Some more family history, the early days of WW2

My Uncle John was just 16 years old on December 7, 1941. As we all know, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor on that day. My Uncle John (really a great Uncle) decided that he was going to defend his Country. He went to town and waited in line at the closest military recruiter’s office. By the time he got into that line, he was so far back, it took him three days to get to the front of it.

Once in the recruiter’s office, he lied about his age to enlist in the United States Navy. He was then sent home and told that the military was not equipped to handle the sudden influx of new recruits, and he would have to wait his turn. A week later, he was on a train headed for boot camp. I am not sure where he went to boot camp, but I remember that he said that it was less than a month long.

Uncle John was put on a ship as a passenger, and arrived in Pearl Harbor Hawaii in the first week of February. He was amazed that there was still so much destruction from the attacks that had happened just three months earlier. He was there only a few days when he was assigned to his first ship, a destroyer. Three weeks later, it was sunk out from under him. He was rescued, and was sent to a second ship, and two years later, that ship was sunk out from under him as well. His actions won him a purple heart and a couple of other citations that I cannot recall.

He stayed in the Navy after the war, and eventually retired in 1967, after 25 years of service. He was 41 years old. He remained in Norfolk for the rest of his life, working at the Navy Shipyards until he retired a second time in 1982, at the age of 56. He was classified as disabled.

I went to visit him several times during the 5 years I myself was stationed in Norfolk. He was a personable guy with a lot of interesting stories. He is dead now, as the greatest generation slowly fades away. Today is a day of remembrance. December 7, 1941. The day our greatest generation rose to the call of their nation.

A bit of family history

This is always the one day of the year that I feel a bit sad. Today is my father’s birthday. He was born on this date in 1941, just three days before Pearl Harbor. He died in 2005, at the age of 63. I suppose that I should count myself lucky to have had him as long as I did, seeing as how he watched his own father collapse and die in front of him on the shores of Lake Ponchartrain in Mandeville, Louisiana when he was a small child.

Growing up in the 1940s without a father was tough. This was the era when women were not welcome in the workplace, and single parents were nearly unheard of. His mother did what she had to do, and moved into a poor neighborhood in New Orleans and tried to provide for her children as best she could. She made sacrifices, and eventually remarried to a man who had the means to care for my father and his older sister.

It was no wonder that my dad grew up to adore his mother. So much so, that after her death in the early 1980s at the age of 63, he insisted that he would not live longer than his mother. A bit over two decades later, he would get his wish. I am just glad that he got to see his own grandchildren, and that my children used to get spoiled by him. My son tells me that his favorite memory of his grandfather was being taught how to fish.

When I was a child, we would attend family reunions that required convention halls. Living in South Louisiana used to mean growing up in traditional Catholic households, where it was not unusual to have seven or eight siblings. The generation of my parents was the first generation to stop this practice. This meant that I literally had hundreds of adult relatives as a child. There are entire towns in Louisiana where I am related to nearly half the town, even if only by marriage. It was not unusual to ask a woman on a date, and later discover that I was her third or fourth cousin. I used to joke with my mother and tell her that anything outside of first cousin was fair game.

On my father’s side of the family, only his older sister remains as my last blood relative. On my mother’s side of the family, there remains only my mother, her two siblings, and my great aunt. I lost several older relatives in the past year, as the last holdouts from my grandparents’ generation dies off.

So, it is this particular day each year that I feel a bit like I am approaching that point in my life when I must think about my own mortality.Soon, that feeling will be replaced by the joys of celebrating Christmas with my own family, and even though my own children are grown up and following their own paths, I can still play the nice Uncle to my nephew and three nieces, while dreaming of the day that I can teach things to my own grandchildren.

I can’t call for help

The US government is considering requiring cars to have technology installed that prevents cellphone use in the car. The stated goal is preventing drivers from being distracted. Here are some questions:

What if I am in an accident? Carjacked and crammed into the trunk? How do I call 911?
What if I am a passenger? Is my phone still going to be blocked? Even in a taxi? What if I am a Senator in a Limo?

The government is also looking to require backup cameras in all new vehicles, because 292 people a year are killed when they are backed over. This will cost about $2.6 billion to install in the 16 million cars sold in the US each year, which works out to about $9 million per life saved, even if you assume that the cameras will eliminate all such deaths.

I am looking at the Constitution, and I don’t see where that power has been granted to the government.

Things happen so fast…

I was walking out of a local grocery store while doing my weekly grocery shopping, when I a woman entering the store lunged at me and punched me in the stomach, and then ran past me into the store. A woman just outside the doors told me that the woman had been running around and screaming at other people outside. Since my wife was still in the store, I turned around and followed the woman inside, to find her talking to a man who was obviously with her.

Once the man’s back was turned, she looked right at me and stuck her tongue out at me. They then walked out of the store. Witnesses to the attack told my wife and I that this woman must be crazy.

My reaction time was a little slower than I would have liked, and I thought about what would have happened had I defended myself. Would her husband have come to her aid? Would I have had to draw a weapon at that point?

My new J frame

I have a safe full of 1911s and Sigs. I have examples from Kimber and Colt. There are Sigs in every major caliber residing there. Multiple Glocks as well. I have the major calibers well covered: 9mm, .45 ACP, .357 Sig, .40 S&W. The problem here is that it is hot here in Florida, and it is difficult to conceal many handguns. My most easily concealed handgun is a Kimber Ultra Carry II,which is a Commander-sized 1911, or perhaps a Sig 229 in either 9mm or .357 Sig. 

I decided that I needed a more concealable pistol, so I bought a Beretta 3032. Although I like the easy concealability of the pistol, I haven’t been completely happy with this choice, mostly because the .32 ACP cartridge is a little underpowered (in the neighborhood of 125 foot pounds). I wanted more.

So this weekend, I went out and bought a J Frame Smith and Wesson, namely a model 642 +P with the “Centennial” hammerless frame. The 5 shot hammerless revolver should be ideal for pocket carry, and with the .38 SPL +P loads coming in at about 200 foot-pounds, I think that this will be a better choice for defense. (Speer GDHP 125gr +P leaves a 1 7/8″ barrel at 875 fps, giving a muzzle energy of 212 foot pounds) This will give me more options when it comes to carrying in Florida’s hot climate and casual dress styles.

I took the revolver to the range, and I noticed a few things:
One, the sights suck. I don’t think that will be a problem, since this is a pocket pistol with a 1 7/8 inch barrel, I am not planning on engaging anything past shooting distances of 7-10 yards.
Two: It shoots about 6 inches high at 10 yards. This is actually related to problem one, I think. Now I am nowhere near being a great shooter, but I can routinely draw and shoot a seven shot 4 inch group in 5 seconds with my Ultra Carry at 10 yards. I don’t think this is a shooter problem, but I could be wrong.
Three: Recoil is rather snappy. I think this is mostly due to the 15 ounce weight of the weapon, combined with full power loads. Law of physics, there.

Now all I have to do is find some carry options and leather. I know pocket carry is in this little pistol’s future. What about ankle carry? OWB? Anyone have any suggestions for good holsters?

Higher education

In one of the classes I am taking, we are discussing user fees. This is a class for college seniors, and so you would think that the students in this class would at least be able to spell, and perhaps even form a basic sentence. The post that I am about to quote is from an online discussion of user fees, and this particular post concerns user fees charged by animal control for picking up stray animals. Read the post of one of my fellow students:

This is very benefit to the Pinellas County Animal Shelter charger citizens for picking up animals or surrendered to the agency. The bad news the agency are taking risk of taking animals who could have been infect with diseases or anything else. A fee of $20 is not much but I don’t mind surrendered animals to the agency as long the animals are taking care for. I would not consider picking up with raccoon because they could have rabbies and most of them are very aggresive. Now, citizens must pay a fee for having the service taking animals away from their property. I see no wrong for this but I would like to keep animals off my property. Instead of having the service pick up the animals, It would be best to set a trap or a cage to capture the animals myself. I have a trap cage that will trap raccoons from coming to my property. Once the raccoons are capture in the cage, I would send the animal back to ther service. I was wondering do the service are letting these animals go since they have no responsible for their well being. A cage caputing raccoons is the best option of having the service do it for you.

Wow. Just wow. Our country has lowered standards to the point that this is the work of a college senior.

EDITED TO ADD: The student is an English speaking student. The last name is Bell. 

The cause of the first Thanksgiving

How did the first Thanksgiving happen? It was a celebration of a big harvest at the Plymouth colony. The Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony had organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share the work and produce equally. Each person got an equal share of the total production of the entire colony, and they truly followed the idea of “to each according to his need, from each according to his ability.”

What happened here is that it wasn’t long before people figured out that they got their share no matter how much or how little they worked. The colony was soon at the brink of starvation. This went on for two years, until as Governor William Bradford said in his diary: “So as it well appeared that famine must still ensue the next year also, if not some way prevented… The colonists began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length after much debate of things, (I) (with the advice of the chiefest among them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land.”

In other words, they switched from communism to a private market. The results were dramatic. The next year (1623) the crop was so plentiful, they decided to celebrate with the feast that is now known as Thanksgiving.

“This had very good success,” Bradford wrote, “for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many.”

What Plymouth suffered under this plan was what economists today call the tragedy of the commons. The problem has been known since ancient Greece.  As Aristotle noted, “That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.”

If individuals can take from a common pot regardless of how much they put in it, each person has an incentive to do as little as possible and take as much as possible because what one fails to take will just be taken by someone else.