Posts tagged Memorial Day
Veterans Day a week long celebration in Boulder, finally Jann Scott’s Journal
Nov 8th
Posted by Jann Scott in Jann Scotts Journal
Boulder has gone all out for Veterans Day this year celebrating every day for a week. It never does that. Boulder usually never pays any respect to veterans, the military or those who serve. If anything Boulder usually disrespects them. You know, hippies, commies and the like. That started to change during the Boulder boulder celebration at Folsom field. And just this year for the first time in decades, the band shell celebration was well attended on Memorial Day. Over the years I have taken a lot of heat from the Boulder Atheist Buddhist leftist crowd for featuring veterans on my TV shows.
20 years ago I had Vietnam flying ace “Steve Ritchie” from Golden on my TV show. He is one of the few who shot down five Russian Migs during the Vietnam war. It was very exciting to be able to talk to a real Flying Ace. The problem was Boulder was horrified that I dare to have an American hero on my TV show. My solace comes from those of you who roll your eyes. General Ritchie took it all in good spirits. “Hey, I lived through the Vietnam war” he said. “Nothing anyone here can say or do to me that compares flying through flack or being shot at by Mig 21s. I am just happy to be on your TV show and share my story for those want to hear.”
But Boulder is changing and the city pays more respect today.
from Americas favorite small city
Jann Scott
Boulder
tomorrow I will write about Sgt Allen Dale June a Marine Navajo Code Talker from Longmont
Jann Scotts Journal: Sally McNulty’s father died in the war: she always looked sad
May 26th
Posted by Jann Scott in Jann Scotts Journal
In the small New England town of 4,000 where I grew up, there were a lot of war vets. My dad was a wounded war vet from WWII. The north town cemetery has graves from the American Revolution on up. In front of the library on main street is a memorial to the men and women who served in WWII. There are over 500 names on it. 32 have white crosses next to them.
Over 10& of our towns population served. Every man of fighting age served and many of the women. In the early 50’s the war was
still fresh in peoples minds and there were some big parades on Memorial Day. My dad marched in some but, then after a while mostly everybody wanted to forget the war. But everybody came out for the parade and they all gathered around the memorial for taps when the names of the war dead were read out loud. Everybody cried too. I didn’t understand. I was only 5 or 6 at the time.
But I do remember little Sally McNulty crying. She was two years older than me and seemed to be the only little kid crying. My dad would pick her up and tell her it would be OK and that a lot of people in our town loved her. Then he would buy her an Ice Cream cone and it would be over.
Later when I was in high school Sally had come to work for my families business and we sort of hit off a friendship. that consisted of me helping her baby sit, drinking a six pack of beer and making out.
But Sally had never gotten over her fathers death. He was killed at Anzio when she was just two years old, but she remembered him. Her mom who looked just like Sally drank a bit to cover her pain. She never remarried. Sally said she felt so out of place because she didn’t have a father and she hated to explain “that no her parents weren’t divorced, that they loved each other very much and that my father was killed in the war”. Gulp. I didn’t know a lot of kids who lost someone in the war. But it wasn’t a joking matter. It was sobering.
A picture of Sally’s father sat on a table in the living room of her house in 1965. He was a smiling handsome guy of about 22. And he was dead. ” It has really affected my mom and I she said. We have been pretty unhappy for the last 20 years.
Now at 66 I have a lot of stories like this. My friend Anne lost her brother in Vietnam while she was a CU Junior. Anne was an intern at the newspaper I worked at. To this day she hosts a memorial for her brother at her Boulder home. She hasn’t forgotten.
We should all remember the families of those who have fallen on this memorial day.
from a city with many war dead on both sides of the Indian Wars, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the middle East
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado