DOWNSIZING MY BLOG

I have literally hundreds of cousins and we communicate by email more than postal mail. But writing by the human hand and postal mail are becoming a lost art. I'm sorting through boxes of cards and old mail and was reminded that my aunts, my mom and some friends wrote to me and often included a neat quote at the bottom of their letters.
Since I'm not traveling, and most of my activities from home are mundane, I've decided to blog quotes. The first one is from President Roosevelt.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else. -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919)

However, I've decided I can't change the world. I have to focus on what is most important to me which is my home and family, genealogy and my art. To that end, you won't find political rants on my blog. Simple quotes will be the mainstay and only important events in my life will be blogged. Surgeons have to serge, speakers have to speak, and writers have to write.

Ciao

Mary

 

BIRTHDAY 89-A LIFE WELL LIVED.

I met Paul Moeller when he came to my writer's workshop in 1979. I talked him into taking one of my daughter's baby cats home. Then later, in 1980, I joined his classes in video taping. He was determined to get public access programing into Calaveras County. He was so dedicated and so hardworking, you couldn't say "no" to Paul. He's had some tough years, with two broken femurs, strokes and other injuries. Here he is with his caretaker, Pam. He seems to be kind of wondering why everyone is making such a fuss over his birthday.

After his wife died, Marilyn Pyle has taken care of his bookkeeping and his mail and most of the things Martha took care of. Indispensable to him and he feels bereft when she is missing. She quickly organized his birthday party. Just some balloons, friends and cheesecake.

Paul certainly has aging issues; he speaks very slowly but he said of his good friend and neighbor, Bill with his wife Linda, "If you want trouble, you call Bill. Then you get more trouble."  It tickled me he could make a joke.

Paul is like family and Marilyn's husband Vern, and his son, Mitch came by. They do the heavy hauling, moving furniture, dump runs-you name it, they show up.

Marilyn thought it would be nice to take a group picture, which includes Karen Phillips, his long time driver after his first accident, and on the right Audry, Marilyn's mother. I'm in the middle.

Then about that time, Sue showed up. But, we took a lot of pictures anyway.

Karen has a lot of memories of Paul and faithfully visits him every week.

Marilyn decided to put a candle on his favorite cake. Cheesecake at his request.

After we sang Happy Birthday...

He blew out the candle and we spent an hour or more just visiting. He has difficulty hearing on the phone. He rarely has his hearing aids in. But he had calls from friends and relatives in Germany. He has good days and bad days and this one was a good day. He could remember stories and bring up names from the past.

He asked me to take a picture of him with all of his cards. Many of them have cats on them. He lost his cat recently and a stray was hanging around Bill and Linda's house. They suggested he feed the cat. It is feral and now hangs around Paul's big sliding glass window. And though he can't pet it, he enjoys seeing the cat come and eat. He named her/him Roosevelt or Rosie. "I go both ways," he joshed.

I worked on 85 shows with Paul, as his anchor. It amazed me how he could remember names of past friends while I struggled. Paul is a legend in our county. The Board of Supervisor's named the studio after him as an honor. And his legacy of over 4,000 productions

LADY LEX

The USS Lexington is fondly called Lady Lex around Corpus Christi, Texas. She served valiantly in WWII and served a total of 48 years. The Japanese kept broadcasting her sinking, never true. She became known as the ghost ship that came back to life.


Here she sits in the harbor.


She was attacked by two kamikazes. One was shot down, the other hit her island, did huge damage, killed 47 and wounded 123 men. The kamikazes were a desperate measure by the Japanese. They recruited young men do die for their country and offered the great honor of wearing a head band (hackamachi)  used by respected feudal samurai. Kamikaze means Divine Wind, a wind god said to have repelled a Mongol fleet heading toward Japan in 1281.


The Japanese distributed these flyers to demoralize the men. You can barely read at the top, The bearer is entitled to honorable treatment as prescribed by the Geneva Convention.


This is a very personal museum. Many letters described the attack and the subsequent sadness of burying their friends at sea.


One survivor sent in his dog tags and a piece of shrapnel from the “Zeke” they shot down.


The four self guided tours take you all over the ship and while I walked I had this sense of deja vu as though I’d seen this ship before. I could see men running through the hatch doors;


water oozing up though the hatches as the ship flounders in flood mode.

I see the men running, as the horrible piercing sirens go off and some sailor struggles to turn off these valves. I was running all of those WWII movies through my brain only to learn later that indeed, the Lex had been used in several movies.


Sailors slept in hammocks like this, only 18 inches from each other.


A later refurbishment gave much improved sleeping arrangements, but the men who used them referred to them as coffins.


An old swabbie looked like this.


And a modern swabbie we recognize.


If you like models, there were rooms full of them, every size, every ship and plane.


I preferred pictures and paintings of ships.


Here is the Lex going through the Panama Canal with planes like toys littering her deck.

As you walk into a room, a sensor starts a recording and in this spot I heard Roosevelt sadly delineate the number of ships wounded and sunk at Pearl Harbor. The casualties in men. It was about 300 men and 316 ships, if memory serves me.


You can see the fear and sadness in these young faces as they prepare for battle.

And, the wonderful moments of relief and joy at liberty.


Other duties than war.


It was cold and windy and we viewed the deck last. Three football teams could play on this deck at the same time.

The island, the control tower, is the highest part of the ship which from bottom to top is 19 stories high.

I climbed into this wheel well and Jim took my picture.


I liked the painted personality of the Skyhawk, the plane I crawled into.

The navigation room, again gave me that deja vu. The compass on the right, with the huge compensating  ball-magnets keeps the compass functioning. So, I got to massage the navigator’s balls, as they are called.


The life rafts are now reversible, so no matter what side they fall on you can get in. But, it isn’t water proof. Brr, that’s cold.


There was so much to see here. We spent four and one-half hours on the ship. Pricey, we thought, at $11.95 each, senior price, plus $3.50 for parking.  We also ate a delicious cafeteria style lunch on board. But, they also show two major movies wearing 3-D glasses that were absolutely stupendous and worth the price of the ticket on their own. So,  go see the Lex if it is the only thing you have time for.