Memorial Day

I'm having a hard time trying to get back in the groove. I need to go back into the darkroom, I am in dire need of mats, and I need to make additional cards and smaller prints for the gallery, which means digital printing...I think what I need to do is put some Louie Prima in and get going! I used to put in a Louie Prima CD whenever I was doing housework - it makes you go really fast! Very motivational. So I think that's what I will do and get going here.

I hope you are having a great Memorial Day Weekend. My Dad, Bill Jackson, a Korean War veteran, was a devout supporter of veterans for many years, and continued to do so until the day he passed away in the hospital which was just before Veterans Day. Just to give you an idea of what his life consisted of, this is an excerpt from a fellow 'brother' who wrote, "...On Flag Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Armistice Day, Brother Bill will perform four or five ceremonies for the occasion. He and the Color Guard, rifleman and the bugler from the American Legion will perform at any service when they are asked. In the last five months he has participated in over 45 events, covering more than 5,000 miles which has taken some 400 hours of his time. And what does he ask in return? Just that if someone in need asks for your help, that you give it to him."

I was perusing thru his paper memoirs and found one of his scribbled notes on an envelope for an upcoming military ceremony. It reads in part, "...It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."