Kunu-ri

This poem is dedicated to the memory of the men from the US Second Infantry Division who lost their lives during the Battle of the Chongchon sometimes called the Battle of Kunu-ri and The Gauntlet at the end of November 1950. More than 4,900 men perished on those bleak cold hills and in those treacherous [...]

Read Full Post »

Armistice Day

“The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month”
When I was a young boy growing up in America’s Midwest back in the 1960s, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents who lived about a mile east of LaSalle, Illinois a town approximately 90 miles southwest of Chicago.
I was there first [...]

Read Full Post »

The Iran Hostage Crisis – 30 Years After

For 444 days, from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, 53 Americans were held hostage by militant Iranian students in the U.S. Embassy in Teheran that would soon be part of the American vernacular as the Iran Hostage Crisis.
It wasn’t America’s first major policy blunder in the Middle East that allowed the [...]

Read Full Post »

When the Vietnam War came to a small town in Illinois

When the Vietnam War Came to a small town in Illinois.
 
This is one of my more moving essays about growing up in the Illinois Valley back in the 1960s/1970s.

Read Full Post »

The world’s most dangerous jobs

I was surprised when I read in a Korean newspaper today that more than 700 workers fall to their deaths at construction sites each year. I thought that number was quite high; however, construction work it is not the most dangerous job in the world. Indeed, some of the world’s most dangerous jobs might surprise [...]

Read Full Post »

100,000 Page Visits and Counting

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit.
When I visited my blog this afternoon, I was in for a pleasant surprise: I reached the 100,000 page visits milestone.
It’s nice to know that my blog has received as much attention as it has since I started keeping one a few [...]

Read Full Post »

The 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster

One of America’s deadliest mining disasters occurred in the small town of Cherry, Illinois one hundred years ago on November 13, 1909 when 259 miners lost their lives.
Located in Bureau County Illinois—approximately 90 miles southwest of Chicago—Cherry was a newly erected town built near the mine named after James Cherry who was superintendent of the [...]

Read Full Post »

Lincoln’s New Salem Historic Site

When I was a young boy growing up in the 1960s, my grandparents took me to some cool places in Illinois including Ulysses S. Grant’s home in Galena, Illinois and New Salem, Illinois where Abraham Lincoln lived for six years.
One of Illinois’ more interesting and historical travel destinations is Lincoln’s New Salem Historic Site that [...]

Read Full Post »

Cheeseburger, fries and a vanilla shake

Friends and other people who know me have often been astonished with my good memory—the way that I can remember specific dates, events, and other reminiscences.
I don’t think my good memory is anything to get excited about—though some people seem to think so. Perhaps a lot has to do with where I am at—you know, [...]

Read Full Post »

MTV in Goose’s Basement — A work in progress

There was a time when MTV was cool. I mean really cool, like a long, long, long time ago in another galaxy far, far, away cool. Back when the only thing you saw and listened to on MTV were videos. And if the videos programmed for any particular hour or block of time came up [...]

Read Full Post »