Finding the Focus of a Story

Ashley and Faye, Spokane, Washington, September 1944.

I'm close to wrapping up the last two weeks or so of my father's letters to my mother from the Western Pacific in the last year of World War II.

It has been quite a journey.  I've met my father as a 24-year-old puppy, and learned a great deal more about the one part of his overseas service during the war that he rarely talked about. The war part.

Yard Bunny Attempts to Look Like Statue

In the morning, when I'm working at my computer and having my second cup of coffee, I often notice the Yard Bunny hop by on the brick patio.  This morning, I got up to see if he headed for the remaining romaine.  Indeed.

Our Hope For the Future: Middle School Young People Like These

The Spring Choral Concert at Crittenden Middle School, Mountain View, California, gave all who attended a bright picture of the future of America.

A friend of mine invited me to see her son perform at his local middle school's Spring Concert. The family's father is in the Marines and has recently deployed for Bahrain, where he will serve for a year. 

When they learned this would be a twelve-month assignment, the family was a little stunned.  But when he departed in April, they pulled together to make it work.  They are now doing what military families everywhere are doing:  their best to cope, to serve, and to go forward with a smile, so their loved one can do his job, and return to the arms of his family.

The Magical Side of Family Research: A True Tale That Surprised Two Daughters

Some costume jewelry from our mother's collection, that was a big hit at our garage sale in June of 2010. It had a treasure mixed in with it.

Last June, I had just about reached the limit of my ability to sort through my parents' possessions.  They had died within months of each other just half a year before, and I was a bit wrung out. I asked my sister--told her, actually--that if we were going to get rid of all the stuff left over from their lives--stuff I had rather ruthlessly piled in the garage--I wasn't going to be able to manage a garage sale on my own.

My sister rose to the challenge and with the help of her loyal spouse, the three of us mustered a weekend of garage sale recycling:  you take our junque, and we charge you almost nothing if you just get it the heck out of our driveway.

In the course of this exhausting event, we almost sold a precious item we shouldn't have--but something caused my sister to hold it back.  We had no idea what she had saved until this week.

A Battle Aboard a Doomed Dirigible: And a Battle for a Doomed Dirigible Hangar

In this Ronald Reagan movie, the airship U.S.S. Macon is called the "Mason" but other than that the details of Moffett Field, in Sunnyvale, California, remain key plot points in the 1940 thriller.

I've been out at Moffett Field several times this past week, donating a little time at the Historical Society as they host the Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom Tour.  The tour brings a B-17 "Flying Fortress," a B-24 "Liberator," and a P-51 "Mustang," to Moffet each year.  These are among the last of the World War II planes of their kind that are still flying, and they are used to remind people all over America of the amazing work the World War II generation did for all of us.

The planes landed in the shadow of Moffett's historic Hangar One (and will stay there through 9/28/2011), an enormous local landmark designed to house the U.S.S. Macon, an airship the Navy hoped at one time would be part of the future of naval aviation. And though the airships didn't turn out to be much use, the hangar remained--a stunning local standout of a structure.

Maria and Arnold Re-Deux: I'm Shocked, Shocked, This is Going on in Hollywood!

There's enough Hollywood sleaze in Kenneth Anger's two books to satisfy the worst schadenfreude in the best of us.  BTW, that's Liz, not looking her best ... 

The newspapers and television stations are going nuts for this Arnold-with-the-love-child thing.  Perhaps, for the aging actor, it will be just the kind of virile publicity he will need to get his macho acting mojo back.

Really.  You think I'm kidding?  In Hollywood, practically anything that is sleazy is possible, and practically all publicity is good publicity. If you don't believe me, take a gander at two of my favorite, truly tacky books about Hollywood, by the weird and wonderful Kenneth Anger: Hollywood Babylon, and Hollywood Babylon II. They are both just awful.  And lots of fun.  

The "Wild Deuces" of the 1902 Aviation Engineers

A photo of my father, Commander of "C" Company, from the unit history of the 1902 Aviation Engineers' overseas tour in the Battle of Okinawa. 

The unit history of my father's World War II battalion arrived in the mail yesterday from Maxwell Air Force Base. It is absolutely fascinating, though difficult at times to decipher.

The reports that make up the history began life 66 years ago as monthly reports, typed up by an adjutant for the commanding officer who shot it up the chain of command to his commanding officer. Thus, they are, as is the case in almost all big organizations, reports heavy on things one would want the chief to know, and light on any details of "complications."