I miss Katerina very much. Should I get another cat here at Ida Culver? I’m not sure that we have the space, particularly for the litter box. And I think a cat deserves to be able to go outdoors.
Author: Janet McKee
I currently wear many hats. My interests are genealogy, history, reading, knitting, and more. I now live in an assisted living retirement community.
Katerina in the early morning sunMemories of Robert Frost
I went to Middlebury College in Vermont the 1950’s. As you probably know, this was “Frost” country. He had a cottage in nearby Ripon Vermont near the Broadloaf Summer School campus of the College – on the road to the Snowball. As an avid skier I passed his hoe many times.
One of my many stirring memories of my college years was to attend a reading of his poems by Robert Frost himself. This was in 1957?. The reading was held in the living room in Willard, one of the women’s dorms. We girls sat on the floor and Robert Frost sat in a rocking chair and read a selection of his poems. It was just Just 2 or 3 years later he read his poem specially composed for the John F Kennedy inauguration.
Trumbull – Dear Folks – Dave Is In Okinawa (1) – The Lid Is At Least Part Way Off – June 7, 1945
The letter I am transcribing is from a copy of a typed letter on onion skin or airmail paper. It is a very poor copy, water stained, creased with the last portion of the letter typed on the back of page 3 and bleeding through.
June, 7, 1945
Dear Folks:
Well, the lid is at least part way off. We got a new APO number today – APO 902. Now at least I can tell you I’m on Okinawa. I surmised that you already had guessed that but now you know officially. I am afraid this letter will be a little jumpy because there are so many things I want to say now that I can tell you some things of interest.
I don’t know what you’ve read about this island but it’s really very beautiful. They told us before we hit the island that it was a hell hole…
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Havoc on the Home Front Impacted Christmas
Female Santa of the 1940’s
From: “The Voice of the Angels”, 11th Airborne newspaper, vol. 201
Fewer men at home resulted in fewer men available to dress up and play Santa Claus. Women served as substitute Santas at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City and at other department stores throughout the United States.
During WWII Christmas trees were in short supply because of lack of manpower to cut the tress down and a shortage of railroad space to ship the trees to market. Americans rushed to buy American-made Visca artificial trees. The electric lights that were designed in the 1940’s are still in use today.
Artificial tree in 1942 Sears catalog.
Travel during the holidays was limited for most families due to the rationing of tires and gasoline. Americans saved up their food ration stamps to provide extra food for a fine holiday meal.
Vintage Christmas
Many ornaments were…
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Pre-Christmas post from Star and Stripes – 75th Anniversary
In The Past
1964, a Vietnam Christmas for Bob Hope
Bob Hope brings Christmas cheer to troops in Vietnam
1964 | BIEN HOA, South Vietnam — Bob Hope brought some laughter to a place of war Christmas Eve.
Residents of an outer island of Palau retrieve boxes from the U.S. Air Force’s 1999 Christmas drop.
Airmen prepare for annual Christmas gift drop to Pacific islanders
2005 | ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam — Airmen geared up to deliver items to Pacific islanders who can only dream of department stores.
Santa Claus hands out presents to the men of Detachment 35, Company B, 5th Special Forces Group, in Vietnam at the end of 1968. The Air Force lent Santa six C7 Caribou cargo planes for his deliveries in Vietnam. The planes enabled him to visit some 50 isolated outposts – such as this Special Forces camp in Nahon…
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Writing Class
A few years ago I did an adult education course in writing. It was a very interesting class. We had all sorts of assignments and we had to read out our compositions. It was rather daunting at first and I felt quite shy and self-conscious about it. On the other hand it was very entertaining to hear the others in the class. One learned a lot about each of the 15 or so contributors. I enjoyed the class very much – it was so sociable and also we received good criticism and tips for improving our writing.
Our teacher was primarily interested in poetry, being a poet herself with several published works. I felt she wanted to turn each of us into poets but still we were allowed to go our own way, up to a point. I was particularly keen to work on my autobiography but she put me…
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My Cat Katerina – My Pal
Katerina ponders the world situation as I check my emails early in the morning
Katerina Wants My (Her!) Chair
stretching out in the early morning sunTwo Roads
Speculating on alternative futures. Another Robert Frost poem.
The Road Not Taken – a narrative poem first published in 1916 in Mountain Interval.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth,
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves so step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I should be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Janet's Thread 2 