son who lost his mom at a very young age.
Grandpa’s birthday was September 11th and I am amazed that this letter made it from Manila to Trumbull before the actual day. I am sure that Grandpa felt a burst of pride in raising a son who could write this sort of letter to his father.
David Peabody Guion
September 1, 1945
Rec’d 9/8
Der Dad –
I’m back again, but it’s only a short note to wish you a very Happy Birthday with many, many more and happier ones to come.
The more I think of my good fortune in having such a kind and loving father, the more I feel that I can never come anywhere near to repaying you for all you’ve done for me – and the rest of us.
As you’ve mentioned yourself, you had to be both Mother and Father to me. As far as I’m concerned you’ve filled the shoes very nicely and…
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MB is vaccinated
The Covid vaccine experience in Quatar
Time was, the only vaccination one thought about was that of one’s dog.
How times have changed.
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Old Categories – New Thoughts
I miss the older version where the writer could easily assign any number of categories to each post. That way both the writer and the readers could easily find posts of interest. For example I could easily look at all my genealogy posts going back to 2010 when I first started blogging.
Please WORD PRESS give us back our Categories.
The Urge To Blog About My Immigrant Ancestors.
I want to continue my blog posts about my immigrant ancestors. In my case my ancestors on both my paternal and maternal sides were among the first settlers in New England – in Boston, Salem, western Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York. And I am finding a wealth of information about them. But as I delve into my family tree, I am finding mistakes and conflicting information re the details. So while I am gathering a lot of information it is taking time to sieve out truth and fiction. But rest assured the Immigrant Ancestors series will continue shortly with Immigrant Ancestors 4 and on. Meanwhile you can check out my previous posts for My Immigrant Ancestors 1, 2 and 3.
Janet's Thread 2 