As we have previously noted many times, May is an amazing month for birthdays what with Henry Fonda, James Stewart, John Wayne, Bob Dylan, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman–just to name a few. One could have a party every day!
Tomorrow is Bob Dylan’s 84th birthday. He is still touring and still recording–what a guy. We will be sure to toast him and listen to all our favorites.
And it is already the Memorial Day weekend! We have had to change a lot of plans this spring and this weekend we will be laying low, celebrating and honoring the men and women who gave their lives while serving in the US military in our own way by watching movies, including our favorite war movie, They WereExpendable (1945).
I have been thinking about Gen. Douglas MacArthur and listened once again to his farewell speech to West Point, arguably one of the best speeches of the 20th Century.
In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his status in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.
Let’s all take a few moments to think about that patriotic self-abnegation and the men (and women) who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.
(Here’s a photo of my grandfather on the right with his younger brother who was killed in the Argonne Forest in 1918.)
If you have half an hour, listen to the speech.
As I have said before, Memorial Day is not just an excuse to have a day off and barbecue with family and friends–although we did that yesterday.
There was no mention of Memorial Day at our church which I found interesting but not really surprising. It was just a regular service and two of the four hymns made me cry like a baby. I was a mess. C’est la vie. Our new young pastor finished the Letter to Titus in his sermon and he was on fire, which was pretty impressive considering it was Titus. But that goes to show that any scripture is worthy of our study and exegesis.
In the afternoon the boy and his family, daughter #1 and her friend Liz and her husband and kids gathered with us for family fun and frolic. We started off outside…
…but we had to move inside when it started to thunder and rain. Our twins showed their twins how to have fun at Mamu’s house…
The menfolk had to move the barbecue into the garage, and by the time we were almost ready to sit down to eat, the tornado sirens were blaring, the wind was blowing and the air had turned that green color we know so well. I went to check what was going on outside and Lottie was like, “Mamu, what are you DOING?!” (She was all for heading to the basement immediately.) I said, “Oh it’s nothing to worry about!” and daughter #3 agreed, “If it starts to hail, we’ll reconsider.”
In no time Lottie had the little ones set up with pillows under the dining room table…
As we sat down to eat (at the table), it started to hail. But the hail was only dime-sized, so we went on and ate our dinner.
All’s well that ends well. That’s life in flyover country.
This is a moving tribute about Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery. Lest we forget.
Meanwhile, tonight I’ll be watching They Were Expendable (1945) which has become my Memorial Day tradition.
This is just a great movie. Great action scenes and the romance between Donna Reed and John Wayne is one of the sweetest in cinema history. And General MacArthur makes an appearance.
“That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
–President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863
Yesterday morning I got up bright and early and drove with daughter #1 to Florissant, MO to the historic Cold Water Cemetery, the oldest Protestant cemetery west of the Mississippi still in use, for an annual DAR event. There are some Revolutionary War veterans buried in this cemetery, so the DAR has been caretaking the cemetery for 60 years. We enjoyed the ceremony, especially the Lewis and Clark Fife and Drum Corps…
It was good to see some twelve-year old boys (probably all home-schooled) interested in history. We also liked these guys from the Militia de San Carlos and the Sons of the Revolution…
They gave a musket salute as well.
And we got to ride in one of these “shuttles” down to the cemetery…
It was almost like being on a hayride!
As is my tradition, I also watched They Were Expendable (1945), which is the best war movie ever.
Listen, son: you and I are professionals. If the manager says, “Sacrifice”, we lay down a bunt and let somebody else hit the home runs. We know all about those destroyers out of commission, tied up around San Diego. We could use them here. But they’re not around. They won’t be. Our job is to lay down that sacrifice. That’s what we were trained for, and that’s what we’ll do. Understand?
So keep showing up. Pay attention. Pray hard for your country.
Ah, three-day weekends are nice. Everyone is more relaxed. We are on the summer schedule at church now, which means that although there are still two morning services, there is no children’s chapel at the 11:00 o’clock. I missed that memo somehow and we brought the twins to the 11 o’clock. The wee bud teared up at the offertory hymn at the prospect of staying with us through the whole service, so Pappy took him out to the fellowship hall to hang out. (He was not the only parent/grandparent to do so.) But Lottie stayed with me and did a very good job of curbing her depravity and listening/keeping quiet during the 40-minute Presbyterian sermon. She went up with me to get communion (although she did not take communion.) She had a lot of questions. Is that blood? I said I’d explain later.
We had the whole gang over for a Memorial Day bbq and driveway sittin’ on Sunday evening. Daughter #1’s friends Liz and Brenton came too, plus their two-year old twins. And Mr. Smith, of course.
Start ’em early!
As usual, we missed Katie and Ida and their parents, but they had fun too!
Enjoy your Monday off!
*Hosea 6:4 (wherein God gets exasperated like the rest of us parents)–press on.
Daughter #1 has passed the blogging duties back to me today, so I will remind you (yet again) that today is John Wayne’s birthday. Time to celebrate Duke-style.
Now I should probably be preparing something from this…
…but it’s Friday, so the OM will be going to Chick-fil-a for our usual Friday night treat. Then we’ll watch El Dorado (1966) to celebrate. Life is good.
I can really relate to Harvey Keitel in this scene from Martin Scorsese’s first movie Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967):
And here’s a great scene with a great, great actor:
Have a good Friday. Break some glasses. And remember Memorial Day–lest we forget.
Hope you were able to get out and about this weekend. We buzzed over to Washington, MO and walked around a bit and ate lunch, but it was a blustery, cold, overcast day and not really conducive to hanging out.
We went home and opened a bottle of rosé in the Florida Room. However, Mother Nature intruded traumatically on our wine time. A large hawk flew into the forsythia bushes bordering the south windows, pounced on some small creature (which screamed) and then crashed into the metal wall. We jumped up and saw the hawk on the ground as it collected itself and finished off the poor creature (a baby rabbit? a bird?). It then flew into the neighbor’s yard and tore into its victim as we watched. Homicide: Life in the Backyard.
Yikes. Nature red in tooth and claw indeed. Murder and mayhem is literally all around us. I suppose it is good to be reminded of this once in a while. I remember the boy being traumatized at age 6 or 7 when he watched his cat tease and torture a baby rabbit it had caught. He chased the cat away, but lesson learned. House pets are not that far removed from their jungle cousins.
That memory in turn reminded me of the time that same cat was languidly resting in a tree (lion style) on a branch that hung over the driveway. My children frolicked in the back yard. I was watching from an upstairs window when a large black lab trotted up the driveway. The cat went on alert and when the dog was directly below him, he pounced on its back, scaring the bejesus out of the dog, who took off running. The cat was all like, take that, you big dog, walking up my driveway and threatening my children. His behavior was a revelation to me. I had no idea that a cat would defend/protect its territory like that. Maybe he just felt like scaring a dog, but I liked and admired him a lot more after that.
Sunday was a beautiful day, clear and in the 70s with a light breeze. We went to our favorite winery in Hillsboro, Wild Sun, and sat in the sun, listened to live music and drank a bottle of wine. We packed a picnic and brought my new portable table. Perfect.
Not as into it as we were.
Meanwhile little Katiebelle is being appropriately indoctrinated.
Can’t wait to see her on Wednesday! Have a great day today and don’t forget why you have the day off.
P.S. Here’s a little something to take you reeling nostalgically back to middle school. RIP BJ Thomas:
It was a busy week at work, and I was still getting over that cold. I went to the dentist, which is always a joy and a half. And I went in to my office on Thursday for various reasons and met with my assistant whom I had not seen in almost a year. We commiserated about our COVID weight gain. It is a mad world.
But, what ho, it is a three-day weekend and that in itself is something to celebrate. And we have Memorial Day to consider. I plan to watch They Were Expendable (1945) which has become one of my favorite war movies.
There is nothing remotely sentimental about this movie and its depiction of war. John Ford is admirably restrained. The American war machine is in retreat, as one by one the islands of the Philippines are seized by the Japanese. No help is coming, no one will save them, they are on their own. But we know who will win.
I watched Wee Willie Winkie (1937) the other night. Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglan, Caesar Romero as Khoda Khan–and also directed by John Ford–pretty great.
Grown men cry and whales blubber.
This was an interesting article. A celebration and lament over science. I concur.
Daughter #1 is coming home today and we will find some roof deck or winery on/at which to hang out. (The other grandparents are back in town so the twins and their parents will be otherwise occupied at their weekend abode.) The weather should be conducive to hanging out. Maybe I can get some sun on a part of my body other than the tops of my feet.
Enjoy the long weekend! Look up! Pray for the day ahead. Pray that you might bring glory to God, in thought, word and deed. Thank God that his mercies are new every morning. Thank God that his grace is sufficient for all situations that you may encounter.
*I Sing the Body Electric, Walt Whitman, whose birthday is May 31
Huzzah! We have a long weekend ahead of us and perhaps some actual places to go! Or we may just stay in and listen to music and watch movies, because–of course–it’s supposed to rain all weekend!
Monday is Memorial day and one of the ways I typically observe Memorial Day, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military, is to watch a good war movie. Here are a few suggestions, mostly old movies as is my wont, but please note I have included one from the 21st century!
They Were Expendable (1945) John Ford directed this story of a PT boat unit defending the Philippines during WWII. John Wayne and Robert Montgomery star.
Cry Havoc (1943) A mostly all-female cast portrays a group of Army hospital volunteers stationed in Bataan during WWII. In some ways it is standard wartime melodrama, but the ending, as the brave nurses and volunteers fall into the hands of the Japanese, is quite powerful. Margaret Sullavan and Joan Blondell star.
Twelve O’Clock High (1949) Gregory Peck stars as a general who takes over a bomber unit suffering from low morale and whips them into shape before collapsing himself under the strain.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Robert Emmett Sherwood adapted MacKinlay Kantor’s story of veterans returning to their hometown after service in WWII. William Wyler directed; Frederic March, Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Harold Russell star.
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) Captain Nathan Brittles, on the eve of retirement, takes out a last patrol to stop an impending Indian uprising following the disaster at the Little Big Horn. John Ford directed; John Wayne stars.
Hacksaw Ridge (2016) An Army medic and conscientious objector becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor for incredible acts of valor without having fired a shot. The scenes during the Battle of Okinawa in WWII are very intense and more graphic than I like to see, but the movie is a good one. Directed by Mel Gibson and starring Andrew Garfield and Sam Worthington.
Monday is also John Wayne’s birthday (🎉🎉🎉) so I will probably be leaning toward They Were Expendable.
Last Monday (our regular John Wayne movie night) I watched Red River (1948) and it was great. John Wayne and Montgomery Clift play so well off each other. Clift was never better.
So you might want to check it out as well.
I should also note the passing of Indian-born Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. Ravi’s ministry gradually evolved, but his basic focus remained the same: to “help the thinker believe and the believer think.”
In March doctors discovered a malignant tumor when he underwent back surgery. He began receiving treatment, but two months later they deemed his cancer untreatable and he died shortly thereafter. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
And I really want one of these face masks from the National Cowboy Museum! #HashtagTheCowboy…
*Tom Dunston to Matthew Garth in Red River. They end up taking ’em to Kansas, of course, in order to avoid the marauding border ruffians in Missouri.
It is appropriate that on this Memorial Day we toast Col. Elmer Ellsworth, who was the first “conspicuous casualty” and Union officer killed in the Civil War.
He was killed on May 24, 1864, age 24, while removing a Confederate flag from the roof of the Marshall House Inn of Alexandria, Virginia at Lincoln’s behest, as the flag had been visible from the White House as a defiant sign of the growing rebellion.
“Remember Ellsworth” became a patriotic slogan: the 44th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment called itself the “Ellsworth Avengers.”
President Lincoln wrote the following letter to his parents:
To the Father and Mother of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth:
My dear Sir and Madam, In the untimely loss of your noble son, our affliction here, is scarcely less than your own. So much of promised usefulness to one’s country, and of bright hopes for one’s self and friends, have rarely been so suddenly dashed, as in his fall. In size, in years, and in youthful appearance, a boy only, his power to command men, was surpassingly great. This power, combined with a fine intellect, an indomitable energy, and a taste altogether military, constituted in him, as seemed to me, the best natural talent, in that department, I ever knew. And yet he was singularly modest and deferential in social intercourse. My acquaintance with him began less than two years ago; yet through the latter half of the intervening period, it was as intimate as the disparity of our ages, and my engrossing engagements, would permit. To me, he appeared to have no indulgences or pastimes; and I never heard him utter a profane, or intemperate word. What was conclusive of his good heart, he never forgot his parents. The honors he labored for so laudably, and, in the sad end, so gallantly gave his life, he meant for them, no less than for himself.
In the hope that it may be no intrusion upon the sacredness of your sorrow, I have ventured to address you this tribute to the memory of my young friend, and your brave and early fallen child.
May God give you that consolation which is beyond all earthly power. Sincerely your friend in a common affliction —
A. Lincoln
Ellsworth’s funeral was the first of three held in the East Room of the White House during the war. The second, in 1862, was a service for the president’s 11-year-old son Willie. The third was Lincoln’s own.
Sigh. I’m not sure why Elmer Ellsworth came to mind, but he did, and he seems a worthy example of the American soldier whom we honor today.
Here’s Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the U.S.A,” which kind of says it all:
I hope I am never too blasé or jaded that this song doesn’t prompt a tear.
ANC III who served in WWII and Korea and lived to not talk about it.
ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen
–the BCP, 1928
“It don’t matter where a man dies, as long as he dies for freedom.” –Sgt. Dane in Bataan (1943)
dual personalities 