War & Johnny Carson's Shirt Size
I was going to tell my happy husband and Handsome Prince when we retired - a huge list of neat things women "keep in their hearts". Fun things to share when we were white-haired and satisfied, enjoying the view from the porch in our rocking chairs: like why I watched "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson long past the time one does. Can't do that now. He died before retirement. And so I must share it with you:
a true story from the 1960's dedicated to deployed military and their loved ones at home.
I was going to tell my happy husband and Handsome Prince "when we're old" - a huge list of neat things couples "keep in their hearts". My handsome Prince got home from war just fine and to a fine successful life in work and love and fatherhood, but I'll never get to tell him these things I saved. He died suddenly one morning, well before retirement age. But I can share it with you:
He was an officer, with USACEngineers, Black Diamonds special ops - showing Army Engineers how to NOT to use the horribly carcinogenic Agent Orange to clear foliage. Just graduated with a degree in Chemistry, a healer - He loathed all Chemical Warfare. He enlisted before his draft notice arrived in July, because, if he did so, he was promised that he could choose his job.
It was worthy , but it was war.
The news shared a list of horrifying new war words daily, with "body bag" at the top! I'd blanche and take a chair. No Norman Rockwell and John Wayne easy patriotism - no. Unable to sleep, the popular "Heeerrre's Johnnny!" called my attention and tried to not be "one tough audience" to get a laugh from - though things for us were grim.
Replying to audience comments and questions, he told us his shirt size ! What a guy won't say, to get a laugh! But if you are Johhnnnnny, you can say ANYthing and bring down the house - even his shirt size won the moment. OK, funny!
But NOT for me; Hypersensitive from love and fear, the mention of "fourteen-and-a-half / thirty-two" made me jump up - Though my husband was taller, the shirt size was the same. And suddenly for a moment I smiled in happy peace , remembering the first time I bought him a shirt, the first time I pressed one up for him for a fete, and the first time I trashed a worn out one that he loved secretly and replaced it with a spotless twin. Oh dear, I WAS missing him so much!
It was 1968 - there was no media - no internet - no SKYPE - no email - nothing to bring reassuring live images of my deployed husband. There was Silence, and often lost or delayed mail. Food and other goodies I'd send were raided and never reached him.
I praised our baby, whose health made me NOT hold onto stress that would upset the infant in my arms. Being a good mommy meant NOT hugging our son tighter than I should over it.
But the silly moment worked and after that night, I'd watch Johnny Carson and fix on that shirt size, over and over - for the power of a factoid to generate connectivity. It worked, somehow, till my husband's tour was done. It was a way of poking fun at my own fears.
My late husband's homecoming from war remains the happiest day of my life - surpassing our wedding, our children's births, and even my art at the White House. Till then Death was there constantly taunting me with promises to destroy all the work and love of my own birth and development to make a fine adult life. Fear taunting constantly, no matter how cool and good and brave and busy I could be.
But, NO - you won't win this one....LIFE this time. My Lieutenant USACE Black Diamonds - some months later, walked through that door at LaGuardia - HOME - "all ten fingers, all ten toes", and the love better than ever for the test!
No Johnny Carson story for him - NOT that day. Time - the gift of time was ours - no rush. My husband had plenty of stories, as well, but one look at one another and we exulted : "We'll talk about it when we're old! We're not gonna have a problem ." And we didn't! Boundlessly grateful there was no PTS for us! Life - we won our right to a good life - with a down-payment on the mortgage for it.
Even years later, with our babies half grown and softly sleeping in the next room , curled up safe and sound, "watching Carson" with my husband - I'd sometimes remember the time of his deployment and that night when I was saved by "Johnny Carson's shirt size" on tv; and I'd feel "moreso" blessed for a moment, by comparison to those late nights alone, with nothing but a fixation on a "shirtsize-in-common" to help me hold onto my mind. Grateful praise !
Even widowed, years later I am fine and thriving for the goodness of the many years we made and enjoyed so well!
To all who serve and to all who love them, l send a good wish and a prayer that the Angels send at least a helpful bit of silliness, like "Johnny Carson's Shirt Size" to help any who need one.
Summer Reading
But this is about biographies - a huge thank you! Since girlhood I seem to reach for biographical reading whenever I am "in a brown study" over things, wanting a job or project, grieving, sluggish for emotional or physical reasons, in flux and lost. Somehow Biographies do the trick, when I must be still, my heroes swashbuckle for me ... (more)
Update from last July -
This summer sizzles and scintillates and " ... easy, breezy..." is a keyword for me, so as not to get overheated!
A huge stall and hiatus in things has passed and progress in business and personal life abound! A few years ago, they said "wheelchair" and "end of things" and it's been exactly the opposite, with a bit of application. Praise for all who helped and have been patient and fun!
Summer reading this summer? White papers to support and update the work during the week, and almost-forgotten romances for weekends - especially those that respond to the growing number of later-in-life romances !
The largest-growing age group is those over 100 years old ! Creative? Dreaming of better than ever artwork keeps me in prayerful thank yous at the easel. And making my own stories of the new options and possibilities is fun for me this summer - making notes . I will be sure to include the biographies of others who are doing neat things for the world and for themselves later in life. Yes.
At "upper midlife" one gets out early and late and avoids the noonday sun when heat advisories go up , so that leaves time for books and notes and writings WHILE being senior-smart.
What are you reading this summer? Comment below and be confident that your ideas will be respected. The feedback is always a vitamin.
elle
Last year's Summer Reading ( July 13, 2017 ) entry follows here:
July and we may duck indoors to escape heat, it's plenty of outdoors time, at the pool, lake or beach or breezing about for business or pleasure! We are happy escapees from winter's confinements in America's Northeast Connecticut - two blizzards this year! More; a fix on both feet found me wildly bursting OUT OUT OUT, when the weather and the feets finally allowed.
Thanks to technology, wait times en route are never boring - audiobook and kindles on my ipad iphone let me engage with my summer reading choices: Some white papers, learning and technology for workdays/workhours; some religious , some women's things, and health and diet things, and stories - fact and fiction, they make the time fly and fill the spirit.
But this is about biographies - a huge thank you! Since girlhood I seem to reach for biographical reading whenever I am "in a brown study" over things, wanting a job or project, grieving, sluggish for emotional or physical reasons, in flux and lost. Somehow Biographies do the trick, when I must be still, my heroes swashbuckle for me - reading of the challenges and triumphs of the subject, I am entertained, informed and almost always inspired before long,...even empowered from within ... to get up and get at it once more, with new insights and inspirations.
As a girl, Lives of Women in Holiness, Red Cross, Nursing, Medicine and Arts of all sorts seemed to find the top of my list. Achievers of either gender in patriotism and science and wonderful inventions and business really lit me up, and still do!
This Summer?
- Woman Transcendentalists like Margaret Fuller - do not always approve, but am impressed. -- Innovators of the new Millennium - just finished one about Elon Musk and was just plain thrilled - did you know you can get a used Tesla for under 50 thousand USD? wow! I was hurt in the spine and thought I'd never drive again, so I sold the car to pay the medical bills a bit.....then of all things - I healed! instead of a wheelchair, it was the Manchester Road Race / Walkers. Instead of death, life and plenty of it back at my work including one that went to the White House.
- For the Fourth of July, "John Adams" and his famous lady Abigail
The list goes on Elizabeth Vigée LeBrun and her important portraiture and much more. Czeslaw Miłosc. the Polish poet, Elie Weisel, and last summer, Edna Gladney. Somehow reading biography really helps me because it focuses like other media do not and so the results are better. My Nancy Drew Collection, while not exactly biography to some folk , is very real to me and her immortal fans of her immortal , never changing , ever evolving self.
What are YOU reading this summer? I am not being silly, I am interested in your comments about it: where does summer reading take you???
Artwork at the White House - Easter 2007
I'd been very good - above average to honors often enough in every way and yet, here I was -injured and disabled and broke and moved to a safe 'she-shack' that would keep me safe at least. Alone. I thought me done - and praying for grace to handle it nicely. Online work and coding and new friends online refreshed my soul, and the local church was new and nice too. Then one day, learning some new skills online I found the WhiteHouse.gov site. The ancient tales say that dwarves would wrought from the depths and let the results shine at the heights: was this precedent? I guess that's how this story unfolds - you tell me:
I'd been very good - above average to honors often enough in every way and yet, here I was -injured and disabled and broke and moved to a safe 'she-shack' that would keep me safe at least. Alone. I thought me done - and praying for grace to handle it nicely. Online work and coding and new friends online refreshed my soul, and the local church was new and nice too. Then one day, learning some new skills online I found the WhiteHouse.gov site. The ancient tales say that dwarves would wrought from the depths and let the results shine at the heights: was this precedent? I guess that's how this story unfolds - you tell me:
To be a bit clearer: I'd gotten the children off to college with the last cent of our young estate, after sudden widowhood from my soulmate, and had stopped crying and started dating, and glad of my arts/response duality, I had helped a lot with recession crises with my old group, American Red Cross and some private ones and the new shelter system, in my homestate Connecticut. Family roots for over a century , a river runs through it to the sea and it cascades along lovely hills, down to the beach. After twenty years away with war and corporate, the day we drove home "for good - for now" was a lifesaver - I was not healing from the losses and was becoming profoundly frightened by the feeling of "bleeding out" . But the rush of new life at old home healed me quite bit!
My future on my own, restarting from broke, still looked fine - still in my 30s - bright and accelerated, as were both our children, in school, and now off to college, it was not so bad now. I'd made new honors, and restored my health and desire to live to be a hundred. To stay active I found new paths and lots of refreshed skills. The last cent from the estate sent the children off to a safe start and busy again, a Small bank account balance grew a bit each month.
But then, a new bad surprise: a crippling accident at the hands of an ailing loved one "in the throes" - just after the ODS work with ARC. This time I was furious! Dear Lord, just what do you think you're doing? Now, I was Broke and in chronic pain, nearly immobile, burned out and grieving the death of my loved Father. and hot flashes topped it off. Benefits, after a bit, found me moved to a new place - a lovely bungalow of quality construction - sunny, nice, safe, and with a little garden. Of course, it was strange at first - and even unsafe, till friend found out and helped me get protective arrangements made. Still I should have been very upset and was not - I was glad I thought to call on the Lord and cashed in on a lifetime of good faith with some calm thru it all and enjoyed happy days, anyway. An odd new strength and peace descended and acceptance: be still and wait upon the Lord and be content with this permanent disability. One does. And I did.
AND then, something unexpected happened - a basketful of somethings!
- Dad left me a new Apple G3 PowerBook - just one a family of techies - my immobility opened up the world online!
- Son, Peter, IT super pro, flew in from parts west and taught me code and helped set up my first website.
- A disabled friend gave me time at his desktop to do more and learn to web-surf and not panic over freezes and code-mess.
- New friends offline saw me crushed and heard me and told me to cut it out with quitting and try again
- Arts folk worldwide cheered me online, also, to try and try and "get there", though getting across the room was work
- New names: Angelfire, Photoshop, Text Edit, hex colors, web-safe, graphic art, extension,suffix, url, Saint Isadore
- New church at my new bungalow where an apple orchard once stood - with garden- just a few blocks away.
- The late Father John White - the living Bing Crosby in "Going My Way" for a pastor - truly lit up my life.
- Mother and daughter for lunch and help a lot
- Bob'n'Tony, Tony'n'Bob - there will be their page here soon - chef and maestro CoffeeShopGallery sold my art!
- The Mill on the Hill - and its amazing waterfall! And its aging owner - all five feet of her - "you make art - no quitting!"
- AND ART AT THE WHITE HOUSE - the cherry on top!
- Medical upgrades and therapies - all nonsurgical, I was thrilled to be again empowered... so grateful!
- The Manchester Road Race, when they'd said my injuries would mean wheelchair - I WALKED it just fine! Praise!
- 2002 web surfing, I found the White House online and the State Easter Easter Egg Display -
- Submitted for three years - but got no response and then discouragement.
- Knowing I was fine for it, in 2005, I applied once more - for the mommies who taught me egg-crafting.
- They still did not want to let me in, disabled - overqualified or not - NO, I would not acquiesce - not this time...
- I told my Congressman at the time, Rob Simmons, who suggested to them otherwise and was accepted at the Federal level.
- Then CPA, the state and the local egg board screened me and approved.
- With a cash grant for expenses, to work ( see Technical Notes, below ). Done and shipped in its custom-fit box from AEB.
- Christmas 2006 and media and travel itinerary to the event done, it was about family fun.
- April 3, 2007 - daughter and I trained to the White House Opening, luncheon, tour and fun afterward - Sunny Day!
And that's all there was to it! (humor)
Sponsored by the American Egg Board , since 1994, the event appeared indoors at the Visitors Center in tandem with the Historic Easter Egg Roll outdoors, but is inactive at the moment. Hope they restore it. It was a chance for 'The American Artisan' to be represented in Spring - the White House does something similar at Christmas with tree decorations. Just Splendid!
The presentation and opening of the Display found each of us briefly personally hosted by First Lady Laura Bush. I was flattered to see my egg near the top of the Lucite Pyramid of eggs from each state in the union! And my daughter with cell phone cam very busy a few feet away . Security rules there meant clearances but for this moment it was fine and not at all stressed. My only sorrow was that I was still disabled and in stitches in my mouth, distorting my face and braces under my spring green suit. Still, I would not have missed that moment -ever!
ohhhh.... I don't even look like me in stitches and braces under the clothes - but ohhhhh
Some days just glow in the memory - this Sunny Day in Washington, DC was one.
The event included a visit "en group" with each state artisan bringing one to four guests. Two from CPA and my children, then. But my son could not leave work across the country at the Chronicle, so we found him on the cellphone to join us virtually at least. Then my daughter and I made it girls' day! She was more thrilled to accompany me than she'd been since puberty. What fun we had , with a sunny day on the White House tour and more.
After the luncheon and presentation, and show opening, we strolled the Capitol in April with the famous, newly-upgraded cherry trees and grounds security at the White House - Laura Bush's project. I called up Memories of trips to the Hirshorn and Phillips and more as a girl. Then later, I'd take the Eastern Airlines shuttle military standby $20 - to visit my late husband; at the time - at nearby Fort Belvoir in 1966, the home of Engineers at the time - he'd signed on, a scientist to help get rid of Agent Orange in Viet Nam - such proud days - and tense with the danger but readying. And then our Daughter laughing remembering our family trip to Washington ten years later, for the Capitol's way with the Bi-Centennial! Oh Yes... every moment pure gold - and sidewalk cafe and ice cream and we were back to Connecticut by bedtime. Thank yous to all who helped followed, joyfully shared and then "back to normal life".
And at the White House in memory any time we wish forever after!
Connecticut Egg 2007 photo by White House photographer, Sheila Craighead
Technical Notes:
My design for the 2007 White House Easter Egg, From Connecticut, incorporates state symbols in miniature.
- The item is created in a real chicken egg shell.
- The outside is done in Connecticut sky blue.
- A front-facing opening, in the shape of the Connecticut State Armorial Bearings
- to aid interior light - some of the gold mylar used by NASA- gift from DuPont Dad
- opening trimmed in tiny real pearls , one for each state - 50.
- state and national flags atop, made with stained glass medium.
- flags enjoy pole finials of real gold nuggets from Connecticut Gem & Mineral Club
- historic diorama within - mills empowered our independence in 1776 - this one still stands.
- scene of waterfall that once powered the mills, and famous New England stone fences
- scene outlined by flora and fauna in mixed media: paints, papers, foil, glazes, "gallery glass", three glues.
- scene gems: danburite,zircon,aquamarine,garnet,chrome diopside, emerald.
- ...and love - for country, history, the mills that won our American Autonom and ...
- crafts and the mommies who taught them - in memoriam Julia Maciedulski Feb1906-Sept2003
Such events always share an afterglow - I normally do art with honors and for sale as well as I am able to market it. And my "Art With Heart" is very helpful, now that I do NOT run to Ground Zeros in person.
This event was no exception for related things and afterglow - extras:
- It helps my health and spirits, and safety, since girlhood, to "get some sunshine" - always ready to be grateful to all who help on such projects in civic and social and arts.
- I learned new things about the EGG! the living symbol of the cell, and life source. The American Egg Board had complained that badguys were overdoing it re: eggs and health - and AEB won some eggs-oneration, too, sharing more up-to-date reports of the wonders of the egg and wise use not overuse for fine benefits.
- I found new friends all over the country who do similar work with eggs, and even the fundamental wax resist things I learned as a girl - the modern eggs are done not with a candle stick and pin as I was taught but with an electric kistka to draw with wax in color.
- I do up miniatures of eggs in every way, mostly paint and draw right now, and am always ready to share what I learn.
- I was able to show my amazing mommies that I did, too, realize how grand they are, with this event - and told them in action !
one of the watercolor egg mins I do - fun
There is more, but let it be enough for now with my gratitude for the opporunity that saved the day - doing it again.
elle
Saving Connecticut's Old State House - Petition to Sign, Please
"The oldest State House in America is now closed to the public amid Connecticut’s budget problems. In addition, millions of dollars worth of artwork could be removed from the building." Google - WNPR link
Please click and sign the petition to save this wonderful site from closure.
Connecticut's Old State House with a golden statue of JUSTICE atop - needs some herself!
UPDATE August 2016
"The oldest State House in America is now closed to the public amid Connecticut’s budget problems. In addition, millions of dollars worth of artwork could be removed from the building." Google - WNPR link
Please click and sign the petition to save this wonderful site from closure.
July 28, 2016 - Sign the linked petition here BECAUSE:
today's paper tells that the artifacts are being removed from the recently closed down site to protect them better at the Atheneum and the Connecticut Historical Society. Sad news but good news for their safety. This move is said to be temporary as new leadership hopes to do a LOT better job of keeping the key historic site self-supporting. LIARS - that building should be done like Sturbridge Village, since it's unique funnctionality in Colonial Days absolutely Dazzles but NO ONE has been promoting it AT ALL. I think they mean to kill her.
IN JUNE 2016, while closing down my computer for the night, the breaking news alert notification kept me on a new job till late. Whyyyyy just at Independence Day , would my beloved homestate close this icon site, which has only recently been renovated ? The golden statue of JUSTICE, symbolically, is barely visible in this official photo, though her new gold paints normally gleam proudly in the sun and brighten a rainy day. Funding and cutbacks were cited as the reason, but not very convincing. The Petition lists ways to fix.
Please click and sign the petition to save this wonderful site from closure.
This site WAS Connecticut's capitol, till the larger one was built a century or so later. It stood and served all life in the area and in early America. And with not much else around, one block from the Connecticut River, the Old State House was the nearest to the river life line in those days. Rules were made and important history to all of America - not just Connecticut- happened there and the building is used daily today. Not profitably enough, but that's easy to fix.
This video will tell you more - click here for it.
Personally, I developed just a silly love for "OSH" as she is called - when I first visited Hartford back to my home state, after 20 years in the big world, it was like seeing a lot of it for the first time, and often seeing old sites with new eyes. And especially OSH.
Suddenly I saw her in a personified light: My paternal Grandmother was alive again, a tiny dolly , surrounded by her many tall children and grandchildren! The anachronism she presents, in the landscape, making her just that more wonderful, sitting pat, on that spot, among companions two centuries newer. She is my Grammy and I simply felt too personally upset by the news to NOT act.
Old State House is a genial Happy Cat on a carpet before a fire, much-loved by her companions.
What on EARTH would make anyone think it is okay to change that? We need her in this world. And why hurt this historic site AT Independence Day, America's Historically Proud Birthday!
The petition has some signatures already and I have done only modest promotion. More to come. Comment here or on the petition. Those with power to change the closure will be getting updates - it is part of the petition's machinery. Make it count!
elle