Monday, May 27, 2023
Clear. High 79 degrees.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events! Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to check.
The first Manhattanhenge sunset is tonight. See details here.
History
May ends its reign on a solemn note
Remembering the tragedy of war
With speeches and flags on Memorial Day
Cold comfort forevermore
~ Mildred Alpern
When I think of those lost at war I think of Marty, the boy my mother loved before she met my father. Foolish girl that I was, I never asked for details — or maybe I didn’t want to be untrue to my father. All I know is his name — and that he was “killed in the war.” Rest in peace, Marty.
~ Carol Tannenhauser
Share your memories here.
As someone who didn’t live during America’s previous wars, but knew men who fought them, I’ve lived my life pretty much in shock that such ugly times could have existed. The numbers are staggering. I can’t see how anyone could deny a collective global intergenerational trauma from basically the entire 1910s to 1950s, and of course intermittent ‘police actions’ since.
I stand in awe of those who gave so much for us all.
A moving story, Carol. On this day, Marty is a stand-in for all the men and women lost in all the wars, and those who came home damaged in body and soul. RIP, Marty, whoever you were.
May all their memories – Marty included – be a blessing.
We hope you’ve had fair winds and following seas Marty. God bless.
In 2009, I acquired a five-foot by four-foot framed oil portrait of a Civil War Captain named Henry A. Durivage, painted by artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter. In a really strange miracle of synchronicity, the same week while I was waiting to see if he was available, I found his real image: a 4-inch by 2.5-inch CDV from a Civil War dealer in Ohio. The dealer had just acquired the tiny photo, but the dealer who owned the painting had had it for years, so even if they both came from the same estate, they did not go into the antiques universe at the same time. I was able to buy both. My Captain was the Commanding Officer of the Third Massachusetts Unattached Cavalry and he had been killed in the War in 1862, when he drowned in the Mississippi River (his obituary reported he had a bad heart) while on a flotilla of Union ships under the command of General Benjamin Butler on their way to take the port City of New Orleans. His brother also died in the War. Every day since, I celebrate Henry’s life, which he gave to the cause of preserving the Union at 24 years and 10 months. I think everyone should “adopt” military personnel who no longer has family who cherishes their memory. When I travel, especially to NOLA, I take Henry’s picture with me so he gets some of the life he never got to experience, and we take photos together. Then I post them on social media. Henry is an entity to the people who know me.