Memorial Day Weekend

At a time when our president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country's prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country.

JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when
DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US
Military out of France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded,
"Does that include those who are buried here?"

DeGaulle
Did not respond.

You could have heard a pin drop.


When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the
Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of 'empire building' by George Bush.

He answered by saying,
"Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."

You could have heard a pin drop.


There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers
Were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, "Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?"

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:
"Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?"

You could have heard a pin drop.

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many Languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, "Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than peaking French?"

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the
Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."

You could have heard a pin drop.

And this story fits right in with the above ...

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.

At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport inhis carry on.

"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked
Sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.


"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible... Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France!"

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at OmahaBeach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."

You could have heard a pin drop.

Remembering Mom's Clothesline

We had a long wooden pole (clothes pole) that was used to push the clotheslines up so that longer items (sheets/pants/etc.) didn't brush the ground and get dirty.

You have to be a "certain age" to appreciate this one. ... (But you YOUNGER ones can read about "The GOOD ol' days"!!)
I can hear my mother now.....
THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES:

1. You had to hang the socks by the toes... NOT the top.

2.You hung pants by the BOTTOM/cuffs... NOT the waistbands.

3.You had to WASH the clothesline(s) before hanging any clothes - walk the entire length of each line with a damp cloth around the lines.

4.You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hang "whites" with "whites," and hang them first.

5.You NEVER hung a shirt by the shoulders - always by the tail! What would the neighbors think?

6.Wash day on a Monday! NEVER hang clothes on the weekend, or on Sunday, for Heaven's sake!
7.Hang the sheets and towels on the OUTSIDE lines so you could hide your "unmentionables" in the middle (perverts & busybodies, y'know!)

8. It didn't matter if it was sub-zero weather... clothes would "freeze-dry."

9. ALWAYS gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines were "tacky"!

10. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothes pins, but shared one of the clothes pins with the next washed item.

11.Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed.

12. IRONED???!! Well, that's a whole OTHER subject

Old Guy And A Bucket Of Shrimp

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.

Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.

Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.

Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.

Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave.

He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.

When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, 'a guy who's a sandwich shy of a picnic,' as my kids might say. To onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.

To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant .... maybe even a lot of nonsense.

Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.

Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida . That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better.

His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero back in World War II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were.

They needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft..

Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck... He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for eight men - of it. Then they used the intestines for bait... With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait......and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued (after 24 days at sea...).

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull.. And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

Reference: (Max Lucado, "In The Eye of the Storm",
pp..221, 225-226)

PS: Eddie started Eastern Airlines.

Burma Shave Signs ... History lessons

For those who never saw any of the Burma Shave signs, here is a quick lesson in our history of the 1930's and '40's.

Before there were interstates, when everyone drove the old 2 lane roads, Burma Shave signs would be posted all over the countryside in farmers' fields.

They were small red signs with white letters. Five signs, about 100 feet apart, each containing 1 line of a 4 line couplet and the obligatory 5th sign advertising Burma Shave, a popular shaving cream.

Here are more of the actual signs:

DON'T STICK YOUR ELBOW
OUT SO FAR
IT MAY GO HOME
IN ANOTHER CAR.
BURMA SHAVE

TRAINS DON'T WANDER
ALL OVER THE MAP
'CAUSE NOBODY SITS
IN THE ENGINEER'S LAP
Burma Shave

SHE KISSED THE HAIRBRUSH
BY MISTAKE
SHE THOUGHT IT WAS
HER HUSBAND JAKE
Burma Shave

DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD
TO GAIN A MINUTE
YOU NEED YOUR HEAD
YOUR BRAINS ARE IN IT
Burma Shave

DROVE TOO LONG
DRIVER SNOOZING
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
IS NOT AMUSING
Burma Shave

BROTHER SPEEDER
LET'S REHEARSE
ALL TOGETHER
GOOD MORNING, NURSE
Burma Shave

CAUTIOUS RIDER
TO HER RECKLESS DEAR
LET'S HAVE LESS BULL
AND A LITTLE MORE STEER
Burma Shave

SPEED WAS HIGH
WEATHER WAS NOT
TIRES WERE THIN
X MARKS THE SPOT
Burma Shave

THE MIDNIGHT RIDE
OF PAUL FOR BEER
LED TO A WARMER
HEMISPHERE
Burma Shave

AROUND THE CURVE
LICKETY-SPLIT
BEAUTIFUL CAR
WASN'T IT?
Burma Shave

NO MATTER THE PRICE
NO MATTER HOW NEW
THE BEST SAFETY DEVICE
IN THE CAR IS YOU
Burma Shave

A GUY WHO DRIVES
A CAR WIDE OPEN
IS NOT THINKIN'
HE'S JUST HOPIN'
Burma Shave

AT INTERSECTIONS
LOOK EACH WAY
A HARP SOUNDS NICE
BUT IT'S HARD TO PLAY
Burma Shave

BOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL
EYES ON THE ROAD
THAT'S THE SKILLFUL
DRIVER'S CODE
Burma Shave

THE ONE WHO DRIVES
WHEN HE'S BEEN DRINKING
DEPENDS ON YOU
TO DO HIS THINKING
Burma Shave

CAR IN DITCH
DRIVER IN TREE
THE MOON WAS FULL
AND SO WAS HE.
Burma Shave

PASSING SCHOOL ZONE
TAKE IT SLOW
LET OUR LITTLE
SHAVERS GROW
Burma Shave

In 2009

 

For 10^th Anniversaries in 2009

1999 was the year that:

The "Monica-gate" scandal hysteria finally subsided when, after being impeached by the House of Representatives, President Bill Clinton was tried and acquitted by the Senate.

A Cuban kid named Elian Gonzalez became an overnight celebrity when he survived the capsizing of the small refugee motorboat during which his mother drowned.  The battle over whether he stayed with relatives in Florida or return to his father in Cuba raged for months before he was forcefully repatriated.

The first giant panda to be born in captivity saw the light of day at the San Diego Zoo.

The United States handed over operation of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian authorities in compliance with the agreement originally reached when Jimmy Carter was president.

American cancer survivor Lance Armstrong scored the first of several wins at the Tour de France world cycling competition.

American Beauty won the Oscar for Best Film of the year.  Kevin Spacey, in the same film, won Best Actor; Hilary Swank won best actress for her role in Boys Don't Cry; and Sam Mendes won Best Director, also for American Beauty.

German novelist Gunter Grass received the Nobel Prize in literature.  Unfortunately, a few years later it would be revealed that the left-wing, progressive author had volunteered to fight for Adolf Hilter as a teenager.

John F. Kennedy Jr., formerly known as "John-John" and the son of JFK and Jackie Kennedy (later Onassis) died in a crash, along with his wife, while piloting his small private aircraft.

Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura took the oath of office as the independently elected governor of Minnesota.

Teenagers Dylan Klebod and Eric Harris horrified the nation, murdering 12 of their fellow students in the notorious Columbine High School massacre.

"Doctor Death" Jack Kevorkian, an outspoken advocate of mercy killing, was convicted of second –degree murder in the death of one of his patients.

New York swamped Atlanta, four games to none to win the 1999 World Series for the American League.

The Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl, beating the Atlanta Falcons 34 to 19.

 

For 20^th Anniversaries in 2009

1989 was the year that :

In a delayed response to Ronal Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall," the Berlin Wall crumbled as a first indication that the "Evil Empire" was about to bite the dust.

President George H.W. Bush invaded Panama.  Unlike his son's later intervention in Iraq, that episode ended quickly with the toppling of corrupt dictator Manuel Noreiga and a restoration of elected civilian government . . . and no costly, long –term American occupation.

A tanker named the Exxon Valdez made an all-too-big splash off the coast of Alaska, the result of a massive oil spill when the ship's skipper – who was later tried for negligence – ran the mighty tanker aground.

Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu and his wife, Elena, were given early retirements when their regime was overturned by a mob uprising in the capital of Bucharest.  The couple were summarily tried and executed by firing squad after failing to escape the country.

White South African President F.W. de Klerk met with African national Congress leader Nelson Mandela in the opening steps of a peacefully negotiated settlement that would result in the end of apartheid and the installation of the first freely elected black government in South Africa.

Leona Helmsley, the millionaire hotel proprietor and so-called Queen of Mean, was sentenced to prison for income tax evasion.  It probably didn't help that her judge and jurors learned that she once told an employee that "only little people pay taxes."

Failed televangelist James Bakker also had to serve prison time after being convicted of fraud.

Cheers, the good-natured sitcom centered on the staff and regulars of a Boston bar, won the Emmy for best prime-time television series.

Driving Miss Daisy won the Oscar for Best Picture, Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for his role in My Left Foot, Jessica Tandy won Best Actress for her title role in Driving Miss Daisy and Oliver Stone won Best Director for his Born on the Fourth of July.

Bette Milder won a Grammy for her single Wind Beneath My Wings, and Bonnie Raitt won one for her album Nick of Time.

Oakland won the World Series for the American League, trouncing San Francisco four games to none.

The San Francisco 49ers clinched the Super Bowl, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals, 20 to 16.

 

 

For 25^th Anniversaries in 2009

1984 was the year that:

President Ronald Reagan swept to re-election with an overwhelming victory, carrying 49 of the 50 states against Democratic banner bearer – and former Carter vice president – Walter Mondale.  His winning slogan was "It's morning again in America."

Even in defeat, the Democratic ticket made history, having chosen the first women to serve as vice presidential nominee of a major party, New York Rep. Geraldine Ferraro.

Bell Labs in New Jersey scored a major high-tech breakthrough, inventing a megabyte chip capable of storing 400% more data than all earlier versions.

Female astronaut Dr. Kathryn Sullivan became the first woman to walk in space.

New York buckled up to become the first state to pass a compulsory seat beat law.

Singer Bruce Springsteen achieved superstardom with his album Born in the U.S. A.

An American balloonist became the first to cross the Atlantic.  Joe W. Kittinger successfully flew from Maine to Europe, crash-landing near Savona, Italy.  He emerged from the wreckage of his 10-story-tall balloon with nothing worse than a broken ankle.

Author William Kennedy won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Ironweed.

America cleaned up in the 1983 Los Angeles Olympics, garnering a total of 83 gold medals, 81 silver and 30 bronze.  The stellar showing was due in part to the Soviet boycott.  Outstanding American athletes included California Greg Louganis, who won both the platform and springboard diving events.

The top 1984 films included Amadeus, Beverly Hills Cop and Ghost Busters.

The Detroit Tigers took the World Series, winning four games to one against the San Diego Padres.

The Los Angeles Raiders won the Super Bowl, swamping the Washington Redskins 38 to 9.

 

 

For 50^th Anniversaries in 2009

1959 was the year that:

The U.S. chose its first team of astronauts.  In an opening round in the race for space, NASA picked its first seven potential space travelers.

A little-know, bearded young Marxist revolutionary seized power in Cuba, turning out the corrupt Batista regime on Jan. 1.  His name:  Fidel Castro.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower jointly presided over opening ceremonies for the St. Lawrence Seaway.  The 2,350-mile waterway opened up vast new trade opportunities for both the American and Canadian economies.

In a small portent of things to come, on July 19 two soldiers belonging to a small U.S. Army mission were killed by Communist guerrillas at Bienhoa, South Vietnam.

"The Great Cranberry Scare of 1959" resulted when traces of a carcinogenic weed killer (ATZ) were founded in cranberry bogs in Oregon.  Although there was no contamination in major cranberry-growing areas of New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts, the resulting panic lead to a major slump in cranberry consumption – and many jelly-free Thanksgivings in American homes that year.

Notable movies of 1959 included Ben Hur, La Dolce Vita, Some Like It Hot, Breathless, North by Northwest, Anatomy of a Murder and Gidget.

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series, beating the White Sox, for games to two.