Get well Bud Day

Tomorrow was supposed to be the trip to Ft. Walton Beach, FL to meet Mr and Mrs. Bud Day.  He is the former POW and Medal of Honor recipient who came up to Maxwell AFB for the Warrior Symposium.  A few of us ladies were going down to interview Mrs. Day for my thesis.  For the past few days we were trying to confirm our trip and today Mrs. Day responded that Bud had fallen down this week and had been to the Dr.  It was discovered that things weren't good with his heart and now he is going to have a pacemaker put in tomorrow or Tues.  Please put them is your prayers if you are a religious person or send good thoughts to them.  Interviews can wait.

Trimming the paper

Today I finally finished trimming all of the thesis paper! When it's time to print, I'll be ready.  In total it took me about 2 hours to trim all sides.

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Gulfport, MS and the lovely ladies of The Armed Forces Retirement Home

Friday dawned early and I drove down to Gulfport, MS to interview the ladies at The Armed Forces Retirement Home.  The weather was fantastic.  Blue skies and not to humid.  When I walked into the building, the ladies were waiting in the lobby.  How lovely.  I went to the security desk to become official and in we went to a room to begin the interviews.

I am so amazed by these ladies.  Four of them were veterans from the WW2 era and the fifth had joined the Army in 1954 and had a full 20+ year career.  Did you know that in the 1940's if you were a woman, you had to be 20 to join the service?  I had no idea.  It was wonderful to hear stories of their time in service in addition to being a military spouse. We spent about an hour and a half talking.  I can't wait to transcribe the interviews and share their stories.

I also had a chance to see some of the common areas of the facility.  It is beautiful.  So open and clean.  There are rooms for all kinds of activities and the administrative staff are helpful and enthusiastic.  If this is retirement living, I'm there.

So a big Thank You to the ladies I interviewed.  I believe that I will be back in the future to talk again them and to others about being women veterans.  Another book idea.

Incentive for Contributing and other things

I was having an e-mail conversation with someone about this thesis and my lack of contributions.  She suggested that I give an incentive for peoples thoughts.  I had thought about it and for some reason put it on the back burner thinking I'd just surprise people with a gift after the fact.  But now, I'm telling people up front that for their contribution, they will receive a letterpress printed broadside, in this case broadside means a mini poster, of their contribution.  I can't promise it will be on handmade paper but that is my intent.  So when you send me your thoughts, please send along your address so I can mail it to you when the time comes.

On another note, yesterday, I had the great pleasure of coming across a wonderful website called, Her War Her Voice  herwarhervoice.com  They also have a FB presence. I'd encourage anyone who is feeling lonely or blue to go there.  I e-mailed to see if I could post something about the thesis on FB and I got a wonderful e-mail back.  Melissa, one of the founders, after reading about the project posted the most lovely thoughts about it one their FB page.  I will be ever grateful.  From that I've received several responses and hope that it blossoms even more contributions.

I'll be going down to Gulfport, MS next Friday to interview some folks at the Armed Forces Retirement Home.  Should be interesting.  If anyone out there is in the area and wants to talk to me, I'd be happy to meet with you.

 I'm also going to be traveling to the DC/PA area at the end of Oct. for some research at the Library of Congress and Army Heritage Center in Carlisle, PA.  So again, if you'd rather talk in person then e-mail me an thought, I'd meet up with you.

Doris Day

Ok before you start singing Que Sera, Sera.  That is not the Doris Day I'm talking about.  This Doris Day is the spouse of a WWII vet who is a medal of honor winner and former POW.  She and her husband came to Maxwell AFB to take part in the Warrior Symposium.  This is an event that is held for every Squadron Officers School class.  They invite 2 people who have had an impact or inspire those in the military.  The night before the event, the commanders and spouses are invited to attend dinner with the speakers. Anyway, Doris came along with her husband and while I was not able to go to the dinner, my husband did and said how inspiring it was.  The next day I saw another wife who was there and she sat by Doris and began to talk to her.  She asked her if she had ever written her story down and got a negative response.  Then she said to me that she had her contact info and wouldn't she be a great addition to my thesis project.  Yes - she would.  So after a few e-mails about when and where.  So on Sept. 26 myself and a couple of other spouses are headed to Ft. Walton Beach to meet and interview her.  I'm thinking that my next artist book will be devoted solely to her story.  So very excited about this.