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When Location Becomes Their Story

December 10, 2022 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Books, Following Old Trails, Genealogy, Palmetto Pioneers

One of the most important parts of writing the book “Palmetto Pioneers” was research. Studying the location of my chosen ancestor became an important next step.

But let’s take a step back. I didn’t begin looking at the locations. I began reviewing what I already knew about my main character, Mary. I went back to my original research, first to my paper files, then my online files, such as her family’s Ancestry tree.

This review identified all the places she had lived or traveled. This was easy because Mary lived in Colleton District, South Carolina and traveled by wagon with her parents and extended family to Jefferson County, Florida. It appears she lived there for the rest of her life, so I only had three locations to research, but one of which was fluid.

I asked questions. Where was she married (Jefferson County, Florida marriage record)? When and where were her children born (census records which showed when and where she lived)? Where and when did she die? I also looked for land, court, and probate records.

Full Book Cover–Front, Back, & Spine

An important part of this process was making a timeline for the family. It had three columns—one for the event, one for the date, and another for the place. It helped tremendously when trying to find events or write about them in the correct order they happened.

It also showed flaws in the research. Not everyone’s memory is the same for any event, and people make mistakes when recording important dates. Timelines helped me find the discrepancies and then helped me either fix the discrepancies or explain them in the book.

These earlier steps, used to analyze Mary and those around her, brought me to the next part of my research.

Where did these events take place? And what did I know about them?

Using census records for her father and the other Walker heads of household in the family, we know she came from South Carolina, most likely Colleton District, southwest of Charleston. But what did I really know about that area? This became an important question for the next step.

I began with the courthouse in Colleton County, but before making a trip up there, I researched the courthouse itself and where I could expect to find records. Right away, I discovered that though the courthouse itself did not burn during the Civil War, its records did. Because they were on the path of Sherman, they sent their records for safekeeping to their capital, Columbia. After marching through Colleton County and leaving its courthouse untouched, Sherman made a beeline to Columbia and burned the capitol and Colleton’s records there.

However, I learned that there are land records in neighboring counties that show lands near the county lines. They reflect who owned the land across the line. Barnwell County’s records for Lightsey lands showed the Walkers were their neighbors in Colleton County. I also learned that people have donated records from their families to a local Genealogy Room, which was in the same building as Colleton’s extension service. There is also a genealogy room at the county library.

Roadtrip!

This led to my favorite pastime—travel. Add a trip to a genealogical site, and for me it is a match made in heaven. I chose one of the old routes, certainly not an interstate highway, and I drove from Monticello to Walterboro, wondering if these families may have used a trail or road nearby.

Family Search Wiki, Colonial Roads in America

Using all this information, I made several trips to Walterboro, the county seat, and to the location of the Walker lands near Carter’s Ford on the Little Salkehatchie River. This location research was invaluable to the story, especially when the family still lived in South Carolina. It was wonderful to walk where they had walked almost two hundred years before, but why did they leave? Studying their first location could help provide answers.

The Florida State Genealogical Society featured a speaker last month during their Poolside Chat series. Diana Elder suggested in her presentation entitled, “Locality, Locality, Locality: Putting Your Ancestors in Their Place,” that one should create a “locality guide.” I wish I had listened to this about six years ago. It would have saved me later headaches.

I should have created a “Colleton County Locality Guide,” with a section for “Background Information,” showing “Quick Facts” such as laws that changed the economic environment for the family and their dates, purchases of property, natural disasters in their area, when South Carolina became a colony, and so forth. One event I found was the building of a nearby railroad, which might have changed the family’s mind about moving since the railroad provided better opportunities to reach new markets.

In the Locality Guide, “General Collections” shows where to find information as well as “Online Research Guides” and “Maps and their Dates”. Here, one records maps that show the changes in state and county lines. Within Colleton County, they divided the county into parishes. The family lived in the St. Bartholomew Parish, but did they always? The guide is used to collect all the information found about a location.

The Walker Migration Route

Another important research project was trying to find how they got to Jefferson County, Florida, from Colleton District, South Carolina. I knew the names of several trails between the two areas, and I began my research quest by studying those trails.

Later, though, I discovered that the best place to begin this research was Family Search Wiki. Simply enter the words “migration” and the location to find the different trails and roads in an area. It gives you a list of trails and roads plus maps and other resources.

Usually, I began by googling the name of a town, river, road, trail, or anything else on which I needed more information. It usually sent me to other sources, such as maps, gazetteers, trails, and so forth.

Several gazetteers became important. You can find them using Family Search Wiki. Search for “gazetteer”(singular) and then enter the location you wish to find. We can find the digitized ones this way, but I found some that were not digitized in the bibliographies of other historical works. Always check their sources. It will surprise you what you uncover.

Maps became very important to the story. They showed me how they got to Florida.

I began with trails, because they built most of the older roads on old Indian or military trails. I found some on old maps, especially the earliest maps. William Dollarhide has done much work in identifying old trails throughout the nation. His books were very important to my work. I also used diaries and journals to learn what they saw on the trails and roads when they migrated south. In the book, what the Walkers saw on their journey south was in those diaries and journals.

Something I did not use is the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) on the United States Geographical Survey (USGS) website. I discovered it well after I had finished my research. Here you can search for the names of trails, and also towns, post offices, lakes, and rivers nearby.

Once I had sufficient information about the trails and roads available, I analyzed them for the families’ most likely route. Because they drove a foundation herd of cattle with them, I cut two of the more popular routes from the list—not enough water.

Why Florida?

The next step was to study her final home. Why did the family choose Florida? What else was out there? Newspapers seemed to be a good place to start, and there were Charleston papers that they may have read. Mary’s father and uncles were educated men. I discovered a wealth of information about moving to Florida, some of it from the South Carolina papers in their era.

I also had records already in my files. Federal censuses showed us when they made the move. Some children were born in South Carolina, and others in Florida. Land records showed us when the land was available for the family to buy. The Walkers came here before the land was available in the area they settled. They probably squatted on that land and made improvements that gave them the first dibs.

An early probate record for her grandfather told a story about how hard it was to live with local diseases such as malaria. Court records showed when they made their trips eight miles away to the county seat. All of this was important because vital records mostly did not exist. There were no death records or birth records in territorial Florida. There were only church records and Bible records, but few.

I mentioned a boundary issue earlier while they were in South Carolina. Though the boundary did not change, some in Colleton County were lucky to live near the boundary of another county, whose records did not burn. Atlas of Historical County Boundaries is a website by The Newberry Library which shows how a county’s boundary changed. It also shows state boundaries, too.

When the Walker family moved to Florida, it appears another group of Walkers moved just north of the state line in Georgia—an area less than ten miles away. We know from DNA they are kin to each other and from census records; they lived in Colleton District, too. We could never determine if they made the trip down together, though.

https://historygeo.com/

Later, Historygeo.com showed me who first bought the lands next to them once they bought land and settled in Jefferson County. History Geo even showed me how far away two massacred families lived during the Second Seminole Indian War. Using the sound of a gunshot, I determined which of them the family could hear from their home. I decided all of this using locality research.

Finally, I spent a lot of time studying the history of Jefferson County. It provided clues why they came when they did. For example, our state government only recently formed Jefferson County. It was less than two years old. Its land was just becoming available for sale from the state.

Historical books for a county can be important. Being from the county, I am a local and I knew which books to use. However, the National Genealogical Society has a series of books entitled “NGS Research in the States.” There is one for Florida, and it tells you where to go to find information on any county in the state. I also visited Family Search Wiki to look at their state timelines. It provided me a beginning for my in-house state events timeline.

In Jefferson County, the WPA did a research project in the 1930s, and they generated a book. We call it the Green Book. It includes first-hand stories from the children of these early settlers. A University of Florida professor wrote another county history book in 1976. Contracted by the Jefferson County Historical Association, it is an excellent source. Add to these the various diaries and journals kept, and they provided plentiful information about what Monticello and Jefferson County looked like when the Walkers arrived.

Jefferson County Courthouse, replaced in early 1900s

Locality research was vital to the book and an understanding of who these people were and what happened to them. It helped me determine who they were in South Carolina, how they got to Florida, and what impact they had on their new community once they arrived. Location research provided a wealth of information. I could not have written “Palmetto Pioneers” without it.

What Did it Take to be a Florida Pioneer

December 2, 2022 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Books, Genealogy

What was Florida like when the first white settlers got here? We can only imagine the hazards—the native population, alligators, mosquitoes, and poisonous arachnids. Add to this a list of climate changes—hurricanes, droughts, tornadoes, lightning strikes, and the economics of settling a new land—its unknown character.

One man, not from Florida, said in 1829, “no man would immigrate to Florida–no not from hell itself!” Obviously, he was wrong; because these first settlers came, and now, almost two hundred years later, they are still coming.

In my family, came seven-year-old Mary Adeline Walker with her parents; and later her grandparents followed. She is my third great-grandmother, and she came to Jefferson County, Florida, in 1829. We have important records and resources about her, but no diaries or journals from her or her immediate family. There are diaries and journals from other people, though, who lived in this area during territorial Florida.

Using Mary as my primary character, I wrote a book entitled “Palmetto Pioneers: The Emigrants.” It is one of a three-part series. The final book ends in Monticello during reconstruction, after the Civil War. The first book begins when Mary’s family migrates from South Carolina. They brought with them on the journey a foundation herd of cattle.

They primarily dealt with cattle, but like most good farmers, they varied their livestock and crops to diversify their risks. Mary is one of eleven children, primarily boys, a real plus for the family’s operations, which were in Jefferson County.

The book, written in a genre called narrative nonfiction, may be classified in a sub-genre called family history writing. It uses elements of creative writing to present a factual, true story. It uses literary techniques usually reserved for writing fiction, such as dialog, scene-setting, and narrative arcs. But I rooted it in facts. No part of the story is made up or fabricated unless the author signals otherwise.

A clear example of this type of genre is the book, “1776”, by David McCullough. McCullough extensively researched this subject using both American and British archives to create a powerful drama with extraordinary narrative vitality.

For “Palmetto Pioneers,” the territorial Florida time period was extensively researched, and a bibliography follows at the end of the book. I divided it into time periods such as “Life in South Carolina,” “The Migration,”, “Life in Territorial Florida,” and “The Indian Wars.” I limited their life in South Carolina to reflecting on why they left and what they needed to bring, but it doesn’t tell the reader. Instead, it shows these events.

In the first book are scenes that reflect the realities of living in Florida. The reader sees what Florida was like through Mary’s eyes. The reader can also see her and her husband’s place in Florida history.

There is no family tree in this book, but it references an online Ancestry tree that is public and accessible to anyone without a membership. Many of Mary’s brothers and sisters, as well as her own children, left Monticello and settled in many other parts of Florida, such as DeSoto, Citrus, Putnam, Marion, Bradford, Madison, Suwannee, Levy, Indian River, Brevard, Dade, Duval, Okeechobee, and many more counties. Two families went to Texas, and their descendants still live there.

One can find the first book of the series on Amazon, and there are soft-cover copies at two businesses in Monticello, Florida—Oh Happy Days Gifts and Vintage Antiques. On Amazon, the books are almost $25 for hardcover and softcover but only $9.99 for the e-book.

A Family History Book Review: The Smallest Tadpole’s War

September 7, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Books, Genealogy

Writing one’s family history so one’s family reads it? Now there’s a quandary.

 

Like most amateur genealogists I have boxes of family research and a fear that when I die they may as well bury the boxes of family history with me. Who would take the time to read through it?

This is a sponsored post that contains affiliate links. I received compensation in exchange for writing this review.

Then again I didn’t want to do one of those genealogy books full of only names, dates, and places. Boring!  Most people won’t take the time to learn about their family heritage this way either.

 

A Family History Book Done the Right Way

Diane Swearingen, though, solved that problem for her husband’s family. Her book “The Smallest Tadpole’s War in the Land of Mysterious Waters ” is historical fiction based on the life of his great-grandfather Thomas Swearingen.

Even better, though, is how she told the story. It is told in a way that benefits those of us not in her family because Thomas Swearingen’s story is symbolic of the settlers who first came to the state of Florida seeking better opportunities for themselves and their families.

The story begins with a marriage, a big move, and an adoption. Its point of view is through the eyes of Thomas’s adopted son. It follows through the lifetime of Thomas which includes territorial Florida, the Civil War, and reconstruction. Most of the story is set in Wakulla County with brief encounters in Gadsden, Leon and Jefferson Counties, all in North Florida, where Florida grew the fastest during this era.

The Wakulla County Courthouse, which was built during Thomas’s lifetime. It is standing today in Crawfordville, Florida,, Wakulla’s county seat. From the Florida Memory Collection.

The story is well documented and a page-turner. Also, I could not put the book down. I wanted to know what was happening to the characters as much as what happened in these areas during this time period. I grew up one county over, and my family goes back several generations there, too.

The book is a quick read, and I believe suited perfectly for middle schoolers as well as adults. It is good family reading.  Purchase a copy through Amazon using the link below.

The title itself, though long and tortuous is interesting. The smallest little tadpole is Florida, as described by a Civil War-era politician as being the ‘least important state swimming in the cesspool of secession’. It has double meaning because it is Thomas, too, who started out small himself, as a young man trying to make his way in life.

Mysterious waters is a translation of the name Wakulla, the county where most of the story took place. Wakulla County, located south of Tallahassee, is on the Gulf of Mexico.

From the Florida Memory Collection.

Do yourself a favor? If you want to know a little more about Florida’s history, read this book. This family history story does a great job of describing Florida when Florida was a little backwater tadpole in our great nation.

Wakulla’s beautiful Wakulla River is a spring fed clear water river that runs eventually into the Gulf of Mexico.  Today, manatees swim up to winter in its spring. From the Florida Memory Collection.

Learning to Die in Miami: A Book Review

March 17, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Books

The book “Learning to Die in Miami” is about the thousands of Cuban children airlifted to the USA during the early Castro years. Called the Pedro Pan Airlift, the story is a memoir told by the same author of “Waiting for Snow in Havana,” a National Book Award recipient.

Photo of Cuban Exiles in display at the Freedom Tower in Miami

Old Age Is Not for Sissies Blog (oldageisnotforsissiesblog.com) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

I just finished reading “Learning to Die in Miami”. The true story, written by Carlos Eire, who was one of over 14,000 Cuban orphans sent here by their parents in the early 1960s, captivated me. Their parents, desperate to get their children out, hoping to follow as soon as possible; and most thought they could get out within a few months. For many, though, it was years.

Once in the US the authorities placed these children, some as young as three in foster homes, orphanages, with relatives, and sometimes even with distant relatives. Not all stayed in Miami, moving all across the country.  I cannot imagine what it was like for the children, let alone the parents.

The Freedom Tower, former home of The Miami News was used as a facility to process, document, and provide medical and dental services for the Cuban exile newcomers.

Waiting for Snow in Havana

I read Eire’s earlier book “Waiting for Snow in Havana” about beautiful cosmopolitan Havana and Cuba before the revolution and immediately afterward.  Below are two pictures I found that compare the two cities of Havana and Miami.

Havana, Cuba before the Revolution

Miami in the early 1960s

 

 

This second book about his boyhood picks up where “Waiting for Snow…” leaves off; though it isn’t imperative that you read one before the other. Both provided an amazing history lesson into this time period.

For most of “Waiting for Snow” you get a child’s hopeful outlook to a beautiful future, and in “Learning to Die” you get a scary, disappointed wake-up call to what life is like for an immigrant, especially one without a parent to guide and protect them. Sadly, Carlos learns that in America the streets are not littered with cash as expected by a child. Still, there are hopeful and even comedic moments in the book.

A street scene in Havana, Cuba

A Street Scene in Miami

Other Reviews

In reading the reviews I noticed that many didn’t like the book. The author did jump around, and his little “whoosh” cue was used repeatedly to take you back and forth from one time period to another. But I thought it fit into a boy’s story. After all, this was written from a boy’s point of view, because it happened when he was a boy. It didn’t bother me, and I really liked the book.

I also wondered if some reviewers were put out by some of his more conservative views, such as his chastisement for those who want to protect the Spanish language as an intangible cultural tradition at the expense of Spanish-speaking immigrants. He thinks that this holds Spanish speaking people back from achieving their full potential in the American marketplace.

I know that protecting the Spanish language as an intangible cultural tradition created a small problem in my family. My aunt married a Cuban American or so it seemed. Both she and my uncle are now in their 80s; and because his mother required all the children and grandchildren to speak Spanish in her home which I visited on occasion, I made the mistake of asking Uncle Mario when was it that he got to the United States.

I thought it must have been when he was young because he spoke perfect English. Well, I upset Uncle Mario, because his family came to the Keys in Florida from Cuba in the late 1800s. His mother simply tried to make sure the grandchildren hung on to their language as her mother and mother’s mother did for her. Regardless, though, thanks to her my cousins speak two languages.

Wikipedia Map

Growing Up in Florida

Being from Florida I grew up with this Cuban-American uncle, the Cuban Missile Crisis, hearing about the Bay of Pigs, and several aunts and uncles who lived in Miami, all providing me with a picture of the refugee crisis down there in the early 1960s. These two books plus another one written by a dear friend, who also had to flee Cuba with her parents, helped me tie all these events together in context with the history of Cuba.

 

My friend’s book “The Front Row” by Silvia Morell Alderman, is the story of her parents as seen from the perspective of her mother. Silvia’s father, a justice of the Cuban Supreme Court for 10 years, the last two during the Castro regime, was the first justice to resign upon finding that Castro would not uphold the rule of law. Previously, he served in high government positions for two presidents. He and Silvia’s mother Rosa were student revolutionaries in the 1930s and indeed had a front row seat to the various revolutions down there.

So if you are like me and interested in Cuba and its history, these three books will give you an excellent picture.

 

What do you remember about Cuba in the early 1960’s?  Do you remember the Cuban Missile Crisis?  If so, how did your school prepare you for a possible nuclear war with Russia?

Hidden Figures:  A Movie Review

January 16, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Entertainment Reviews, Movies

Last Thursday night Chuck, his sister Susan, and I went to see the movie “Hidden Figures.”   I loved this movie. It captured all the excitement of NASA during  the Mercury program, and it also captured the stories of three special women who worked at NASA during that time–three African-American women.

Events in the story stayed pretty true to what actually happened with the exception of some of the characters such as the director played by Kevin Costner. His character is fictitious, a compilation of several directors at Langley. Also the main character’s boss is a fictitious person. His character represents the segregation issues they faced.

The movie is based on a book of the same name.


One character in particular is amazing, especially in real life. Katherine Johnson is truly the real thing. Her story alone is worth the movie. She is a mathematician, otherwise known as a “computer”. In real life she was a freshmen in high school by the age of ten, and she graduated from college by her eighteenth birthday.

Katherine Johnson

There is a scene in the movie where John Glenn told them that he wanted the math for his re-entry trajectory checked by the ‘girl’. He was talking about Katherine. He actually said that in real life. She was that good at what she did.

I wondered how much of the movie stayed true to actual events, so I went online and found a very good comparison at a website called History vs. Hollywood. You can read it here.

This is a great movie for children older than toddlers. It does a wonderful job of demonstrating the importance of science and math in a life and death situation. It also does a good job of showing the civil rights issues facing African Americans and women in the 1950s and 60s.

The only fault I can find with this film is when the women speak defiantly to their bosses. I was a woman in the workplace in the 1970s, and I cannot believe anyone who kept their job got away with that type of behavior. That is the way people today talk to each other.

I told Chuck that the best I could tell, that is what these women wanted to say…not what they actually said. If I had spoken to my boss like that, I wouldn’t have had much of a chance for promotion. Also, the same applied for junior men in the workplace, too. They couldn’t have gotten away with it either.

Back then there was a rigid pecking order in most workplaces. Stepping out of it usually got you nowhere. Some of us finally learned that the best way to overcome it was to leave…to change jobs.

Finally, I read in the History vs. Hollywood article about Katherine’s father. This man was a true hero. What he did to make sure all his children got a full education was absolutely wonderful and above and beyond. What a great example he set for his children.

So go see this movie and take the kids. It is a comedy drama, based on true events–one of the best I’ve seen in years.  It is a true family movie.

Memorial Day: A Forgotten Hero

May 28, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Books, This & That

Did you know that Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day? In the old days, it was the day when people decorated the graves of those who died in service for our country. Those graves were decorated with flowers, wreaths, and flags. Today we call it Memorial Day to remember those who lost their lives fighting for our freedom.

 

img_6510

Florida Memory Collection

There is a grave in my hometown. All of us kids raised there heard “his” story. He grew up there just like we did. He went to the same school. He played football and ran track and played ball on the high school mound. He lettered in numerous sports.

His classmates, though, said that he was a class star. My Uncle told me the other day that he could out debate the teachers. He said, “We thought he was smarter than the teachers.” He went on to be the Monticello High School Class of 1941 President and Captain of the football team.

He was a natural leader. He wouldn’t prove it, though, until on a remote Pacific Island seven hundred miles off the coast of Japan.

Today, only a few people who personally knew our hometown hero are still living. If he were still alive, he would be 92; but when he was young and running the streets of Monticello, he had blond curly hair and blue eyes. His name was Ernest Ivy Thomas, Jr. His friends called him “Boots”.

 

Boots is the child to the far left.

By the time Pearl Harbor happened, he had graduated from high school and was studying aeronautical engineering at a small Midwestern college. My Uncle James Roe was also away at Jones Business College in Jacksonville, but he was close enough to come back home for weekend visits.  Home was Monticello, Florida, 26 miles northeast of Tallahassee.  Below is a picture of Boots in college.

Boots Thomas

Boots Thomas

In December my Uncle was home visiting his family.  Uncle James said that he went downtown that Sunday before returning to school and stopped at a service station on the southwest corner of Waukeenah and Washington Streets. There was a group of men listening to a radio, and they told him that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. None of them knew where that was. In that moment, Monticello, if not America, was never the same again.

As America’s war machine built, Boots tried to continue with his studies, until he could stand it no longer. He already asked his Mother to sign so he could go, but she refused.  He was still only 17.

That summer in 1942, just before his 18th birthday, he talked to his Mother again.  His Father passed away when he was fifteen.  Boots told his Mother, “I’ve got to go…I’ve got to fight.”

Like so many other young people all across our nation, Boots followed his heart and walked away from his hopes and dreams for his future, his family, his friends. He was listening to a higher calling, a gut pull to give of himself to protect all that we were.

He joined the Marines and boarded a train in Orlando headed for Parris Island, SC.  He promoted quickly and became a drill instructor.  Later, the Marines asked him to become a drill instructors’ instructor.  He was that good at leading men, and the military was short of men that could do the job.

Boots kept asking his superiors, though, to be sent into combat duty; and he finally got his wish.

By the time Boots was 20 years old, his leadership skills were put to a final test on a desolate Pacific island called Iwo Jima, a Japanese-held fortress teaming with over 20,000 dug-in enemy combatants. The enemy was below ground in mazes of bunkers and tunnels, some as deep as seven stories below.  As a platoon sergeant Boots came ashore with the Fifth Amphibious Division.

The island was vital to the war for both Japan and America.  Our bombers could not get to Japan without the radar on Iwo Jima picking up their positions.  On the island were two runways for Japanese Zeros and other planes. On February 19, 1945, the Marines came ashore.

When his lieutenant was wounded, Boots assumed command of his platoon. Their mission was to move forward against the interconnecting defense positions surrounding the base of Mt. Suribachi.  In that second day of heavy fighting, the day ended with the 3rd platoon receiving two Navy Crosses, a Silver Star, seven Bronze Stars, and 17 Purple Hearts.

One of the Navy Crosses went to Boots.  Thomas realized that the tanks needed help in maneuvering the unevenness and brokenness of the terrain and finding the pillboxes. Throughout the battle, Thomas left his men always in a protected position and raced back and forth between the tanks and his men, standing in front of the tank and pointing out the enemy pillboxes that hindered his platoon’s advances.

He was constantly exposed to enemy fire, so much so that they shot his rifle out of his hand which he has been using to point to the pillboxes.  He simply pulled out his knife and used it instead.  He survived the day to fight again.

His and his men’s actions and advances on those bloody slopes had been so great that they had by-passed the Japaneseforces and spent the night cut off from their Battalion.  It was a battle, though, that would continue for five more weeks.

Unfortunately, Iwo Jima was far from over. The prize, they thought, was Mt. Suribachi, the highest point on the island; and it would take three bloody days to take it. Boots and his platoon were chosen to plant the American flag on its peak. He and his men succeeded.

first flag raising on Iwo Jima

First Flag Raising on Iwo Jima, Boots Thomas is sitting in front of the flag pole.

That flag-raising was immortalized later in the great Rosenthal Pulitzer Prize-winning photo which was snapped when they took down the smaller flag that Boots and his platoon had planted and raised a second larger flag.

Rosenthal’s Photo of the 2nd Flag Raising

The first flag raised there on top of that volcanic crater stirred the hearts of the thousands of Marines who were down below still fighting.  The men below cheered, and the ships and carriers blew their horns.  It gave them hope. It gave them resolve to finish the job, which was important because there was still much work to be done.

Boots Thomas quickly found himself in the limelight. He became famous overnight. His photo instantly appeared in newspapers across the nation. He told the reporters, “The honor belongs to every man in my platoon.”

He quickly broke away and returned to his men; and three days later while still trying to finish the job on Iwo Jima, a sniper took Boots’s life as he led his men against another enemy stronghold.  He was certainly not alone, though, as over 6,800 other Americans were killed on the island before it was over.

I found an old newsreel about Iwo Jima.  You can see it here.

His body was not returned to Monticello until the spring of 1948, three years after the war ended. He was laid to rest in the city cemetery.   There is a plaque over his grave placed there by the US Marine Corp. At the western edge of Monticello on US 90 is also a monument raised in his honor.

Two years before he was brought home, the high school football stadium was named Memorial Stadium to commemorate the 18 local boys killed in WWII, most of which had played football on that field and one of which had been Boots Thomas.  Little Monticello and Jefferson County  (populations approximately 2,000 and 13,000 respectively) sent over 550 men and women into WWII.

One of Boots’s childhood friends Dr. Jim Sledge, who most of his life kept the memory of Boots alive in so many ways, led an effort to write a book about the life of Boots Thomas–from his childhood in Monticello to boot camp to combat and his return home.

I just got my 95-year old Uncle James a copy of the book, and last week I called him to see how far he had read. He said, “I already finished it.  I couldn’t put it down.  I didn’t turn on the TV for almost two whole days.”

The book is entitled “Call Me No Hero:  Two Ordinary Boys and a Tale of Honor and Valor” by R. A. Sheats.  It is well researched and well written.  You can find a hard copy here.  Or you can get a Kindle edition in the link at the end of this post.  Several of the photos in this post come from the book.

Old Age Is Not for Sissies Blog (oldageisnotforsissiesblog.com) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

I plan to sit down and watch “The Sands of Iwo Jima” again this weekend.  If I remember correctly, it mentions Boots Thomas in the opening or closing credits.   It is a very good movie.  It is about a platoon Sargent, who leads his men to do the impossible and then takes a fatal bullet from a sniper.   If any of the grandbabies are around to watch the movie with me, I’ll tell them about Boots Thomas and what he did for his country.

Today as we gather around our TVs, let’s remember the generation that gathered around their radios when there was no tv, no Facebook, no internet. Let’s remember the men and women who never got back home. Let’s tell their stories because they were silenced and cannot tell their stories themselves.

For the men and women who died during WWII, almost all of their friends and family have too since passed.   Both my Uncle and Dr. Sledge are in their 90s.

I cannot think of a better way to honor the memory of those who gave their all than to tell their stories to the next generation.  That is what we Americans should do on Memorial Day.

 

Movie Review: “The Way We Were” 43 Years Later

May 22, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies, Opinion

As a young woman of 19 in the 1973, this classic movie was one of my favorites.  I lusted after Robert Redford anyway, after all he was already the Sundance Kid; but nothing quite quickened my senses like Robert Redford in a Naval uniform sitting in a bar.  You just had to see the scene.

I saw the movie several times; but not in the past 15-20 years, so I decided to order it on Netflix.  Many see this movie as a chick flick, but I believe they overlook its depth.

My feelings about the movie are still the same, but they have deepened as now I’m a later middle-aged, if not a younger  elderly woman with different feelings and emotions.  My dear ladies, this movie is far deeper than I remembered.

I remembered that it was a classic romance of boy meets girl, boy marries girl and…well the rest would be a spoiler so I’ll leave it out in case you never saw the movie.  I was most moved by the difference in their look on life and the fact that they looked beyond this and became soul mates.

The real difference, though, is how I look at this movie now.  I now feel that it is right up there with some of the older classics such as “Casablanca” or “Gone With The Wind”. Surrounding this romance is college before WWII, the war itself (though it plays a very small roll), and those halcyon years after the war.

You get a peak at McCarthyism, and the role it played in the lives of those in Hollywood.  You get a peak at those moments before the war, when young people on America’s college campuses were either swimming easily through college or swimming upstream against war sentiment.

The backdrop, though, plays second fiddle to the magnanimity of the two stars, Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand.  They are cast perfectly, and there are some wonderful tender moments as well as strident breakups that they both play perfectly.  He’s a beautiful, good looking WASP; and she initially plays the part of a wall flower Jewish girl with bad hair. She’s strong, though; and he is never sure how to handle it, though that is what attracted him to her, initially.

I also have to admit that I’m much more conservative now than I was in the 1970s.  I still get on my soapbox about issues that I feel important and some of them are social, but there is a part of me that realizes that life is too short to argue all the time.  I also realize that sometimes we need to relax and enjoy each other and life in general.  Barbra’s character is the flip side of this.

I didn’t notice it as much then, but I do now.  I guess as I matured I realized that there is always a cause for negotiating and pushing, but one can overdo it.  I think Ronald Reagan may have helped me understand this better than anyone.  

I was afraid to vote for him in the late 1970s, but I did it anyway.  I was so tired of seeing the entire country bickering over so much.  I felt that we needed a change in leadership though I was a Democrat and didn’t think President Carter was that bad.  

But Reagan had a simple message that said quit worrying about everything and just live.  Boy did we ever in the 1980s.  It seemed like the whole country just lowered their heads and went to work. 

This movie made me remember all that.  I think this may be one of the best movies of the 1970s.  Do yourself a favor and see it again.  And besides ladies, you get to gaze upon that blonde hunk that we all lusted after so many years ago.

Can a Princess Become an Ordinary Person?

December 10, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies

We ladies love the fairy tale about Cinderella becoming a princess, but do princesses dream about becoming a commoner?  Surely, not, I would have thought; but after seeing the movie, “A Royal Night Out,” I’m not so sure.

This is billed as the “untold story of Queen Elizabeth on VE Day,” when she and her younger sister Princess Margaret were allowed out of Buckingham Palace for a chance to watch the city celebrate the end of World War II.  They had permission from their father the King.

 

I adored the movie and its fictionalized story.  It was light, entertaining and became comedic in places to the point of slap stick.  We found it an uplifting, slightly romantic story.

 

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The movie is rated PG-13 for a brief scene when the girls find themselves in a seamy back alley brothel where drugs are part of the culture.  I even augmented my vocabulary when Margaret asked her parents, the King and Queen, “What is a knocking shop?”  I had to look it up to be sure.

I guess you could call this film a dramedy, but Chuck and I both left the movie in great spirits.  It was that type of movie.

I couldn’t wait to get home to look up the story about the two princesses and VE Day.  Did it happen at all?  Did it happen like in the movie?

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I was surprised to find out that parts of it did.  You can read about it here,  but you must see the movie to learn about the rest.

It was a fairy tale in reverse!

The Movie “Youth” & Our Trip to Switzerland

December 8, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies, Travel

Years ago, Chuck and I had an opportunity to visit our son while he was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany.  The three of us took a trip down into Switzerland and hiked around a village called Gimmelwald.  The village was high upon a cliff, and we got there by loading our luggage into a lift which rose 1,500 feet from the floor of the valley.    Rick Steves suggested this area.

Our Bed and Breakfast in Gimmelvald

Our Bed and Breakfast in Gimmelvald

 

Gimmelwald then was a tiny farming village of approximately 130 residents.  The year was 1999, and I was a young 45 years old.  The quaint village had traditional log cabin architecture, no cars, no television, and lots of blond-haired children and livestock.  The lift was also used by bungy jumpers, and we watched one jump over 500′.    I remember thinking 100′ or 500′, what is the difference?  You would be just as dead if it broke.

For the next several days we hiked from village to village and sometimes we caught the train to places higher so we could hike back down.  We were especially awed by the scenic views, the pastures, the mountains, and valley.  I felt like twirling around and breaking out in a song–something like “The hills are alive….”.

Sometimes we would hear a crack and get to watch an avalanche in the far distance on the other side of the valley.  We crossed meadows and pastures.  We were told that in Switzerland the pedestrian has the right of way even through private property.  You’re allowed to cross any pasture or any fence, and we did.

So this past weekend while I was in Atlanta, I saw this preview of the movie “Youth”.   Michael Caine, who plays a composer, sits and conducts the cattle with their bells to a melody that only he hears.

 

This scene reminded me of one afternoon while we were hiking near Gimmelwald.  Chuck, Jeff and I followed this trail to the next village and hiked even higher when all of a sudden we heard what sounded like hundreds of tinkling chimes.   There was a breeze, and we weren’t exactly sure from where the sound came.

 

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We looked all around for the source, but all we could see down in the distance was one lonely log cabin and a barn.  There appeared to be no chimes, so we hiked farther finally walking over a hill and up to a meadow where there were dozens of cattle.  Each had a bell around its neck, and then we knew from where the sounds had come.

The sounds floated through the cool mountain air, and the moment was magical.

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My friend Sylvia Alderman and her husband hiked in Galacia, Spain last September and heard the same sounds.  She videoed the experience.  It is linked below.

  
I think I will like the movie “Youth”.

Life After Losing to Georgia Tech

October 26, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Entertainment Reviews

Five takeaways from the big game between Georgia Tech and Florida State this weekend in Atlanta.
1. Yes, the sun did come up the next day after FSU lost to Ga. Tech. I was crushed, but life does go on.
2. Though I hated to lose, I have to admit that it was fun watching all the Ga. Tech fans, students and alumni celebrate their well-earned victory after the game.

First, the fans flooded the field at the end of the game; and later when we walked back to our cars, the fraternity houses and dorms were awash with loud music and screaming, celebrating students. The whole place was rocking.  I’m sure there were many hangovers the next morning… on both sides.

The end of the game made it all the sweeter for our foes.

See the video of the ending here.

3. Speaking of the Georgia Tech fans, I have nothing but good things to say about them. I saw no taunting of our fans, and I’m happy to report that our FSU fans seemed to exhibit good sportsmanlike behavior, too.  I did hear a few Ga. Tech fans grouse about how many Noles fans came to Atlanta.  We were well represented.

My husband went to Ga. Tech, and we met up with some of his fraternity brothers and spouses before the game while tailgating and after the game in a local lounge. The lounge was full of rejoicing Tech fans, who were all very respectful of my position as an FSU alum and fan.

In turn they and several other Ga. Tech people told me that the FSU fans near where they sat during the game were on their best behavior. They said that the FSU fans took the loss with a good sportsmanlike attitude.

Makes me proud to be a Nole!

4. Before the game, Chuck bemoaned the fact that it seemed ludicrous that they were playing FSU for their homecoming. I said, “Well, if you win, it will be the best Homecoming ever,” never once thinking that Tech would beat my beloved ninth-ranked Seminoles.

Well, they did and it was an upset and a Tech Homecoming to be remembered. Chuck’s head is still in the clouds.

5. I saw something at the game that I haven’t seen in years–the students dressed up for a football game. Since this was their homecoming, many of the Tech female students came to the game wearing white dresses; and they were dressed to the 9s.

They reminded me of when I was in school. We always dressed up extra for Homecoming with heels, hose, and a large yellow football mum for a corsage.

6. Tech’s colors are gold, white, and black, and sometimes dark navy. This was a “white out” game with everyone in the stands wearing white.

The Noles showed up in garnet, so it was easy to see both in the stands.  The white was a nice contrast to the garnet.

I didn’t realize how dressed up the young women were until Chuck and I stopped by before the game to visit the Alpha Xi Delta house, my sorority’s chapter house on the Tech campus. All my sisters there were wearing white dresses, and at first I thought it was just an Alpha Xi thing until later walking on to the game I noticed many more young women wearing white.

By the way the Tech Alpha Xi house is beautiful inside and out. You can tell that my sisters there take great pride in their sorority.

7.  Georgia Tech, did you have to put our band up in the nosebleed section of the northeast end zone corner?  Sorry, but we could still hear them anyway.  The Marching Chiefs are loud, proud and many; and I guess that is why you put them where you did.

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All in all, though, this was southern college football at its best.

I just can’t help wishing, though, that Tallahassee were celebrating today instead of Atlanta!

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