Last week the writing prompt I assigned to my Thursday class at the Concord Public Library was the word NOVEMBER. The method is to write for ten minutes on whatever comes to your mind. Below is what Bob Scherwin wrote. We can depend on Bob to fill us in on events from history, many of which he was involved in. When he wrote about being at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked by the Japanese in 1941, I peered down the table at him. "How old are you, Bob?" I asked.
"Oh, I consider myself middle aged" he answered. "I am 94, my brother is 96, my sister is still a kid. She is 91." He writes about history because he knows that if we don't understand what has gone on before, we are destined to repeat our mistakes. He recently quoted George Washington from his farewell address in 1796, "beware of foreign entanglements." If only this advice had been heeded over the last forty five years. Below is Bob's piece on November.
Veteran’s Day was originally called Armistice Day, which was used to celebrate the end of World War I, the War to end all Wars. It’s hard to imagine that World War I involved 35 countries. It lasted four years, from 1914-1918. The United States only fought from 1917-1918. A year was more than enough time, however, to claim too many lives. People held tight to the notion that this was the very last war. When fighting stopped, leaders of several countries signed an Armistice on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month. An Armistice is an agreement to stop all fighting, in other words, a truce. This truce was signed in November 11th 1918 at 11 AM.
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And now it's Veteran's Day! The day after the birth of the US Marine Corps.
And, when Jessie lived in France, I visited her for a week. One of our adventures was to march in an Armistice Day Parade in a small town south of Paris. We say the little parade go by and just joined in at the end w/ the townspeople. There we were, waving to the people leaning out the second story windows. After the speech at the cemetery, we all cheered "Vive la liberty, vive egalite, vive La France! People rolled up their flags, the band filtered away and we drove off to the next stop. It was fun. They were able to celebrate due to the entry of the US into the war.
Great memory, Don! We would never have known about that little moment of international solidarity. People waving from windows at you and Jessie. wonderful!
Thank you Barb and Bob.
It is a glorious day here, with the enormous American Flag flying mid the western arch of the George Washington Bridge.
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