Wreaths Across America time again ...

One thing I always look forward to just before Christmas is the Wreaths Across America ceremony that is held on December 18th (or so) at 12:00 -- all around the world.  I had fun getting it going in Sidney, Ohio and worked with a lot of really super people. We usually hit it for around 600 wreaths, and got a lot of support there in Shelby County.  But, then we moved to North Carolina and I didn't know what would happen and how I might be able to help.

In Sidney, it was a relatively small project in a small cemetery.  There was usually a much bigger ceremony at the Dayton VA hospital, but we didn't get involved there.  So when we moved to NC, we did our research and found out that the project pretty much centered around the Raleigh National Cemetery. It is a little smaller than the Dayton VA (which is still an active cemetery and placed a little over 7,000 wreaths this year), and a whole lot smaller than Arlington National Cemetery (150,000 wreaths), but it is still a good ceremony and pretty well supported. The Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France placed 9,300 wreaths and all 14 American cemeteries in in other countries participated.  In America, 2.4 million wreaths were placed in over 3,100 cities.

There are 5,200 white granite or flat marble veteran grave markers, meticulously lined up across a neatly manicured field.  Also, it is worth noting that this cemetery is now pretty much inactive as all the burial sites are occupied. 

This year's ceremony was very well attended.  The sky was overcast and    rain was only about 30 miles away, but the people who were there were    determined to get the wreaths all placed.  Scouts, Veterans of all   ages, JROTC students, young kids with their parents and grandparents --            everyone pitching in, got the wreaths down and all the boxes cleaned up    just as the rain sprinkles arrived . HOOAH!!

One thing that made this time more special was having Keith and Jeanie Putnam with us.  They are both old Ohio friends who were spending the weekend with us.  Keith and Jeanie were both veterans of our Vets to DC trips back in Ohio.  Keith was a teacher at Anna when I was principal there, but more importantly  -- Keith is a retired US Navy Commander.  He was a navigator-Electronic Recon guy in in EA-3Bs in Vietnam.  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 What a great time...honoring Veterans with another Veteran.  Doesn't get much better than this.

The mission of the Wreaths Across America project is to Remember our Veterans, Honor them, and Teach our young people about them. 

 

“We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.”  (George Orwell)

 

  Hooah

My goodness, what a change ...

Veteran's Day was earlier this week, and a lot of the Veterans I know had a photo or two posted on Facebook showing the Soldier in their younger days.  

This brought a couple of things to my attention -- most of us looked much better (you know, the lean, mean, fighting machine picture) back then, and most of the pictures were taken many, many moons ago (most of us had hair and it wasn't gray).

Well, I came across these two pictures of 1SG Dave and 2LT me.  The first one was taken shortly after I got my commission to 2LT and we were deployed to do the Cubans at Ft. Chaffee.  This would have been the second time we were assigned to that mission.  Notice how slim and trim both of us are.  Those were the days.

The second picture is many years later, and was taken at a Battalion Dining Out.  Not sure of the year, but it was somewhere between 1994-98 as those were the years I was the battalion commander (all four years as a major). One other thing worth noting -- look at all of those service stripes on the CSM's sleeve.  He used to say he was a senior bus driver with all of those things.  Dave was pretty close to the end of his career; I still served for at least 10 to 14 more years.  I sure owe a lot to Dave's guidance and leadership over all those years and assignments.  I think most of the lost hair in the second picture was the result of raising a fresh 2LT and mentoring him all those years ... no easy task.

So those are my Veteran's Day remembrances for this year.  Sure had lots more pictures to look at and LOTS more memories, but these two just happened to be first ones in the folder I was looking through at the time.  Maybe more some other post.

A true friend accepts who you are, but also helps you to become who you should be. (Anon.)

Hooah

Funny what you can see on a road trip ...

Well, it wasn't a real road trip.  I was just going up town, maybe to get gas or go to Wal-Mart for something.  

Anyway, one of the big house-building companies was clearing all the timber out of a few acres just a little ways from here.  They have been going absolutely crazy around here clearing land and throwing up housing areas.  Thing is, people are buying them as fast or faster than they can build them (which, by the way doesn't take very long). Once the concrete dries they have a house framed up in a day!! 

So, back to the road trip.  As I came around a turn, I saw a tree that had been left -- a single tree in the middle of huge farm field. At first it looked like a mistake of nature.  But as I went past it to the other side, I looked in the rear view mirror and it looked like something out of a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or some other science fiction movie.  Check it out:

Pretty cool, huh.  Maybe those land clearing guys actually had an eye for a far-out piece of modern art. Nice wings.  Nice beak. Deep-seated eyes. Looks like its walking across the field.

The more I look at it, the more I wonder what history that tree has lived through, how many times it might have been struck by lightning, what droughts or tornadoes or fires it might have survived. Who was it who said "that tree is outstanding in its field."  I know -- bad, huh!

Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it. Share this Quote Douglas Hyde
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/strange-quotes

Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it. Share this Quote Douglas Hyde
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/strange-quotes

Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it. (Douglas Hyde)

Hooah

Beautiful music ... what a break ...

My friend Dave sent me this link. 

According to the description on the link, over 600 military musicians from 11 nations came together to perform this rendition of the song, Unchained Melody.  This performance took place at the Musicshow of the Nations in Bremen, Germany.

Unchained Melody was written in 1955 and served as the theme for a little-known prison film that year titled "Unchained." Todd Duncan sang the song for the movie, but most people know it as the song made famous by the Righteous Brothers. 

Click on this link from the Musicshow of the Nations and enjoy.  Unchained Melody 

This link takes you to the Righteous Brothers version of the song. Righteous Brothers version

Another version that was really popular was done in the film, Ghost. Ghost

All of these links are listed on the YouTube site and you can go there to see many other fine renditions of these and other great, memorable songs ... especially for those of you who grew up in the 50s, 60s and 70s. 

And speaking of the 50s and 60s, I came across the picture below as I was looking through some of my notes and quotes.   And I thought as long as we are looking back, most of you who were pre-teens in the 50s would remember what time they had to be in at night when they were growing up back then and would get a kick out of this.  Kinda goes with the mood of the song.

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright)

Hooah

Good golly, Miss Dolly... (Part 1 of 2)

About a month ago, I took a big ole dip into the bucket list bucket and came up with an interesting thing -- "Go to Dollywood."  Never been there before, so I thought, "what the heck," let's do this.  I spent a day running down motel reservations and tickets for the park and the dinner show and putting together an agenda.  Since our visit was after Labor Day, the park was closed on Tuesdays.  I kinda screwed up and got the motel reservations before looking at the dates for the park.  Oh well, that part of the country is beautiful so there had to be things to do. We were in it for four days, so let's go see what we can get into.

With that in mind, Pam and I packed our bags and off we went.  The drive wasn't too bad -- I-40 all the way.  There was one section in the mountains, however, that would be really dicey in fog or the winter, but it was a pretty easy 4-hour drive in September.  On the way, we came across the factory where they make Bush's Baked Beans.  Might have to stop there next time.

Our first day was pretty much devoted to sight seeing in the area.  The pictures below were views from our hotel.  Big mountains -- Smokey Mountains.

We had heard that Sevierville, TN, which was Dolly's birth place, was worth a look so we drove up there and looked around.  Didn't see much -- probably not looking in the right places.  We did, however, see this statue of Dolly in the downtown area.

We also spent some time driving up in the Smoky Mountains.  We stopped at the visitor's center/ranger's offices and checked it out.  I found a couple of interesting books there -- Bear in the Back Seat I and II,  Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger,  written by Kim DeLozier and Carolyn Jourdan.  Good books, funny stories and amazing look into the life of a wildlife ranger in the Smoky Mountains. We then drove up the parkway a bit and came across a trail that looked inviting.  I wish I had read the books and DeLozier's advice about bears before going off on a hike.  Fortunately we only saw birds and falling leaves.

We spent our evening at a place called "The Island." It is a really "island" located in the downtown area, just off the main drag.  It has really neat shops, great restaurants (including a Paula Deen's restaurant, which was a super dining place), and a spectacular water fountain that shoots up water choreographed to music.  At night, it is also a water/light display and lots of people sit around in rocking chairs.

(This picture will be replaced by a video as soon as I remember how to do that 😀)

So, that was the first part of this particular road trip.  So far, so good.

 

When I'm inspired, I get excited because I can't wait to see what I'll come up with next. (Dolly Parton)

 

Hooah

BULLS win, BULLS win ...

Back in 1988, the movie, Bull Durham, hit the screen and became an instant cult classic.  If you had seen it, back then, and could quote a few lines from Crash, you might have been one of the "cool" guys, and girls (and maybe other jocks, too) thought you had the "it" factor that was portrayed by Kevin Costner in the movie.

 

 

I used to play baseball in little league and high school, and I was a catcher. Hmmm.  But as it turned out, the movie was several years after I graduated -- in fact, I had been in the Army for almost 20 years by that time.  Amazing how things get caught up in the blur of time.

Anyway, the reason I am writing this entry is since moving to North Carolina, we have been to several Bulls games.  It is really fun and the Bulls play a high level game for a minor league team.  Attending one of these games is pretty much like attending a major league game -- parking is expensive, team attire is expensive, and food is really expensive!!  But it is fun.  We have taken our grandkids to a few of the games.  They really liked seeing the eyes on the BULL out in left field light up and smoke come out of its nose when one of the Bulls players hits a home run.  They also really liked the "bat dog" (a Lab that would go out and retrieve the Bulls batter's bat after he got finished hitting).  

 

So, anyhow, the Bulls won the Triple-A East division with an 86-44 record. They also won the "Final Stretch" (kinda like their end-of-the-season championship).  Our last game was the last Friday Night fireworks game.  They really know how to do fireworks.  Below is a short sample.

So, how did all of this measure up with the kids?  Well check this out...

 

Already looking forward to going to one or two of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey games with Doug and the boys. Also looking forward to another baseball season.

“Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You’ll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy and you’ll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back on your shower shoes and the press will think you’re colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you’re a slob.” (Crash Davis / Kevin Costner)

 

Or, if you have the "it" factor, how 'bout this ... 

"The rose goes in the front, big guy.’ (Crash)

 

Hooah

Trip #14, can you believe that ...

Well, I am now rested up from our most recent "Man Trip."  This is the 14th trip we have done; not all with the same guys -- some have died, some are too old, some have abandoned their golf game, COVID has put some on the bench -- but 14 years none the less.

Team Picture from 2021 (Trip #14)

 

We did a marathon this year, playing 27 holes three days in a row and then 18 on the last day!! Pros don't even do that much, or at least at our age.  Most of the players are now in their late 60s or early-to-mid-70s, and that's not their score.  As has been the case for the past few years, we played a nice course at Mt. Pilot, NC (not too far from Pilot Mountain and Mt. Airy) called Pilot Knob.  As is also a tradition, we finished the trip with a team picture.  Check out this group of par busters above.

Don't know how many more years these trips will continue -- might try for 20!  Group is already committed to next year's trip.  Pretty hard core.

Now that this year is over, I think of all the guys who have been on one of these.  My thoughts always go back to the first groups, especially Dave, Chuck, and Dave.  Yep -- that was a good group.

FYI -- here are two of the earliest pictures from the very beginning.  

The very first trip, 2007, checking in at front desk (l-r) Chuck, me, Dave.

Getting ready to tee off on first hole, 2008 (l-r) me, Dave M., Dave B., Chuck.

 

Just a side note -- the two Daves are both left-handers, so Chuck and I had to go get some mental counseling after playing with them.  They were never on the same side of the fairway as we were, and sometimes not even in the same fairway.  Challenging, but great fun and lots of laughs.

These golf trips are kinda like class reunions.  Nobody quite looks the same as they did when we started them, or even like they did on the last trip, but the fact that we are there is all that matters.  We swap new and old stories, probably eat and drink too much, but nobody cares. Our golf isn't that great, but nobody cares about that either. It all boils down to having 12 friends getting together to play a game.  You don't hear of that very often anymore, especially doing it for a whole week.  

I look forward to this every year.  We used to play in March, but the weather and the courses were not very hospitable then, especially as we got up in age. So, we switched to the fall and really enjoy the NC climate then. I guess now you could call us "The boys of Fall."

Looking forward to next year.  Hope everyone stays healthy.

From exercise keen, from strength active and bold,
We traverse the green, and forget to grow old...
("The Golfer's Garland" of the Blackheath Golf Club, 1700s)

Hooah