60+ year old thread.

The first long distance motorcycle rally I participated in was an event always held on Memorial Day weekend. The lone mandatory bonus stop was a visit to Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, PA to visit the gravesite of a former motorcycle rider who is interred there. That rally no longer exists but after having visited the cemetery for 5-6 consecutive years it's become something of a tradition for me.




Those are only a portion of the 7k referenced in the first picture.



I never had the pleasure of meeting Col. Young, but the rally master had. He survived his service only to be killed in a motorcycle accident during a long-distance rally just like the one that lead me to this. Sadly, he died not from the accident itself but from the fact that he and his bike ended up down a ravine and went undiscovered for 3 days after the wreck. This led to a rule change where riders had to list their proposed route so that in the event of a rider not returning in time they would know where to begin a search.



My former brother in law.



Customer from my bike dealership days who became a friend.



Another bike shop customer/friend. Ray had suffered a TBI while serving. A lot of the shop staff didn't care to wait on him as he required a lot of hand holding and repeated question and answer sessions to close a sale, so some staff felt he was a waste of their time. I'll confess, until I learned more about it I felt that way as well. Once I spent more time with him and he opened up about himself it opened up my eyes that he wasn't trying to be a pain, he just couldn't put things together sometimes. Eyes opened to his reality I took pleasure in trying to help him afterwards.



My best friend's dad. He and his wife were married for 62 years. I made sure to text my friend Mark the picture. I had told him in February I would be stopping to visit him.

Increasingly this visit seems to be getting more difficult to make each passing year as the number of people I must stop keeps getting larger.

Hoping everyone had a great weekend and gave thanks to those people who gave their lives for all of us.

 

Thanks for the post Chuck

 

Afternoon all:

Know the feeling Chuck, quite a few of my old friends and people I associated with are GONE!

Sorry to hear that Tom.

 

Graveyard Patriotism


My wife and I walk graveyards as often as we find them. There are stories there, etched and carved in stone.

In the course of our travels we have found the occasional military burial ground. These places hold a more reverent feeling for us than others. The names and dates reflect tough choices and huge sacrifice in the interest of our nation. The tears and dreams of individuals, but also families, lie unrealized beneath the soil. Whether we feel the wars were more than justified, or not, we hold these fallen to our hearts and thank them for protecting the principles of freedom that this republic was founded on.

And we wonder what the patriots of the past would have to say about the current times and troubles of the present. What would the men at Bataan have to say to us about waterboarding? Would the earliest graves hold opinions about lobbyists and taxation without representation? How would the Irish casualties of WWI have commented on immigration? The dead black heroes of Vietnam, living in the civil rights era, might have something to say about racism in America today.

The thing is... these dead have already spoken. They have laid down their lives, and their futures, to be sacrificed in order that we who are left behind have a better story to tell. Although I'm sure every one of the deceased warriors would gripe if they could about the food, the footwear, and the officers in charge, and might argue about the particulars of any one situation or issue, just as we all do, I am pretty sure they would be proud of their service and the nation they have made.

Sometimes I wonder though... do they shake their heads at the discord? At the hostility? At the mean spirited, I'm-not-gonna-listen, it's my way or the highway, I'm right and you're wrong, entrenched, politicized, polarized, dissension?

You see, when all is over and done with, we citizens have a responsibility too.

If we are to honor the patriots before us, those sons and daughters who made the ultimate sacrifice, then we owe something to them. Not just that we can live our lives in relative harmony, make the American dream real, or have the right to do whatever we choose... but also to listen to others and change our minds when they speak the truth. To agree with reason, logic, and evidence rather than the loudest angry mouth. We, those of us that have never been in harms way, have as great a responsibility to this nation as those lying under the earth with flags on their graves. We have to make it work. We have to make it better. We owe a debt. A great and burdensome debt if we fail, but an easy load if we make our nation and the world better.

If you can, go visit a cemetery. Visit one with flags flying, holding the hand of someone you love. And think about the thoughts that are silenced beneath the grass.

 

Beautifully said Travir, words of wisdom from the heart. Thank you.

 

Used the harbor freight coupon one more time and got Betty a new garden flatbed cart.

Also got 20 bags of mulch today so we tested it out with 5 bags at a time, easy peasy. Betty likes it and that's all that matters.

 

some comfort food...

 

Good morning. Back to a regular life once again. Need to buy a tomato plant for sandwich tomatoes. I need to see what is left at the garden center. Anyone have a favorite sandwich tomato?

 

Good Morning everyone

 

Morning folks grass cutting day. It keeps me out of trouble

 

Good morning all. Going to cut my grass after work today as we're supposed to get more rain over the next couple of days.

 

Back to work, 10 weeks to go.....

 

Hang in there Greg for me when I worked time seem to normal, can’t wait for the weekend. Now that I’m retired, time flies by, sometimes I forget what day it is , ITS WEDNESDAY ALREADY

 

GM all....
G

 

I remember tomatoes that would make a single slice that would cover a sandwich, and they tasted wonderful. They were called Beefmaster... but the current tomato they call Beefmaster today won't grow large like the old ones. Those old tomatoes would make a 5 or six inch slice.
I've noticed that the cores of newer tomatoes seem to have changed too. They have a bunch of tough, spiky tendrils in them.

 

Ummm... you must live on the other side of the dateline.

 

It’s kinda like winter and summer, summer seems to go by a lot quicker than winter

 

That’s the nice thing about being retired, every day is Saturday.

 

do you grow your own?

 

Some... in the summer.