[SEL] Re: OT Memorial Day

[John Culp]

On May 31, 2004, at 8:11 PM, Arthur Southwell wrote:
> I hope all of our USA members attended a memorial service today 
> somewhere. I thank each and everyone of you who laid it on the line to 
> protect our freedom here in the Good Ole USA.

Down at the beach, I played around with slide guitar variations on "The 
Star Spangled Banner." (I'm booked to do that before our church choir's 
patriotic musical program on July 3 & 4.) Saw where "Dear Abby" asked 
everyone with a trumpet or bugle to play "Taps" at 3:00 p.m., so I did 
that on the guitar, too. In an open tuning, that tune's a one-hand job. 
Sounds good on a resonator guitar, though.

Watched lots of war movies on AMC including "The Longest Day." Bought 
the special edition DVD of "Saving Private Ryan" that's out now and 
watched it. Also bought and read a book titled "The War of the Century, 
Hitler vs. Stalin" that's on the discount rack at Waldenbooks. It's 
based on a BBC program on the Eastern Front in WWII, based on 
interviews with people who were there. Well worth reading. Little's 
known by most Americans of the Russian "Great Patriotic War," and until 
recently no Russian war records were publicly available, and no Russian 
veterans or civilian survivors of the war dared speak openly and 
frankly of their experiences. Estimates run around 30 million dead in 
Russia for WWII. It was pretty rough. Then Stalin sent the ones who 
made it back off to Siberia, along with relocating whole peoples from 
areas that had been occupied by the Germans. Darn near as bad as 
Hitler, he was.

John Culp
Bristol, Tennessee, USA



John Culp
Bristol, Tennessee, USA