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Ticket stubs. Letters. Cards. Calendars. Programs. Coupons. Clippings. Receipts. Postcards. Documents. Photographs. Scraps of paper inscribed with handwritten notes or lists—some hopelessly illegible. Everything else relegated to be out of sight, out of mind until the mythical far-off day “when I have time.” Why have I felt compelled to save so much stuff over the…
Last Saturday, I attended a Tea where Vanda Krefft spoke about her book—a history of the Katharine Gibbs School. Invited by a good friend, I enthusiastically accepted. The Tea was a fundraiser for the local AAUW (American Association of University Women) scholarship program. Plus, I had a special interest in the topic. Krefft spoke about…
Don’t Just Sit There Scrolling: Do Something!
Good grief, I don’t want to be writing about Donald Trump. I have so many other things I want to do with my days. I have a book I’m trying to get published. I have bins and bins of papers I dragged from Milton, Massachusetts, to Manhattan Beach, California, ten years ago. These are things…
Chapter 35. Falling Lakehurst/February 1945 I was glad to put 1944 behind me. All those months, when the bad news kept coming, it had been a relief each time to just get back to work. I liked Lakehurst—working in the Big Hangar. I knew what I was doing—what needed to be done. And I didn’t…
MY FRIEND’S DAD WAS A SCREAMING EAGLE. WHO KNEW?
When you start asking questions, you get some astonishing answers. Our friend, Rick Sirois, told us quite a few years ago that he and his brother had come upon military medals and ribbons in a shoebox found in their father’s desk drawer. The two brothers decided to put all of this memorabilia into a shadow…
September 12, 2024 The last time I had seen Nat Bellantoni’s watercolors and sketchbooks, the photographs, documents, official handouts he had brought back from his World War II deployment in South Pacific, the books, videos, and videotapes he had added to his collection over the years…it was October of 2017. I was helping my…
Progress Report
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a compulsive writer. So, where I have been since April? Not writing any blog postings, that’s obvious. Let me tell you. It’s been over a year since I thought I had finished writing the book I’ve been compiling of my Uncle Joe’s stories. Which I started in…
This family legend is excerpted from my upcoming book: Lighter Than Air: The 20s, The 30s, The War, and a Marriage Made in Heaven …a compilation of the stories told (and retold) by my Uncle, Joe Flynn. ~~~ In January of 1925, a total eclipse of the sun was predicted, and storekeepers everywhere were nervous….
Wartime Wedding – March 3, 1943
Tuesday the three women made arrangements for a reception. They knew how many to plan for because they had made all those phone calls. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what else they were up to. My job was just to stay out of their way. Rosemary had set up a cot for me, and…
Wartime Wedding – Getting Ready – March 1, 1943
I hadn’t seen Rosemary for over a year, since those couple of days right after Pearl Harbor. I was long gone and didn’t know when I’d ever be back. But ever since I had proposed to her, by letter, and she had written back “That’s a good idea,” we both knew that when—if—I got back,…