Different Looks At The Holiday

It is hay-making time, and for the first time in 65 years, I won't be cutting hay. Few non-farmers can understand the tensions of getting a hay crop cut, baled and then picked up before it is ruined by rain. Once, I had a good day and baled almost a thousand bales, which were to be hauled away the next day. That night we had several inches of rain and by morning, they were all lost in the flood. So for all practical purposes, our unofficial summer starts on Memorial Day.  So what is different about the day after the holiday?

Perhaps the TV choices. We had reruns of many war movies:  Sergeant York,  the Dirty Dozen, Patton, of course, The Bridge Too Far, and Midway, to name a few. I have a low opinion of most of them, especially Midway. The real turning point in the Pacific during WWII happened at this battle. But the producers had to ruin the story by adding a sex story that involved the son of Captain Matt Garth, played by Charlton Heston, when his son had fallen in love with a Japanese girl, which caused great confusion in the captain's family.

In writing my book, I did research on the battle because I read of a ship named USS Weber.  I looked into that, and found that a Frederick Weber had been given credit for the sinking of the third Japanese carrier that day, because his plane carried the type of bomb that sunk the ship.

The next day, he was shot down and killed, as he was in the group that did sink the fourth carrier. Thus his heroic, but fatal attack, was recognized by the name of the ship.

When doing research on my book, I visited my daughter in Camarillo, CA, and happened to see an article in a paper saying that a citizen of Ventura, CA, had been the pilot that was credited with the fourth sinking.

So the next day, we made an appointment to talk to Lt. Commander Richard Halsy Best about that event. I informed him that Frederick Weber had a ship named for him, and found they flew together for that final attack.  He did not know about Weber's namesake ship, but here is my complaint about the Midway movie.

The pilot, played by Charlton Heston got shot up, and crashed and burned, making the landing on his carrier. But when I spoke to the real guy, he said he was not wounded, but did receive some injury on that flight, as his oxygen supply did something to his lungs and he spent many months recovering from that.

Because I went to several national meetings of the National Rifle Association (NRA), I had the chance to meet Charlton Heston when he served as president of the NRA.  After I learned of the real Mr. Best, then alive and well, I had planned on taking Mr. Heston to task for his part in giving false information in the movie. When I heard he was ailing, I decided not to. We found Mr. Best's career described in the Arlington National Cemetery website under: Lt. Comdr. Richard Halsey Best.

I wrote earlier that I do the food shopping for my home, and during this weekend, I gave for a Buddy Poppy to my son, Chris, at a local store, then bought a few things. I was startled to see the figure $390 come up on the register of a young lady who had a big cart full. Then on Monday, I noted that some groceries went up 10 percent over the weekend. With floods and storms delaying planting, we have more cost to our price of living in-store.

Today I received mail from the founder of Mercy Corps, which calls this the "hungry season," because summer is the time when prices for food staples, such as rice and maize, skyrocket in many developing countries. He said also, "I'm not going to bed hungry tonight—but 925 million people are." I guess he sent this to Facebook, as he added, "Post this on your status if you believe we have a responsibility to do more for hungry children and families around the world."

Thanks for reading.