Jack’s Winning Words 12/7/20

 “December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.”  (President FDR)  Most people living today “Remember 9/11.”  Some are smart enough to “Remember the Alamo” and why?  As long as I live I’ll remember where I was when I heard about Pearl Harbor and the start of WW 2 for America.  Is there a date that you especially remember?  BTW: Infamy means “a collection of evil deeds,” or something like that.  ;-)  Jack

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  I think we all remember that day; I was just in High School, but some of our classmates lost their lives in WW2, so it had tough consequences.  I especially remember the day Pres. Kennedy was shot and killed. I was broken hearted at the time!! My wedding date is a pleasure to remember, too, after all these years ! (70) ! I wish we had been able to share all 70, but 51 were a blessing...===JACK:  Life does not always turn out the way we want it...but my satisfaction is to be able to celebrate the good times and know that God goes with us all the way.

FROM GUSTIE:  I too remember Pearl Harbor Day.  I was 6 years old.  My Mom and Dad and I sat around our radio (only 1 in the house) listening to Pres. Roosevelt.  Scary.===JACK:   Many things scare us...both young and old.  I get frustrated when we seem not to learn how to live at peace with each other, even in the USA.   ===G:  Part of the problem is that they do not teach American History in the schools anymore.  And now we are trying to change it.  That means it will happen all over again.  Those statues they are tearing down is part of our history. ===JACK:  A bigger problem is a failure to understand that "history" is how a particular writer put it into a book.  To understand history, we have to be able to read more than one account...and somewhere between the different accounts is the truth.  I fwe are smart, we continue to learn, even in our old age.  

FROM RS IN TEXAS:  9/11 and JFK’s assassination.===JACK:  I remember where I was...and the time of day, when I heard of the assassination, but I can't recall the date, as I can, "the day shall live in infamy."===RS:  Yeah....November 22, 1963....I was a freshman in college.   The next day four of us got in a car and drove nonstop to D.C. for the funeral.  The impetuousness of youth.===JACK:  The loss of impetuousness makes the world a stodgier place.

FROM MY LAWYER:  Two events come to mind.  My first recollection as a child was in April, 1945. My mother and I we walking my younger brother down the street in a stroller When a neighbor lady ran towards us yelling that President Roosevelt had just died. My mother began to cry. I had never seen her cry. That event is the first recollection I have.  Secondly, like you I’m sure, I vividly recall November 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated. The whole world seemed to stop that day. I was in college at the time.===JACK:  Thanks for reminding me of the death of FDR.  I remember it, but not specifically.  The year of assassinations was unbelievable.  Strangely, I recall the day (a Sunday) and the time (around noon) when I heard that Malcolm X had been shot.  Those were violent days. 

FROM SHALOM JAN:  The day President Kennedy was assassinated. ===JACK:  Those were tumultuous times.    

FROM THE FISH IN NOVA SCOTIA:  I was born on 14 August 1942...a bit overdue...just about exactly 9 mo later :-) my parents never discussed it with me. We lived in Charleston SC at the old Citadel fort which was by then faculty housing--my dad was a prof at CMA--and my first memories include riding my tricycle (under supervision of my mother) through Spoleto Square and being given Cracker Jacks and chewing gum by the many sailors, who were probably missing their little brothers at home. I remember sitting with my parents in front of the big brown radio with the round dial and listening to the news about VJ Day (I don't remember VE Day). Later, we moved to the Charleston Navy Yard when CMA ran short of students and my dad took a civilian job with the Navy. He and my mom and I went and toured the German U-Boat which had recently surrendered and is now at the Field Museum in Chicago.===JACK: VE and VJ days were important to me, because I was a graduating high school senior at the time, and it meant that I and my friends would not being off to fight in that terrible war.  Those German U-Boats were scary vessels.  I did see the one at the Chicago museum,.===FISH:  my wife and brother-in-law and sister-in-law experienced WW II more directly. Some of the houses in Hannelore's neighborhood in Schwanheim (no part of Frankfurt) turned into craters, and she remembers watching old Frankfurt burn one night in 1944 across the river. My brother-in-law joined the army at age 17 and was sent down to Italy in a unit of 110 men, just before the withdrawal began. They left Italy with maybe 18 (figures by memory). He was then deployed to the Eastern Front, shot and captured by the Russians, and spent until around 1949 in Russia as a POW, finally logging in Western Siberia. He is now 95, which would have been great and surprising news to him during some of those years. My other brother-in-law was wounded next to the gates to Moscow and was lucky to be evacuated to Estonia (then in German hands) by a Junkers cargo plane bringing supplies to the tank units. He never was a prisoner and still had his officer's sidearm when he died in his 90s. My sister-in-law always hated having the gun around the house (next to their bed), and after his death she called the police and told them she wanted to turn it in. They told her which building to go to. She wrapped it in a towel and put it in a shopping bag and went to the police HQ (in Dusseldorf, I imagine) and went up to the correct floor without telling anyone she had a weapon (she must not have had to pass through a metal detector). There she sat in one of the chairs surrounding a waiting room. She took a number and when her turn came the officer was horrified; she was possibly the only one in the full waiting room who was not there at police request. She got a receipt which she later threw away. A few days later there was a knock on the door, and it was a policeman to collect the weapon. She said she already turned in in; he demanded to see her receipt. Somehow, it all got straightened out.===JACK:  Thanks for "the rest of the story."  One of my former church members was a former German soldier who lost his eye in o0ne of the Italian battles.  "We were just kids.  We believed that what they told us was true."  The bombing of Germany, while it helped end WW 2, must have been terrible for the innocents on the ground.  I believe that I did have an occasion to meet yout mother-in-law.

 FROM WILLMAR REV:  My wedding anniversary has been a challenge for me of late...July 25 or 27...my birthday in March is the 27th and our daughter’s birthday in September is the 27th...for some reason I am found floundering when July rolls around...I had to look up my daughter’s actual date when posting my comments this morning! 0;-/===JACK:  I have a special feeling of sympathy for people who are afflicted with dementia.  What a blessing from God is the ability to remember.  What if we couldn't remember Bible verse or song lyrics?===REV:  My Mom walked through that for five years before passing...it worked out that I brought her to Willmar the last year as my sister wanted to move to Arizona from KC where Mom was being kept...Special for me to be able to stop in 2-3 times a week for a few minutes and basically hold her hand or watch Bonanza with her. When she passed, the funeral home embalmed her, placed her in a casket we had picked out and allowed me to rent a van as if I was their employee and take her body to the funeral home in our hometown town in Kansas. I preached her funeral, stayed a couple of nights before heading home. I mentioned this because we were able to cover all these expenses from the funeral money she had set aside from Medicaid...Very thankful for the local funeral home for giving me the privilege and blessing I received in honoring my Mother in this way. 0;-)===JACK:  Your story brings to mind the song, "Precious Memories."

 

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  who can forget JFK and MLK's assassinations?  or 9/11/01?  or the Challenger blowing up on lift off in 1986?  or the day you got married or ordained?  also, the birth of your first child.===JACK:  We each have our own memory bank.  I wonder if God keeps a book of memories?  I'm sure that there are some pages in it with your name on them.

FROM HONEST JOHN:  I will never forget beating Moline in a tennis match....1957===JACK:  That probably helped get you an Augie Tennis Scholarship.