Andrew

I have been spending some time this month online looking for old friends who served with me in the military. This all started when I got a daily notice on FB for who's birthday it was. It was my first platoon leader, Sonny, from Vietnam in 1969. I happened to remember him posting a couple of years ago about having cancer from Agent Orange. So I went to his post to see what his status was.

The first post I saw was "Happy Birthday in Heaven". I didn't have to read more. I knew he had passed away. I read a few more and then decided to look at his friends' list. I found my second platoon leader, and through him, one of my medics. I have found five so far from Vietnam. I decided to look for more.

I had gone to a British Army school in England in 1971 for 13 months. It only had 30 army officers in my class: 24 British, 3 Australian, 2 US, and 1 Canadian. One of my friends I always remembered well was an officer in the Household Cavalry. This is one of the mounted units that protected the Queen. Andrew was a captain and belonged to the Life Guards. This unit wore bright red tunics (the Blues and Royals, the other mounted unit wore dark blue).

When I googled his name, it was a hyphenated name, I found him quickly. He had evidently died in 1985. Searching a little more I found that he was murdered in a botched robbery attempt in his house where he lived in Zimbabwe. He discovered the burglar, shot at him but missed. During the ensuing fight, the burglar wrestled the pistol from Andrew and shot him twice. A trial two years later found the man guilty and he was hanged for Andrew's murder. 

I plan on writing more about Andrew in the future, but for now here are a couple of photos that show him in our class. Not the best but the only ones I have. He is in the upper right corner.

As you can see, the Household Cavalry soldiers were selected for their height as well as other attributes. A lot like our own Old Guard who guard the Tomb of the Unknowns.

More later.

Return of the Missing Blogger

I have been busy though not on the blog. I have been reading. With one day to go, I have read 11 books. I may have another by the end of the month. IN any case, this has been a good month for reading. I have read books for simple enjoyment; I have read for my book clubs, and I have begun reading for my monthly classic challenge (see my March 21 post).

Breaking them down-

For the book clubs: 1

For the monthly classics challenge: 1

For learning/study: 2

For enjoyment: 7

Another way of looking at them-

Fiction: 8

Nonfiction: 3

I am actually in the process of selecting my next monthly classic. After reading The Warden I decided I wanted to read something from the 20th century. I was looking at five books when I came across this Facebook post from one of my reading groups:

So I decided to see if that might help me. Here are the first sentences of each book. See if you can identify any of them.

"Upon the half decayed veranda of a small frame house that stood near the edge of a ravine near the town of Winesburg, Ohio, a fat little old man walked nervously up and down."

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

"U Po Kyin, the Subdivisional Magistrate of Kyauktada, in Upper Burma, was sitting in his veranda."

"Hughes got it wrong, in one important detail."

"Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes."

Before I give you the titles and the names of the authors, try to see if you know any of them, have read any, or can just guess from the first line. (Note: I will tell you that the fourth one is not by an author on my original list of the March post, so it doesn't really count. It was in the pile just I could decide if I wanted to begin reading it.)

So here they are:

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell

Burmese Days by George Orwell

Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser

Animal Farm by George Orwell

I'll choose by Saturday. Any suggestions before that?

Grocery Shopping a year later

I went to the local grocery store today. The first time in over a year. It sure felt strange. I basically helped my wife. I went to the deli and bought the lunchmeat, and then walked back and forth getting simple things that didn't require a lot of thought.

You would think we were stocking up for a year, but not really. It's only for a week or so. We did get our free ham for Easter dinner.

I double-masked to be on the safe side but didn't see anyone else who did. As we continue to get more and more people vaccinated, I am wondering if I need to do double-masking. Now if I went somewhere I knew was not into masking - first I would have to convince myself I need to go there - I think I would definitely wear two masks.

Watching people in the parking lot I observed everyone donning masks as they parked their vehicles and before they got out. And the reverse procedure when they came out. They waited until they got into their vehicles before they took the masks off.