Now Playing: Memorial Day
Maman says Today is Memorial Day, so I'm typing in "patriotic colours".
She says today is the day we honour every human who ever died fighting for The United States in Our Military. Then she told Missy and me the names of all the people in Our Family who served inna Military in Our Family. There is a long list, beginning before Noo Joisey and Pennsylvania even became states! Her List actually begins with sumbunny named Christian Hershey who listened to Dr. Franklin and believed inna "Rights of Man" and fought against King George (can you believe it?) of Inkland in 1776.
Yeah!
So there was Christian Hershey in 1776, and then somebunny with the funny name "Gasaway" frum Baltimore in 1796 and 1812, and then Colonel Norris L. Yarnell and his brothers, and George Cost and the Wheatley brothers in the 1860's, and then Maman's Granddaddy who joined up as a Chaplain on the very last day of World War I.
And then Pearl Harbour happened, and that was the beginning of World War II for the United States. Of course, World War II was already happening in Inkland where Dadda's Dadda, Jack, was wandering around inna jungles of Burma looking for his regiment that had been shot to pieces, because the British were fighting against Imperialism long before the Americans got innu it. But the bombing of Pearl Harbour on Sunday Morning, December-Seven brought the United States innu World War II.
So on Monday Morning, December-Eighth, Maman's Dadda (who was Our Bim) went with his three bestest friends down to the Army Air Corps Headquarters in Newport, RI to volunteer to become pilots. They had all heard Fred Prince tell about being a dashing aviator over the trenches in France, and they'd watched Ernst Udet, the German ace, pick up a lady's handkerchief with a fish-hook attached to the wing of his airplane. To four young men in their first year of college, that seemed like the perfect life for them. They would join the Air Corps, become pilots and tour the world! So on December-Eighth they met at Our Bim's House and then walked down Broadway together to the recruiter's. They were Bim, Dave and Bill Sweet, and John Lauth.
Well, Maman said that the Army Air Corps was a very popular service right about then, so they could afford to be picky. The recruiter rejected John because of his eyesight, Bim said, and then rejected both of the Sweet boys, and then rejected Bim onna'count obba Fakt he had flat feets.
So they left that recruiter's office feeling pretty upset and angry. And just as they were all standing outside the Army Air Corp's office, frowning and complaining as only a bunch of teenage guys onna street-corner can, a Chief Petty Officer came out of his recruiting office across the street and yelled to them, "Hey guys! Whutssamatta? Those prima donnas in the Army aren't the only ones with planes, y'know! Come on over to the Navy and we'll sign you up!"
Well, Newport was a Navy town, Maman said, so of course all four boys (because they were younger than Our Phil) crossed the street and signed up with the Navy.
Because Our Bim was in his first year of Medical School, the Navy said to him, "Hey! Don't waste that Ivy League education! Just sign right here and we'll make you a nurse!" So Bim figured he'd sign up to become a nurse and then get himself transferred into being a pilot. So he signed. When someone got to the part about how old was he, he bragged about being in college and let everyone assume he was older than he was. He said he didn't outright lie, but he didn't tell the truth, either, because if he had, the Navy wouldn't have let him sign. And ennyways, he also put down some Admiral as a refrence so the Navy let it slide on through.
And his mother, who was Maman's Granny was furious and called up just about everyone she knew the moment Bim got home - but by then, it was pretty much Too Late - Bim was inna Navy and that was that - but Granny wasn't about to let him take on enny dangerous jobs like flying airplanes and more than knowing the Admiral, she knew the Admiral's wife. So Bim became a Chief Surgical Nurse and spent the rest of the war trying to convince anyone who would listen that he rilly should be somewhere near to an airplane. No one listened and Bim never went anywhere further frum Newport, Rhode Island than Maryland.
He fortygot to rekon with the Power of the Mamans and Afternoon Tea in the Werld-As-It-Was.
His friend, John, didn't get to be a pilot, either. The Navy is like that. They ask you what you want to do and then they decide where they want to put you. Sometimes the two coincide, but not often. Of the four friends, only Bill Sweet got to be a pilot.
And the other three thought he was lucky, because that's exactly what they had signed up to be.
But near the end of the war, Bill Sweet took off from some island in the Pacific ocean and got involved with some other pilots from Japan, and the last anyone saw of Bill's plane, it was chasing off into the sun.
And he never came back. And no one ever heard from him again.
The Navy said he was "lost".
But I don't think so. I don't think anyone is ever really "lost". I think Bill Sweet prob'ly found some back way across the Bridge and landed his airplane in the Meadow. And he got out of his plane, and saw there were bunnies and dogs and kitties and lots of other critters and so he sat down with his back against a handy tree and that's where Our Bim and the rest of his friends found him waiting for them.
But it's the Story of Bill Sweet that's important today - how he and Our Bim and Dave and John all went together down to the recruiter's in Newport on the Day After Pearl Harbour. It's the stories of the past - The Lore - that inform the Present, and give shape to the Future.
Because, you see, Our Bim told the Story of the Day After Pearl Harbour and the story of Bill Sweet to Our Phil - and that's howcome on the Day After Nine-Eleven, Our Phil didn't bother with the Army when President Bush went on television and said "We are at war.". Our Phil went down to the Navy Recruiter, cut out being rejected in case he possibly had flat-feet, and signed up to work with computers.
And the Navy, being the Navy, listened to what Phil wanted and then put him where they decided they needed him - with airplanes...
So today, we remember the Crowd of Others who also found a backdoor to the Bridge - and all the corageous Critters Who Served. Don't fortyget them! Dawgs, horses, mules, even pigeons - who all were inna Military and did amazingly brave things for those who loved them and whom they loved! We bemember everybun of them Today.
Along with Bim's friend, Bill.
------------------------------- By George
