[PRCo] Re: warmer temps

[Schneider Fred]

Mark et al:

I was trying to find a reference on line to this site but there is  
nothing decent.  Supposedly a Pennsylvania Battlefield Commission  
maintains a monument to Pennsylvanian who fought in France.   The  
site is in Varennes-en-Argonne, 110 km (about 65 miles) east of Reims  
in Champaign province.   I've photographed it within the last ten  
years ... stumbled upon it quite by accident on an out of the way  
back road.   The region of the Battle of Bulge, near Verdun, is  
simple littered with monuments and remains.

You can find all sorts of things on line (except what I wanted) about  
memorials to World War I and World War II all over Europe.   Interest  
in the bizarre never seems to die.   I took a rather interesting  
walking tour last October of remnants of the Nazi regime in Munich.    
Hitler's office in Munich is still there ... it's in a school today.

If you go on the internet you will find all sorts of references to U.  
S. Military Cemeteries in Europe, particularly in France and  
Luxembourg.   But, for balance, I would suggest that those who go  
there and choose to visit our cemeteries also look at "their" places  
of internment.   The sad difference is how young they drafted people  
in order to perpetuate the war.   You'll find them both in German  
church yards and German military cemeteries ... teen agers from 13 on  
up.   There is a German cemetery within a few miles of our military  
cemetary in Normandy and it is worth the visit for balance.

The cemetery in Luxembourg has General Patton's grave.   He is buried  
at the front of his troops.   Of course he died not leading his men  
into battle but in an vehicle accident after the war.

Something else to see is the French Maginot  line, a row of  
underground fortifications stretching from Luxembourg south to  
Switzerland with guns aiming at Germany.  For those on the list  
unfamiliar with this faux pas of military history, it built after  
World War I in to keep the Germans from again invading France.   It  
was built for another cavalry war.  World War II was an aerial /  
motor vehicle war.   It was a classic case of defending yourself for  
the last war.    The Germans, in World War II, simply came around  
through Belgium, and attacked the line from behind.   All the gun  
turrets were fixed on Germany.   They were useless when the enemy was  
already behind the line.   You can visit the underground  
fortifications north of Strasbourg in the summer.   I was there a  
week or two before Easter one year and I believe that the opened for  
season on Easter.   (And you can see the trolleys in Strasburg and I  
can recommend a great small town German hotel on the other side ... a  
family owned place with relatives in Pittsburgh.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line

fws
On Dec 23, 2008, at 12:51 AM, Mark McGuire wrote:

> Dennis and John,
>
>  My dad was also in WWII and from what very little I remember him  
> telling me, he was stationed just outside where The Battle Of The  
> Bulge was. I remember one word that sticks out in my mind. COLD. He  
> said it was so cold that their feet were getting frost bite.
>   On a more humorous note, my dad told me how scared he was when he  
> first got shipped over to Europe during WWII. He said he was so  
> scared to get out of bed that he peed in his bed and then switched  
> mattresses with another guy the next morning when nobody was  
> watching. In hindsight, I wished I would have asked dad alot more  
> questions as he's not around anymore to ask.
>
>  Wishing all of you all the best this holiday season and throughout  
> the new year.
>
> -- John Swindler <j_swindler at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Strange you should mention this, Dennis.  My wife and I were  
> talking about these sorts of things yesterday, and the  
> opportunities and blessings we have enjoyed that would have been  
> just a dream to our parents generation, and incomprehensible to our  
> grandparents and earlier.
>
> Things like - how often did ones parents go to a restaurant (once),  
> or how often did the family go on vacation?  I can count on one  
> hand the number of family vacations during my youth, and all  
> involved staying at a relatives to save meal cost.  My wife has a  
> similar memory of a cabin in Wisconsin and her mother having to  
> clean and cook the fish her dad caught.  And yes, both of the  
> houses of our youth were heated with a coal furnace.  Today I can  
> hear the heat pump doing it's thing.  And a garage attached to the  
> house.  What a novel idea.  (Then again, my parents didn't have to  
> deal with the "junk" filling up most of the garage.)
>
> Two other things we talked about yesterday:  the electronic  
> revolution that enables us to communicate with email for instance,  
> and advances in medical technology that have kept many of us  
> alive.  Speaking of history, a distant cousin died in the yellow  
> fever epidemic in Cincinnati around 1875.  When was the last time  
> you heard about a yellow fever epidemic in this country?  And what  
> about polio?  I'm just thankful for the blood pressure pills as  
> there is a history of heart problems in my families past.
>
> So was your dad in the 28th or the 99th in December 1944?  Both had  
> the misfortune to be in the wrong place (Ardennes) at the wrong  
> time.  Another cousin was in the 28th, and even he claimed (and  
> rightfully so) that he was never quite right afterwards.  In my  
> dad's case, an uncle mentioned that he was stranded on Malta for  
> awhile, something dad never mentioned.  Adds a whole new meaning to  
> the word 'destitute'.
>
> Many of us would probably wish to go back 60-70 years to the time  
> of the trolley, but I doubt if we would want to stay there for very  
> long.  It was a far - far different world.
>
> And the Andy Rooney comment rather says it all.  For many of us, we  
> have reached the age where if we want/need something, we already  
> have it.  As I tell my wife, all I want is for folks to take care  
> of their health and drive safely.  Everything else will take care  
> of itself.
>
> Thanks for the reminder, Dennis.
>
> I started volunteering at PTM three years ago, and the unexpected  
> joy has been to watch the faces of the young kids during Santa and  
> Pumpkin weekends.
>
> John
>
>
>
>> From: dfc1 at windstream.net> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>  
>> Subject: [PRCo] warmer temps> Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:17:46  
>> -0500> > As Oscar Hammerstein II wrote; "Oh what a beautiful  
>> morning!" I have now been up for 2 hours and the outside air  
>> temperature has already doubled. It is now 6 degrees at 7:35 in  
>> the morning. Is it really that bad? Hardly. > We live in a  
>> wonderful time and I ask each of you when it was any better for  
>> you? I am sitting in a warm home with a gas furnace that  
>> automatically comes on when I need heat. I can control the heat  
>> from a small thermostat on the wall. Who remembers coal furnaces?>  
>> > My van is parked in an unheated garage, but once I get out on  
>> the road, it will warm up very quickly. I have not had to go  
>> through the annual change to winter treads for over 30 years.  
>> Remember putting chains on those rear wheel drive cars that were  
>> horrible in the snow?> > I have spent the past month decorating  
>> and remembering. As with most of you, my parent!
>  s and grandparents are no longer here in a physical sense, but the  
> holiday season helps us acknowledge the good and not so happy times  
> of the past. As we get older, we place less value on material  
> items. Andy Rooney said it best last night, "Don't buy me any  
> gifts, If I really want it, I already bought it for myself." If  
> life is so bad right now, why are most of us on this list without  
> want?> > Offer to go to your local school and do a transit  
> presentation to the lifeskill students. You will see some of the  
> happiest children in the world and come home thankful for what you  
> have. One of the worst heartaches in the world for me working with  
> children was seeing them suffer and many times lose their battle  
> with life from either disease, accident or by their own hand. The  
> best part of working with children was seeing them grow.> > Would  
> you want to go back to another time and live? If so, what decade?>  
> > My dad was 15 when the stock market crashed. He then served in  
> the Civilian!
>   Conservation Corps and spent Christmas of 1944 stuck in cold and  
> blea
> k of what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Want to go back  
> to the 30's or 40's? > > We are having another peaceful transition  
> of power next month in Washington as we inaugurate our first  
> African American president. What a positive sign of our country  
> moving toward opportunity without regard for race, religion, or  
> sex. Are we there yet? Hardly, but it is a positive step. Do you  
> want to go back to the 50's when it became so noticeable on a  
> national scene that separate but equal was hardly equal? Television  
> made the world a little smaller.> > We mark the 40th anniversary of  
> the end of the tumultuous year of 1968 with the readings from the  
> book of Genesis on Christmas Eve as the men from Apollo 8 circled  
> the moon for the very first time and showed us the view of earth  
> from space. We do live on a sparkling jewel! What a relief that was  
> after the unrest we experienced with the assassinations of MLK and  
> RFK, the misery of Vietnam, the inequity of peoples rights, and the  
> Chi!
>  cago riots. Want to go back to the 60's? > > Why have we noticed  
> so much and had so much change? Advances in communication  
> technology. Lincoln had to leave the White House and walk across  
> the street to get news from the war front via telegraph. We are a  
> group of people who share our joys and or sorrows on a medium that  
> is once again changing how we view the world.> > There are two  
> things certain in the world (no, not death & taxes): > > People  
> resist change. Change is inevitable.> > I enjoy studying the past  
> and know there were great times and not so great times. I tend to  
> study history to see how it changed the lives of people and to see  
> how people changed history. Change is happening at a faster rate  
> than ever before and we need to be careful to not become too  
> pessimistic. My glass is more than half full!> > Merry Christmas! >  
> Happy Chanukah!> Blessed Kwanza!> And there is always Festivus for  
> the rest of us!> > It is still 6 out, so some things do not change  
> as fast as we!
>   sometimes wish they would.> > > Dennis F. Cramer> Trombone> > >
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