dual personalities

The other day when I was perusing the shelves at the local public library I found this book published back in 2013, which I had missed at the time.

I like reading about old J.D. so I checked it out. His experiences in WWII are really terrifying–not that they are different or worse than a lot of men’s–but to be reminded of what they went through at Utah Beach and then in the Battle of the Bulge–especially in the Hürtgen Forest campaign in the September-December of ’44 is terrifying. He won five battle stars. To have survived all that and then to move on to liberating concentration camps where the emaciated dead bodies were piled like cord wood…how did any of those men expect to lead “normal” lives when they returned to their homes in the U.S.? I think J.D. did pretty well considering. No wonder he wanted to disappear in Cornish, NH and be the anonymous man at the Congregational Church roast beef dinners.

I am also re-reading Jan de Hartog’s novel The Little Ark, published in 1953 about two Dutch children who survive the catastrophic North Sea flooding of the dykes in the Netherlands during 1953. (It was the worst natural disaster of the 20th century in the United Kingdom and the worst in the Netherlands since the Middle Ages.) Powerful stuff, to say the least.

I’m glad I have some good reading material, since daughter #1 is driving up to visit her prairie sister et al today. Mr. Smith is going to the kennel/spa to hang out with the boyz and get a makeover. He kinda needs it. (#rude)

I’ll pick him up on Sunday for some therapy time.

Have a good weekend! Read a book, pet a nice dog, go to church!

*Holden Caulfield