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Utah. Omaha. We see, in our collective mind’s eye, brave U.S. soldiers storming off landing craft in full battle gear, courageously wading—sometimes swimming—to shore, through a monsoon of bullets and exploding artillery shells. What we do not see—are the “Seabees” of the U.S. Navy’s Construction Battalions (CBs), working at breakneck speed, just beyond the view…
It’s now or never! Here I am, stuck in the house for an interminable time. Why not? The challenge? Thousands. Yes. Thousands… of pictures. They have been accumulating for my entire lifetime. It started with snapshots here and there. Tucked into a scrapbook or box of mementoes. A couple of baby pictures. A few from…
At one point in time, I had three file cabinets and a total of ten file drawers. All were jammed with folders. As we prepared to down-size…and move across the country, I made it my mission to “get rid” of all that “clutter.” The file cabinets were dispersed. The antique walnut one that Mr. Penfire…
My Uncle Joe joined the US Navy for a six-year hitch in August of 1940. He served on USS Wichita, a heavy cruiser, USS Redwood, a ship that installed and serviced anti-torpedo nets, before applying to become a lighter-than-air sailor. He was accepted into the program and assigned to Blimp Hedron #1, Lakehurst (NJ) Air…
A week ago Sunday, April 26th, the Los Angeles Times ran an editorial entitled “The brutality of coronavirus triage.” This piece acknowledges a terrible reality—the incomprehensible dilemma that doctors face when emergency rooms are overwhelmed with more desperately sick people than they can possibly help. “The most harrowing instances have been in the northern Italian…
“Christos Anesti.” “Christ is Risen.” It is Easter Sunday. But today is like no other Easter Sunday I have experienced. No Easter eggs. No church…overflowing with people dressed in crisp new outfits, bright spring colors. No abundant cascades of fragrant flowers. No Easter lilies. Pots of bright tulips. No choirs singing. No hymns. No Holy…
My mother died on Good Friday. She was just one month shy of her 90th birthday. The year was 2003, and Good Friday fell on April 18th that year, but no matter. Every year since, on Good Friday, I think of her. And I think of my Uncle Joe, her brother, two years younger, who…
It snuck up on us, didn’t it? This Covid 19 virus! For Mr. Penfire and me, the preoccupation since about Christmas was up the street…at our daughter’s house, where our son-in-law was undergoing medical tests…and, ultimately, some very serious surgery at the end of February…and there were four young children who needed to be driven…
Why did I think this play was going to be funny? It’s not. Distressing would be more like it. But I’m not complaining. Sometimes it’s better to have painful truths sneak up on you. For if you knew they were going to confront you head on, you might decide to make take strategic turn before…
November 11, 2019. One hundred and one years since the Armistice that made 11 a.m. of the eleventh day of the eleventh month a moment for reflection and remembrance. Inevitably on this day, the veterans who come first to my mind are my mother’s three brothers, who served overseas during World War II. (A fourth…