Thoughts For The Day From Papa ‘a

Good Afternoon All!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beloved first born, Ms. Andrea (Andy) Jean Knaggs, on the occasion of her 37th birthday!  Here’s to you Andy!  The world’s a much brighter place because of you!

Also congratulations to Judy’s cousin’s daughter, Madeline (Maddie), who recently tied the knot with Seth in a spectacular outdoor wedding at the Mader Farm outside of Genesee, Idaho last Saturday (June 1st).  It was a wedding to remember, for sure!  Just as the ceremony was about to begin, the heavens opened up and down came lots of rain (and some hail, to boot!).  Well, patience is a virtue, and the bride & groom opted to wait 15 minutes to let the storm subside and indeed it did and the sun came out and blue skies prevailed!  They had a great dinner and party afterward!  Here’s to you two!

And congratulations to Hannah & Tyler, who will be married later today at her folks’ (Carey & Trisha’s) place in the Spokane Valley.  Here’s wishing you many years of happiness together!

Judy & I had the opportunity to get away for a few days at The Tana House and “Boy Howdy” (as Sheriff Longmire would say), what a great time it was!  We were treated to a visit by a red fox, whose den must be somewhere near, as we’ve seen the fox a time or two lately.  It seems that the fox caught a wild turkey the other day, because I could see lots of turkey feathers all around down the road from The Tana House.  Judy & I enjoyed nine holes of golf together at the East Glacier Golf Course….spectacular views on every hole and perfect weather!  It’s a sweet little place to play a round of golf.  Check it out sometime….you’ll be glad you did!  Judy got bragging rights, as she didn’t lose her brand new pink golf ball I purchased for her, as her swing was straight and true…me, not so much…I lost two balls on nine holes!  Although I did get a par on one of the par threes!  Hitting a few good shots now and then makes you want to come back for more!  And we’ll come back to East Glacier again soon for more golfing adventures…not to mention the great appetizers and drinks in the Glacier Park Lodge lounge!  On our last day at The Tana House, we were treated by a visit from a Western Tanager, one of the most beautiful birds in the Glacier Park region…bright red head, brilliant yellow neck and underbody and bold black feathers!  You don’t get to see one of these very often…we even got to see its mate, which was an added treat!  To top it all off, I came upon a majestic doe just outside of The Tana House the evening before we left.  All in all, a great visit to The Tana House again!

As we remember the sacrifices given at D-Day some 75 years ago this past June 6th, my friend Harold Voltz shared the letter his Dad from England wrote on that day as he and his fellow soldiers in the 4th Armored Division were awaiting their time to land at Normandy and I thought it worthy of passing along to you:

6 June 1944  England

“Dear Folks,

How are you tonight?  Am feeling fine and hope you are the same.  Well, today was D-Day and of course the days that a lot of people were looking eagerly forward to and yet, still dread, the day.  Well, I’m glad that it’s started once and to hear the Allies have made a successful landing.  Our “Stars and Stripes” newspaper headline tonight said, “All’s going well.”  I haven’t been writing much here of late.  News is so scarce, and I can’t think of anything to say.  I imagine that the mail was held up on account of the fireworks across the Channel.  However, I imagine it will son be coming thru again.  I wish we would get a real good rain once, as the people really need it over here.  We have been warned about a water shortage, and were told to use it as we did in the desert.”

—Harold J. Voltz, Jr., “World War II Cavalry Reconnaissance Scout:  Selected Letters of Harold J. Voltz, Fourth Armored Division” (2018)

Here’s some more from my recent World War II adventure with my friend Harold Voltz…

May 17, 2019

This morning we’re on our way to Arlon, Belgium, the provincial capitol of the Province of Luxembourg in Belgium.  Arlon was the starting point for the 25th Calvary Reconnaissance’s path to Bastogne to relieve that besieged city that was surrounded by the German army during the Battle of the Bulge.  Arlon has to rate as one of my favorite cities on our journey.  Lots of history there.  It is over 2,000 years old!  It served as a Roman outpost at the time of Julius Caesar…how about that!  The streets are mighty narrow here and they put mirrors to good use at all of the intersections so that you can see around corners to see who is coming.  Pretty clever, I think!  Lots of old buildings that survived World War II.  We had a fun experience in Arlon that deserves recounting…Our guide Roland approached an elderly lady (I would guess she was in her 90s) and asked her for directions to some World War II monuments in Arlon.  Well, come to find out, she is a long-time resident of Arlon and knew where we needed to go.  As we were about to leave her, she asked if one of us could escort her from the parking lot (she is still driving!) to her beauty salon appointment across the street and down a block or so.  Well, being the gentleman I am, I quickly volunteered and what a pleasure it was to walk with her.  While we couldn’t communicate very well, I did compliment her on her choice of perfume and she broke into a broad smile and said “merci.”  I knew at that moment that we had connected!  I wish we could have taken her to lunch and spent some time with her.  I’ll bet she has many stories to tell about her long life.  She was one classy lady!  I think the locals got a kick out of all the attention we showed her…we did stop traffic for a bit in order to negotiate the traffic signals and the crosswalks along the way!  What a sweet & special time in Arlon we had!  I will always remember this city.  Check it out if you’re ever in southern Belgium…you’ll be glad you did!

We decided to travel to Bastogne from Arlon and then trace the bath of Harold’s Dad in reverse order of his unit’s march to relieve Bastogne.  That would put us back to our farm cottage at the end of the day.  Roland had arranged to have Harold meet with the Director of the Bastogne War Museum about the book describing his father’s service in the 4th Armored Division.  Come to find out, after Harold had shown the director the book and visited with him a bit, the director is interested in having the book in their collection and possibly make it available for sale…how about that!  Roland went out of his way to arrange this meeting…just another good reason to have a gifted and experienced personal guide…and Roland is all of that & more!  The Museum Director also made arrangements for Harold to follow up with a gentleman who is putting together a collection on the 4th Armored Division at Fort Benning in the U.S..  It looks like Harold will be busy when he returns home in getting his book ready for a big printing order.  Let’s hope so, for it’s a worthy read and would be a great addition to the books available through the Bastogne War Museum and elsewhere.  There didn’t seem to be much information about the role that the 4th Armored Division played in the Battle of the Bulge and the relief of Bastogne.  I’ve heard it said that the 101st Airborne sincerely believed that they didn’t need to be relieved at Bastogne, but once you’ve been to the War Museum and visited the sights and heard the stories, there’s not much doubt in my mind that things could have turned out much worse (it was already a dire situation) for our soldiers there had not help arrived when it did.  They were out of plasma and a lot of essential supplies to sustain them.  And keep in mind that they were fighting in the worst winter weather in many a year.  Here’s to Harold’s dad and fellow members of the 4th Armored Division who helped save the day!

While we were at the Bastogne War Museum today, we saw a 95 year old World War II vet from Georgia.  He was visiting with family members.  He served in the 4th Infantry Division during the war.  What a privilege and honor to see this veteran at the museum, not to mention the outstanding exhibits they have there.  Each visitor is provided a head set and an audio program that takes you through each section of the museum.  The program features four figures from the siege of Bastogne…a 13 year old Belgian boy whose parents owned a bicycle shop in Bastogne; a young teacher who lived just outside of Bastogne and worked for The Resistance; a German soldier and an American soldier who was part of the 101st Airborne.  It’s a moving and fascinating narration you are given as you journey through the war and its effect on Bastogne and the surrounding region and the impact the war had on these four individuals.  It has to be one of the finest, if not the finest, guided tour of a museum I have ever experienced.  In addition, there is a fitting memorial located next to the museum that honors all of the U.S. soldiers who served in the Battle of the Bulge.  You can climb stairs to the top of the memorial and it gives you a birds eye view of Bastogne and the country side surrounding it.  You get a pretty good sense of what our soldiers were up against during the siege of Bastogne.  You did have to imagine what the weather was like then, as it is Springtime there now and it was bitter cold with lots of snow in December of 1944.

Being the lover of flags that I am (people who collect flags are called vexolligists (sp?)), I searched high and low in Bastogne for the city’s flag which features a boar’s head.  They had this flag flying all around Bastogne, but I couldn’t find a flag shop that sold them…this will give me something to do when I return home…to search for the “Boar’s Head Flag!”

One thing I noticed in our travels around Belgium is that the automobiles of choice are Audis, Citreons, Renaults and BMWs, not necessarily in that order.

Before we left Bastogne we visited Roland’s favorite supermarket, the Aldi Supermarket, a sister market to our Trader Joe’s in the U.S..  Roland says that he pays about 50% less there for meats, cheeses, cappuchino packets, and other essentials than other supermarkets in Belgium.  Going down one aisle and then the other, I noticed a great selection of food items to purchase…quality buns, raisin buns, thinly sliced gouda cheese, thinly sliced prociutto & ham, yogurt of various varieties, fresh fruits, etc..  It seemed that nothing was priced more than 2 euros for each item.  The Gouda cheese slices are really tasty and they have some great breads, rolls & pastries for breakfast.  Roland says he shops at an Aldi store whenever possible.  He definitely has an eye for bargains…a true bargain shopper!

As we left Bastogne, we came upon the village of Assenois (Ah-sez-wah)…the first village where the 101st Airborne came in contact with German troops.  Evidently, the Germans parachuted into Assenois at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge…a number of them were dressed in American GI uniforms and spoke English fluently…a tricky scheme to take our forces by surprise…and it worked pretty effectively early on.  Assenois is such a charming place now…it’s hard to conceive that there was bitter hand to hand, house to house fighting there in December, 1944.  Roland was able to find the historical markers there that showed evidence that the 4th Armored Division & the 25th Calvary Recon Squad (Harold’s Dad’s unit) had passed this way on the way to Bastogne.  Roland even took out some Windex and paper towels and cleaned the monuments off while we were there…how about that?

We all were griping in the car about having to negotiate crazy looking speed barriers that were put up in the middle the country lane we were traveling. They looked like planter boxes (they even had flowers in them!) and they required cars to serpentine, swerving from side to side with the goal of forcing cars to slow down…well, I guess they work, because we really had to slow down to get around them!

From the village of Assenois, we traveled through the village Grandu (Gran-do), scene of another bitter battle between German & U.S. forces.  Just outside of Grandu, on a little country lane, stands a World War I memorial with the inscription “Glory to our heroes.”  This reminded us that World War I battles were fought in much the same places as they were in World War II.  Next to the World War I memorial is a smaller monument dedicated to those who served in World War II.  The monuments are positioned at an intersection in the middle of the countryside where four roads come together.  We found many of these places all along our route from Bastogne traveling south toward Arlon.  It’s all so pastoral now in this part of Belgium…again hard to conceive that horrible things took place in these villages and the surrounding countryside in December, 1944.

The next village we came to was Chaumont (Shaw-mont), site of a major tank and infantry battle that involved Harold’s Dad’s unit.  The Americans were coming up from the south and were met by German tanks and infantry near the crossroads that ran through the heart of Chaumont.  Many Americans died here and there were many stories of bravery under fire.  The 10th Armored Infantry Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Cohen lost 65 men here.  One American soldier received the Medal of Honor here for his efforts to take out a major German machine gun nest pretty much single handedly.  Lots of hard fighting here, for sure.  The thing that most impressed me about Chaumont is that there are number of monuments honoring the units who fought here and the interpretive signs are easy to follow and understand.  I was taken by the beauty of this place…it is situated in a beautiful valley.  The thing you notice most is how the topography features rolling hills and dense forests and then open farmland/fields…while beautiful now, you can see how difficult it must have been for our soldiers to know where the Germans were concealed and vice versa.

A funny thing happened as we were about to leave Chaumont…we had “stare down” with one of the cows in a field situated right next to the country lane we were on.  We had stopped to get out of Roland’s care to take pictures.  We think we heard him moo “get off my grass”…must be an old, grumpy cow!  The cow just stood his ground and stared and stared straight at us.  It was the funniest darn thing I ever saw!  We had a pretty good laugh over that!

Then, a little way down the road past Chaumont, we got into a “stare down” with a farm dog…what looked to be a border collie.  It approached Roland’s car straight on and wouldn’t let Roland drive around him.  It stood its ground and every time Roland moved the car to get around it, the dog moved in the same direction as the car!  No doubt a shepherding (sheep and/or cattle) dog.  We think the dog was trying to herd us as well and it was doing a darn good job of it.  It got right in front of the care where we couldn’t see it and then went around the car…still not seeing it.  That’s one intrepid sheep/cattle dog!  We must have been a standoff for 4-5 minutes with the dog until its master, who was working around the barn, noticed what was going on and called the dog off.  I thought the cow was the best “stare down” I’d ever experienced, but that border collie takes the cake!  I think the village where we met the intense sheep/cattle dog was called Mannfoutie (or something close to that!).  One of the most memorable parts of our journey thus far, for sure!

One thing that struck me about the road from Bastogne back to our farm cottage was lots of winding, narrow roads and the fact that businesses are randomly situated along the road…an automotive repair shop here, a bakery there, a pluming contractor there, etc….all strung out along the road, not in a specific business district like we see in the U.S….(of course, keeping in mind that we are traveling through the rural parts of Belgium).

Speaking of proper pronunciations of village/city names, I’ve adopted the phonetic way of sounding them out…for example the village next to our farm cottage is Anlier (pronounced On-lee) and the little community in which our farm cottage is actually situated is Loufetomont (pronounced Loff-te-mont).  How’s that for improvising a way to better pronounce location names in French?

After a great day of tracing the path that Harold’s Dad took through Belgium on his way to Bastogne, we ate at a terrific little restaurant (the only one close by to our farm cottage).  We got there before the official opening time of 6:30 p.m., put the lady (the owner?) let us come in early after talking with Roland…another advantage of traveling with a charming person who speaks the language fluently!  The restaurant was recommended to us by our farm cottage host, Annie.  I ordered “carbonnade” which Roland told me was the signature Belgian dish.  It was braised beef prepared in a Belgian beer sauce.  It was delicious!  Bernard, the restaurant’s chef, did a superb job on all of our meals.  It was a delightful place.  By the way, Belgians always tell you that their beer is the best…and you know what?…they’re right!  I had the “Airborne Beer” (7.50% alcohol content) at a place in Bastogne and it was fabulous (maybe it’s the alcohol content that does it?)….I usually only have one beer at a time, but this time I had two beers and was felling no pain!  You really have to try Belgian beer…it’s addicting, to say the least!  The “Airborne Beer” is so named because the founder of that particular brewery was a little boy during the war and during the siege of Bastogne he and his family were hiding out in the basement of their home during the battle.  Their place was located close to where the aid station/hospital was located where a number of American GIs were being treated for their wounds.  He happened to see an American GI going back and forth from the tavern/pub that was located across the street from his basement window.  The GI was taking beer in his helmet to some of his friends who were being treated at the aid station, as many of them had requested beer and there wasn’t much beer available at that point, except for the beer that the enterprising GI could find in a bombed out tavern/pub.  That gave the young boy the inspiration to start a brewery of his own if he was to survive the war….well, he did, and the rest as they say “is history.”

After dinner, we returned back to our wonderful farm cottage for the night and prepared for our trip with Roland to Paris to join the “Beyond Band Of Brothers” tour.  Harold and I were both sad to have to say goodbye to our fantastic guide and friend.  What a great time we had with Roland!

To be continued…

 

Speaking of Roland, I was able to find Gordon Lightfoot’s song about a Go-Go Dancer….

“Alone upon the sidewalk of despair, ’twas there she wandered

With her suitcase in her hand, her fate she pondered

Only a go-go girl in love with someone who didn’t care

She met him on a night so rare when her friends were there and the band was groovin’

When he gave a glance that said how much he would like to meet her

How as she to know at the time he would mistreat her?

In her case she danced for him although a hundred eyes were turned her way

And before the set was through he knew she would be his loved one

Only a go-go girl in love with someone who didn’t care

Only twenty-one, she was a young girl just in from somewhere

He’s playin’ up in Michigan with a group they call “The Intended”

With a kiss, and a promise, he was gone

The song was ended

But as she walks, she waits for him…the pavement is a shoulder for her tears

But in her heart she knows there is no way she can hope to change him

Only a go-go girl in love with someone who didn’t care

A go-go girl in love.”

—Gordon Lightfoot, “Go-Go Round” (1967)

 

Here’s the silly question for the day:

Q:  What kind of floor did the dinosaur have in his bathroom?

A:  Rep-tiles

 

Here are some thoughts for the day:

“Mechanical difficulties with language are the outcome of internal difficulties with thought.”

—Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist (1899-1973)

 

“I’d hate to be a teetotaler.  Imagine getting up in the morning and knowing that’s as good as you’re going to feel all day.”

—Dean Martin, American actor/singer/comedian (1917-1995)

 

“I call it joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from happiness and pleasure.  Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them;  the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again…I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world.  But then joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.”

—C.S. Lewis, “Surprised By Joy”, as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom:  Meditations On Faith, Life, Love, and Literature” (2018)

 

Here’s to a great weekend and lots of love always!

Press on,

Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)

6 throughts on "Thoughts For The Day From Papa ‘a"

    1. Thanks Patty! My pleasure!

      Have a great day today & all the best!

      Mark
      (Harold’s sidekick)

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