Sunday, May 27, 2012

Happy Memorial Day!

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7 comments:

ricpic said...

I just read the most incredible story in the Post about an American pilot in WW II who was on a bombing run over Munich. His plane was hit by flack and was going down fast. The crew managed to parachute out and he was about to follow when he saw that the plane was going to crash into an alpine village, so he steered clear of the village, crash landed, survived the crash but was quickly captured and imprisoned. Here's where it gets interesting. What kept him alive in brutal prison conditions were food parcels that were passed through a chink in the prison wall from outside by a very young boy, a village shepherd, who had seen him divert the plane away from the village as it was coming down. Fast forward how many decades? 6? and the pilot's daughter or granddaughter somehow, don't ask me how, through computer spade work finds the village shepherd who is now a prosperous hotelier, age 67, and with the hotelier footing the bill or part of the bill reunites the pilot, still alive at 92! with the former shepherd in the alpine village, or should I say unites them for the first time! True story.

The story is in today's NY Post, May 27.
Title: WWII hero's reunion with child savior

May 27, 2012 at 7:00 PM
ricpic said...

Age correction. This happened, the reuniting, in 2007 and the pilot was 92 and the former shepherd was 68 at the time. That makes more sense.

May 27, 2012 at 7:07 PM
Anonymous said...

All my guests are gone, but my kids and grandkids, what a glorious day it was! And yes Nick, it was too hot to take out the pontoon boat until sunset. The motor boat, which actually belongs to my son in law, was in use for most of the day, dragging kids tubing behind it.

June bugs are out in full force this evening and one of those disgusting crunchy critters flew down my top, ew gross. I don't know if other parts of the country have June bugs, they are huge brown hard shelled and crunchy. No I haven't eaten any.

May 28, 2012 at 12:20 AM
Anonymous said...

That is an amazing story, Ricpic. Living through that time in history mustve been amazing in both good and bad ways.

May 28, 2012 at 12:22 AM
ndspinelli said...

Thanks, ricpic.

May 28, 2012 at 8:53 AM
MamaM said...

Life at any point in history is amazing in good and bad ways, as humans continue to touch each other's lives, for good and ill, intentional or not. While the effect may be unclear at the moment, it is often exponential in retrospect. I find it encouraging to read stories where goodness and connection is realized.

Elder sonM attended a Civil War reenactment in Birmingham this weekend, where he saw how the war in the deep south was fought from small town to small town, differently than he'd imagined. The shared knowledge and dedication of the presenters mattered.

Since the youngerM is working at the farm store today, the Mr cooked up a BBQ lunch for the crew and brought it in. At the grocery this morning, he met a guy buying pounds of burger who said he was grilling lunch for the EMT's working today.

Before he headed for the chair to nap, I read him the 4 stories from Windbag's link and cried some as we talked about things that matter most. This, from the blog of a horse's ass with an underappreciated Hucklebuck. You never know.

May 28, 2012 at 5:21 PM
blake said...

OMG, Rick! They shot PR agents at him?

(OK, sorry, pet peeve about "flack" vs. "flak".)

May 28, 2012 at 6:47 PM

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