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family / history / maps / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
9
Jan 13

My great-grandfather’s war

This is the 68th anniversary of the day my great-grandfather was wounded in Belgium. His time in Europe was brief. His service has been something of a mystery to his family for decades. Now I’ve cobbled it together, somewhat.

That’s my great-grandfather, circa 1944, with his oldest, my grandfather.

Because my great-grandfather always changed the subject about his time in the war the entire family learned as much about his experience in the war at his funeral as anytime in his life. His quiet choice means this brief bit of history focuses on the unit(s) rather than the personal.

He was attached to some element of the 137th Infantry Regiment. Without knowing which battalion or which company he was a part of this can only be a regimental overview with some movements down to the company level.

If you click the pins (which run from Dec. 6 to Jan. 11.) in sequence you can get an approximate sense of where he was. It features time near the border of France and Germany, Christmas in Metz and then Belgium during the Bulge, specifically at Villers-la-Bonne-Eau. All of the markers are rough estimations and meant only to be illustrative. Their placements are derived from the unit history, found here and here. The lightly edited text and photographs found with the pins are from the same unit history. The summary accompanying the final pin is derived from this unit overview. Any errors would be mine alone.

Click the links either above or below the map to see the entire presentation in a new tab of your browser.

View Tonice in the Bulge in a larger map
View Tonice in the Bulge in a larger map

A note of gratitude: None of this research would have been possible without the help of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs. Finding his discharge papers allowed me to figure out what unit he served in. That document was uncovered by the persistent and passionate help of Ms. Peggy Marquart, who was almost as emotional about the find as I was.

family / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
1
Jan 13

Happy New Year

I used this picture on the site at my birthday two years ago. That’s me, just learning to walk. My mother, showing me my first snowfall. This is at my grandmother’s place, or across the street from it. It all looks different now, but the farther away it gets the more I like this picture.

And it seems fitting with that whole new year, new baby iconography.

But, really, I’m using that picture today for this: My mother wrote me a nice note in my most recent birthday card. Just good mother stuff. Part of it also works for the new year. So, if you’ll allow me, I’d like to share some of that wisdom as this new year begins:

Life is an adventure. Adventures are not big because of cost or location or activity. They are big only if you put your full heart and soul into them. They are only as small as a small mind, or as big as you dare to make them.

Dream big, reach high, laugh at everything you can and — above all — take God with you and you will make memories to last a lifetime.

Happy New Year.

adventures / family / history / iPhone / photo / video / weekend — Comments Off
29
Dec 12

Our last Christmas party

You’ll pardon the fuzzy nature of this photo.

That’s my father-in-law and his best friend. “Friends for 60 years!” they said today. They are each the godfather to the other’s kid(s). Bob and Clem’s wives went to nursing school together. Between the two families they had three daughters, and they essentially grew up together. This is about as close to family as you can get without the DNA, which just makes it better, really, because you’re choosing all of those people in your life.

And so it is fitting that this is the last Christmas party of the season. But it was the “Friends for 60 years!” comment that you really like. Especially if you are an in-law, as I am. They all have so many wonderful stories together, two generations and so many decades, and they are all fun to hear.

Then someone goes to the back and pulls out this photograph, because somewhere along the way they discussed it and realized that no one but Bob had ever seen Clem’s upper lip:

That was a photo he’d rescued from his father’s house, one of those thousands of items salvaged from the millions and millions of memories lost because of Hurricane Sandy. We heard Sandy stories, we had homemade lasagna that you wouldn’t believe. We unwrapped presents. We watched the two little kids play. They are the only two kids I’ve met my entire laugh that don’t want to play with me.

That’s OK. I played with their trains, invented a game (that they loved) and made a video:

And I had Sammi, the love dog:

Can’t beat that for late Christmas fun.

Now bring on the spring.

adventures / family / food / photo / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
26
Dec 12

Hockey night in America

We had a white Christmas. There is video and everything!

We went with the in-laws for pizza tonight. Pepe’s is the best I’ve ever had, and it never disappoints:

Then we saw hockey. They took a perfectly good facility, with a leaky roof, and put water on the floor. Then they utter several Harry Potter incantations and the stuff turns into ice with lots of colorful markings beneath the surface.

And then these guys slide around, shuffling back and forth a hard rubber disk with sticks that on occasion break. Occasionally they would pummel each other into the plexiglass that surrounded the rink. One fight was cheered on by the many in attendance.

David Ullstrom, of Sweden, made the hometown proud with three assists. Switzerland’s Nino Niederreiter, on the left, poured in two goals:

Cameron Talbot weathered 24 shots. It was the four that got by him that were of the greatest concern:

On the other end Kevin Poulin controlled the crease, allowing two goals early in the third period, but the visiting Whale rally ended there:

The Sound Tigers added on an empty net goal by Ullstrom with one second left in the game to skate to a 5-2 victory.

And I’m beginning to shake the cold I’ve had since Sunday. So there’s that, too.

family / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
25
Dec 12

A week of ornaments, day 7

Merry Christmas! Have a lovely holiday and celebrate with much joy and peace!

“And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” — Luke 2:16-19

What are your favorite ornaments? Write about them in the comments.