Family, Food, Kids, Stories

Make a List!

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today’s post comes to us from tim.

  1. The weekend at my daughters school was pretty lame
  2. We got a late start my fault
  3. Got to dinner too late after unloading at airb2b
  4. Had to deal with oncoming illness
  5. Events were poorly planned out and yet ok
  6. Seeing daughter was great
  7. Letting 16 year old hang with her sister was worth it
  8. Brunch should be go to meal every day
  9. People watching is my 2nd favorite thing

What’s a summary of something in your life with bare bones description?

39 thoughts on “Make a List!”

  4. I’m sorry that I’ve not been able to contribute recently. Two reasons. First, I’ve been tied up with medical things. Second, my head and heart are dominated by the Ken Burns Vietnam documentary series. For others here, that stuff is history. For me, it was my life.

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      1. No, but I was haunted by the imminent threat of being drafted for six years.

        The documentary series keeps calling up memories. Last night’s episode showed college students protesting the Kent State murders. My erstwife was in a large crowd at the U or MN when the piggish mayor of Minneapolis ordered helicopters to dump tear gas on the protesters. Those were scary days.

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        1. i was there too charlie stenvig
          morel hall kaufman union
          rotc headquarters on the mall in front of northrop
          march on university or on washington
          i still them confused
          tear gas training was an interesting class

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        2. I was there, too, tim. I worked across the plaza from Morrill Hall. An especially large demonstration took place there. My wife was just off Washington Avenue when the helicopters dumped the tear gas on all the kids there to protest Kent State.

          There were some lighthearted moments. A protester promised to eradicate the ROTC building (the Armory) just off Pillsbury Drive. He was going to blow the building away with a blast from his trumpet (borrowing image from the Bible about Joshua and the walls of Jericho). As I remember, the Armory was strong enough to withstand his best trumpet blasts.

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        3. Wasband and I were at SIU at the time of the Kent State shootings. Anti-war demonstrations had been ramping up for some time by then, but none of them had been violent. Nevertheless, the sentiment of “America, love it or leave it” ran high, especially among the local population, but also among some students and faculty. Those of us who participated in the anti-war demonstrations were not popular.

          After the Kent State shootings, all hell broke loose. Demonstrations turned to riots. Buildings were set on fire, bricks were thrown through virtually every store window in the main business district, fights broke out, and people got hurt. The violence went on for over a week; the National Guard was called in, a curfew was imposed, and when none of that worked to stop the demonstrations, finally the University was closed down. Spring quarter was declared over weeks before scheduled, and only Pass/Fail grades were given for work done that quarter. Teargas was used to disperse students who had blocked railroad tracks in the center of Carbondale, essentially closing down traffic for hours. In a town with a student body of 22,000, matched by the size of the local population of Carbondale, there was no one who wasn’t affected by the chaos; emotions were raw and tensions frighteningly high.

          Three good friends, all of whom I’m still in contact with, were Vietnam War veterans. All three of them were having a tough time readjusting to life as a student, and were essentially permanently high or drunk at the time. One of them spent nine years at SIU without ever finishing his Bachelor’s degree. Two of them responded to my query as to whether or not they intended to watch the Ken Burns documentary. Randy (Army infantry) said he was torn, but as a film buff he didn’t think he’d be able to resist the temptation although he knew it would trigger memories he’d just as soon not have to deal with all over again. Bob, who had been a medic in the Army said he had no intention of putting himself through that. I didn’t hear from Tom who had been a Marine.

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        4. (In response to PJ’s comment): Thanks for the post, PJ. I hadn’t known that you shared in those difficult years. You describe things well.

          I have emotions about that era that are unlike anything else I’ve ever felt. Part of me is frustrated by my inability to describe things in terms that will let younger folks understand that time. We’ve all heard old folks say, “You had to have been there to understand . . . .” I generally don’t agree with that, but the particular anguish of those years I think nobody will ever really “get” if they weren’t there.

          I’ve tried, as gently as possible, to get my war veteran friends to talk about their experiences. They just don’t want to go back there.

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  5. i as hugely influenced by nam and the threat of being called
    i was a 10th grader and decided i wasnt going and started planning to respond to the deal at the time of my draft card appplication.
    i saw the draft go to the lottery and the numbers were low in earlier years but then nixon got in and the troops shot up and the lottery called the first 200+ numbers if i remember correctly. i visited canada a couple of times and chose banff japer as my home. when i went in to file c.o. the guy behind the counter said he would just sign in if he were me. he could pretty much guarantee they wouldnt be calling me in 1973.
    i am enjoying the show. it feels like yesterday
    it is interesting how similar slimeball nixon is to slimeball 45 today.

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    1. I was in junior high and high school during Vietnam and had two friends who lost older brothers to the war. This affected me very deeply; I thought it would get less raw for me over the years but that has not happened. Even though I wasn’t old enough to vote and wasn’t in any danger of being drafted, I was a protester. I had to walk right by the Webster College campus to get to my junior high and ended up joining protests there, even skipping school several days.

      But to this day I just cannot find it in myself to watch/read things about Vietnam. I admire Ken Burns’ work but just won’t be tuning in.

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  8. I too have been watching “Vietnam” and am amazed by 1) how little I know of what was then common knowledge and 2) how little ANYONE knew of what was really going on over there. I was unfortunately away Monday night when they showed the time period during which a good friend was killed in Bien Hoa, not far from Saigon. It’s not easy watching, but I’m determined to understand why the #@ $*^& we were there.

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    2. I didn’t want to hijack this discussion and make it about the war. But I haven’t been able to think of much else since the series started. Last night’s episode hit me hard, just the events did when they happened years ago.

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  9. Steve and tim, you two talking about this prompted me to ask my brother what he remembered. He graduated HS in 1974, I knew that.But I don’t recall ever hearing about the draft or lottery or anything war related at home or from him.
    Turns out his number was #7 and he was A1. He had already taken the Air Force aptitude test and was about a week away from enlisting when things changed over there (his words) and he didn’t feel the need to go.
    All this was news to me. So thanks, you two, for prompting me.

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    2. he had prepared too. a lot of guys thought it was better to be enlisted in the airforce or marines than to be an army draft soldieer sent to do the dirty work. he would have been in a different class of fighting in the airforce. i know i couldnt have done that but i understand

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      1. That’s what wasband had done. He had a low draft number and thought four years in the Air Force would be preferable to two years in the Army, so he enlisted. After basic training he was shipped off to Greenland – that’s where I met him – and after he was returned to the States, served out the remainder of his time in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Toward the end of his enlistment, late 1967 to early 1968, the war in Vietnam was escalating, and it looked like there was a possibility that enlistment periods would be extended. It was with a great sigh of relief he received his discharge papers in February of 1968, and we hightailed it the hell out of Cheyenne. Fought that war on home front, you might say, to the bitter end.

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        2. That’s what I thought, too, tim, when I first arrived. Over time, I came to love it. And it was the perfect location from which to explore the most beautiful parts of Colorado, not to mention all of Wyoming. I have very fond memories of that time.

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  10. I’m one who generally wants to have frank, respectful conversations about difficult matters. After listening to many folks talk about how they feel about emotional discussions, I’ve decided that it is best to err on the side of being gentle (rather than pushing a reluctant person to talk about difficult things). It isn’t always a good thing to get someone to talk about what they least want to talk about. My current sense of this is that it is almost always good to tell someone that I am interested in what happened, but then to back off and let them decide if they want to talk.

    It sounds like you were tactful when approaching your brother, Ben.

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    1. I wouldn’t specifically say I was ‘tactful’, but my family gets along well and we talk about anything. So I knew it wasn’t a big deal to ask him about things.
      Now if he had actually served, and presumably, I would know how he was reacting to that, then maybe I’d have been a little more tactful.

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  12. vietnam affected my view of war

    every poor dumb bastard who has signed up to be patriotic has my sympathy as he falls in line to be a pawn of zero value to allow lying officers who answer to lying officers and do what they are told to do with the grunts who sign up

    if you look at the demographic of today’s army it is poorer less educated and more cluelesss than ever before

    somehow the thoughtful hippy who was against bull tacos doesn’t exist today

    all youth is open to whatever they read on their smart phone

    people who grow up in fox families really believe hillary is a criminal, good americans serve their nation and if your soldier ap on the phone is your favorite pass time you can get real machine guns and middle launchers and shoot bad guys for real

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