It seems to me that when I was a kid, the D-Day anniversary was a big deal. I guess that’s because it was a mere 20 years (give or take) after the war and things were still pretty fresh in our parents’ mind. Now, 72 years later, there aint many of the Greatest Generation left, and there’s barely a mention of the Normandy invasion. D-Day always fascinated me (not as much as teh Civil War, though), because try as I might, I could never (and still can’t) imagine myself running across that beach with the Krauts dug in and trying to kill me. I mean, basically they just had to choose who to shoot – not a lot of cover on a beach – and if they chose you, you were dead. I suppose when they drive the LST up to the shore and drop the front door open, you don’t really have much choice, but, still…. I’m glad I didn’t have to do it (and I’m glad that truth, justice, and the American way didn’t have to rely on me, ‘cuz we’d all have been screwed).
So to any of you old-timers out there who are still left – good job, and thanks. I think the least we could do to celebrate your heroics is make this a holiday so I can get another day off. Coming a week (more or less) after Memorial Day, it would be a perfect way to get two four-day weeks in a row. There really aren’t enough summer holidays anyway. I mean, you got Memorial Day, then the fourth of July (which they fuck up by insisting on having it on the fourth every year instead of making it a Monday holiday), and then it’s all over on Labor Day.
At the very least, they ought to add VE Day on May 8th and VJ Day (which could either be August 14th or September 2nd – or, what the hell, why not both?).
I’m for a DDay holiday. Those soldiers were very heroic and braver than I could ever be. It makes more sense than a 9/11 holiday as I have no idea why anyone wants to commemorate so awful a day. We definitely need more holidays but not necessarily the kind for which you have to invite the whole family and cook for them.
Yeah, who can forget 9/11/1988 when Peter Tosh was murdered? And just a year after Lorne Greene died, too.
My polling place was at a Veterans’ Hall address 420.
Both of Palemale and Octavia’s chicks have fledged.