Hi, Pond People!
I hope everyone is thinking of our Veterans today--everyday. The Iwo Jima Memorial for the Marines is my favorite--though I've recently found some family names on the Viet Nam Memorial Wall in D.C. It sure brought a lump to my throat, well, frankly, I cried; he was only 19... I say prayers everyday for our brave service members--Hikergal and your Joe, MissChar, Phooey, many of Mrs. Cow's family members. Who else? Please come and post and tell us!
God most especially bless Stanford Albrant (my forever hero), Frank Driskell, Robert Dusbabek, John Robert Dusbabek, Leo Donovan, Solomon Thomas Donovan, Dennis Donovan, Wayne Donovan and their other brothers/uncles who served, and Marvin's son who was killed in Viet Nam? Bless Louise in Denver who was a WAC and gave us all our cats. I'm sorry for those not listed--my memory is not what it should be--but you are remembered in hearts.
Thank all my visitors and lurkers--even if you don't say hi--'Wog and I say 'hi' to you everyday. My site meter tells me where you're pinging in from (I can easily tell Surfie's in Tulsa, Phoo's in Tampa, Eva's in CA, Gloria's up here with me, Paget's in Kennewick--and I paradoxically signal in from Puyallup--which is 30 some miles away, so I can't figure that out... I guess the signals can come from quite a distance away. I know who pings in from near Atlanta and back east in New England...ahem... Hikergal are you in Maryland or NC? Who is is Red Bluff, CA?) Y'all post up and tell me where/who you are, if you don't mind, and I haven't figured it out already.
I need to say a hey-y'all to Canada, Romania, India, and England; please feel free to post; this is fun! I'm fully half Czechoslovakian, so I'd love it if somebody from Czechoslovakia would ping me ;-)
Have a special Veteran's Day!
Happy Veterans Day to my father and father-in-law. I appreciate how you put your lives off for years to serve your country in WWII. One in Europe and one in the Pacific, neither waited to be drafted. I'm forever grateful for the lessons you've taught me.
ReplyDeleteMy family has had at least 1 member under arms for this country continuously since the 1st one came here in 1812! I know it's not as long as some but we're still pretty dang proud of it!!
ReplyDeleteThank you all who have served and are serving!
Good morning, frogs and wogs. Chilly (45 with wind) this morning.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Phoo! It's 49 with rain here--we're gonna get about a week of it....
ReplyDeleteYour family is admirable, Hikergal--yours too Eva, and of course my Phoo. Part of our family were Brethrens--kinda Amish-like--so they may have been pacifists--but they came here in 1730 on the Thistle so I could join the DAR ;-p The Czech half fought--Uncle Bobby flew choppers in Nam in the early '60's, and the Donovans/Albrants/Driskells certainly served. Army, Navy, and several Marines ;-) God Bless them all.
Stanford Albrant landed on D-Day, he was a medic on the front lines that gave transfusions right from his own veins during battle, crawling on the ground. He said when they landed on the beach that day that he was more afraid of drowning than getting shot--said his pack was so heavy he didn't know how much water he'd be in or how he'd get out of it. He saw the war through, but combat fatigue took the rest of his life when he got home up here; he saw terrible things that broke him. He was the bravest man I ever knew. I bless him daily and give him my forever love and thanks.
Uncle Leo was at Iwo Jima or Okinawa. Something happened to him--his face, I think, and, when I was a teen and visited, Grandma would only let me wave to him from one end of a long alley--said he didn't have much to say.
Dad was in the Korean War--no battle, though, or I might not be here! His brother was an officer in the Navy in Japan, Frank Driskell ran the fire-crash crews on the landing strip at Okinawa, Cousin Terry's on the Wall in 1966, and so is John Robert. Auntie ran the gift counter at the Marine PX in San Diego when Struan was there--we wonder if he ever bought anything from her ;-) And Louise was a friend of my mom's who was the first lady service person I ever met--she was a WAC and she gave us all our cats when I was a kid. She was a nurse overseas and... let's just say the war affected her, too, badly. Grandpa Donovan met Grandma when he was in the Army, and the rest of his 6-7 brothers mostly signed up, too. There was 13 in the family and Gus was older and stayed home to keep the family pool hall open... um tavern (we weren't supposed to call it a pool hall--and I was never allowed in there 'cause the Bible Belt runs right through there.) Cousin John Lawrence Dusbabek, real close to my age, signed up soon after high school, God Bless him--I always liked him best!
Thanks for letting me ramble. Everybody ought to be remembered by someone... esp. these brave folks and you and yours. Blessed Day!
You're absolutely right, Froggy! One of the charities I give to says the worst casualty is being forgotten.
ReplyDeleteAll of these men and women did what they did because it was the right thing to do. They don't/didn't consider themselves to be extraordinary, but we should, for without them all, where would we be?
Amen, Eva!
ReplyDeleteBTW, Puffin now has his own pond for awhile....sigh. You really should count the fish everyday....;-)