Europe Trip 2009 Part 3

D-Day and the Chunnel

As a History teacher there is nothing more real that actually touching the ground or seeing first hand the impact some major event has had on society. It is hard to put into words the emotions I was feeling this day – that we were to cross the English Chanel. To most of the students in our groups this was just an opportunity to sleep on a train. But for me it was much more – you see I knew the date – June 6th, in historical terms “D-Day”.

WWII Multimedia Database
“On 6 June 1944 the Western Allies landed in northern France, opening the long-awaited "Second Front" against Adolf Hitler's Germany. Though they had been fighting in mainland Italy for some nine months, the Normandy invasion was in a strategically more important region, setting the stage to drive the Germans from France and ultimately destroy the National Socialist regime” DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER

What a unique honor it was to know that 65 years later I would be crossing the English Channel, certainly not in the same means, nor with the same intensity, but none the less I would be traveling the same land/water that took the lives of so many of our American and Allied soldiers in WWII. The magnitude of understanding what their sacrifice has meant to Americans and others freed around the world. To know that because of these young men, many of them not much older than the boys on tour, sacrificing their lives so that we would have the freedoms to travel, to learn, to see first hand.

I thought back to movies that I have seen, The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan. but mostly the documentaries that aired on PBS World at War series - The announcer in the background, deep voice crying out the horrors of War. Watching film clips of our young soldiers storming the beaches, clips that were shown back home in movie theaters to elicit national pride and encourage enlistment. Those to me were the real meanings behind the invasion. And here I was 65 years later, crossing under, the same waters they crossed. As we crossed under the water in the Chunnel I could not help but want to reach out to all those who died in the water to thank their souls for the sacrifices they made and to their families that will never have a gravesite to visit or honor.


The Chunnel was to start in 1974, ran into problems and was not actually started until 1988. It was completed in May 1994 and opened to passengers in Nov 1994. It is about 31 miles long (under water). It takes only 2 hours and 15 minutes to get from London England to Paris France. There is no “fanfare” letting you know you have entered the Chunnel – it just gets eerie dark for a long long time…………. Then you emerge into the daylight and surrounding new farm land that is France.


God Bless our troops, God Bless our country, God Bless our History
*** Click on Europe Trip 2009 Part 3
at the top of the page and it will take you to a video on D-Day***

Europe Trip 2009 Part 2

Art – or

why I ended up in Marching Band

As you may note in my previous blog I had two loves in my life – created by two trauma’s – first it was the popsicle stick (architecture) and today I will talk about art, primary colors, ships and the clarinet.

I loved drawing – ok not so much drawing as coloring (yes within the lines) highlighting, shading sometimes adding my own personal touch. But no matter how hard I tried at freestyle art, it always just looked like a mush of colors. Again there was no connection created in the womb between the art that the eye sees and the hands…………. Alas……….. I was doomed to love and not touch. So how does this relate to today. Well it all started in 9th grade (when it was still part of Junior high) .. You see I decided my 9th grade year that instead of playing the clarinet (poorly) I would take art instead. After 2 weeks of introduction from the teacher he gave us free reign to draw anything we wanted. So I used the bold primary colors and drew a ship with masts and water with waves. I was proud!! Then he came over to look at it – and I will never ever forget his word- “Debra you played in the band didn’t you?? You might want to consider going back to band”. OMG how traumatic. So the next Monday mom and I went into the office, and by last period there I was sitting 3rd seat, 3rd row clarinet.
We did not see a lot of art this trip – So I will throw in a few pictures that I have loved over the years.
Stay tuned for next blog = D-Day 65 years later

Part one of this year's European Tour

Architecture
or the trauma of Popsicle sticks

As many of you have noted over the years my blogs tend to focus on art and architecture or sculpture. They are my loves in life – as with many of you our loves are also our secret inabilities.
Growing up I loved looking at buildings, the more unique the better. Always asking the “how” or “why” of the architect. These were the hidden dreams of a little girl traumatized by the popsicle stick..
I bet you all remember Vacation Bible School or Girl Scout Camp - a time of joy and sharing. I had fun, learned a little but mostly had fun – until the Popsicle Lady showed up and fear emerged in me like Mt. Vesuvius getting ready to explode. Why – because she was always “perky” and said “Now children today we are going to take these sticks and you are going to build a church” Ok…… Now I have said how much I loved architecture what I did not say was that getting a concept from my brain to my hands – well lets just say that connection was never made in the womb. So here I sat – looking at dozens of sticks, glue, and felt……. well after hours of trying the best I could do was make a very large star. Not exactly the church the teacher wanted I would go home defeated – why could other kids glue sticks and make reindeers, or houses and I could not……
But architecture remained in my eye, and even today; as you will see with my pictures; I still love to look at the lines, the design, the vision of the architect and hey – give them credit - apparently they knew what to do with the popsicle sticks.

Stay tuned for more pictures from London and tomorrows blog: Art truama and the Clarinet