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on the paternal side - my father's father was in the polish cavalry in the early 1900s and smelled something funny - no, it wasn't the physical horseshit - and asked his commanding officer for guidance. said officer said, "joe, go to america while you can." joe went, ignored the "which way, ej" comments as well as the "go to the mines, joe" directions and found a place in erie, pa. from there he went back to poland to bring rose back. i have no idea where the money came from or whatever. they both came back, sailing out of hamburg, on a ship that was berthed next to the titanic in great britain before the fateful journey began. anyhow, they both made it back to erie, pa. old joe worked for and retired from hammermill paper company in erie, pa in 1943. rose was a housewife and mother to four, one of whom was my father.
on the maternal side - susie was a nurse when she married my grandfather. grandpa walter was a motorcycle courier in WWI and, after a period of time, ended up losing his leg as a result of being wounded in chateau-thierry, france. in the meanwhile he was a guard at the elmira reformatory in upstate new york and retired in the late 1940s.
i'm proud of all of them...
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"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
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"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
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never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.
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