Wednesday, May 21, 2008

First Sources are a Treasure

A picture of my dad as a young man from the 100th Bomb Group website.

Both my father and my grandfather fought in World Wars. Granddad fought in WWI and Dad fought in WWII and the Korean War. While I was growing up I gathered in bits and pieces of historical lore and popular songs from those times as part of being a loved child.

Songs were usually just fun for me when I was a kid. Dad used to play his ukulele for my sister and me at bedtime. He taught us to sing American folk songs and some military numbers along with those funny popular songs that people come up with when times are hard. Lots of times I didn't know what I was getting. So it was a huge surprise to me when I auditioned for a college musical by singing "Hut Sut Rawlson on the Rillerah" and learned from the director that it was a Korean War song. Here's a video in black & white of it that I got off of You Tube.



Granddad passed on when I was still a young woman. I wish I'd had more time to gather in his memories. He was a great story teller. Dad however, is doing a fine job of telling his own stories. He's writing his memories of WWII pilot training and some of his "missions" during the war on the font of information that the guys from the 100th Bomb Group (home page link) have set up. I'm really proud of my dad and all his accomplishments. So I've included a link to the website in my sidebar under Friend's Blogs. Hope you all will visit and read his stories. You'll find his memories and some others listed there. Dad's are the ones written by Bill Kennedy. There's a place for comments there so why not leave him or the other veterans a word and tell them how much you appreciate their service and their value to correct history as told by the people who lived it.

4 comments:

Sandi McBride said...

So glad you posted this Lee...too many of our WWII heroes are leaving us fast! I have a magazine that your dad might be interested in having and I'd love to mail it to him...it's about local heroes from our county but he might see names he recognizes, who knows...
hugs
Sandi

Lee said...

Thanks, Sandi! I agree! Have you searched for other memories? I know they have pictures and whatnot. Today I found a long list of missions on my dad's crew's page. There's even a picture of him and his men in front of their airplane.

I'll ask Dad about the magazine.

Hugs!

San said...

That's a fun video, Lee, and such a handsome photograph of your dad. I look forward to reading his stories.

How wonderful that you still have your dad and that he is able to share all of this.

Lee said...

Thanks, San! I'm glad you liked the video because I've always liked the song. It was the near nonsense words that through the lyrics were made to make sense that got me. Plus the melody is catchy.

Yep, my dad's a looker alright. Somewhere in my collection of old family photos I've got a picture of him that makes him look a whole lot like Nicholas Cage. And I wasn't the only one who thought so. When I showed it to my sister she thought so too. :)

Hugs!