Reading a few memorial day articles in the NYTimes
Bridge helps retain mental acuity: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/health/research/22brain.html?em
And why Donna Reed really was America's Sweetheart:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/arts/25donna.html?hp
Shopping at private estates can sometimes be a challenge for me. I'm a sucker for War Bride photos. No, not like that. The ones from WWII. Most of the boys are just milk faced kids and their brides look like teenage beauty queens. Pretty ones, not the creepy kind we see on reality shows today.
(Yes, like a lot of Mid Century dealers or collectors I like to operate under the delusion that America in the Mid 20th Century was a 'better place')
Usually there is no info, I might know that the wife has recently passed and the husband passed on a decade ago. But that's about it.
I wonder why no one in the family is saving the photos. Were they mean parents, didn't they have any kids, do the kids not KNOW that these photos are spread out on a buffet as 'paper ephemera' to be bought by crafters but usually to be thrown away at the end of a the sale?
Unwanted.
That's depressing to me, so I buy them and stick them in a file at home. Eventually I might take them all and place them under a plexi sheet, a 4'x6' American quilt of b/w photos. In the right environment it could be a great piece of art.
My favorite photo, the only one I actually have framed and keep on display is this one. It was from a stash of AP photos from WWII and was not actually found at the residence of the original owners.
The AP Text says St. Louis July 1- "you should see my sister: You'd want to Marry Her" And He Did-- Sgt and Mrs Roy Hughes and M-Sgt Harold Glass after the Hughes' wedding here last night. Sgts Hughes and Glass were Jap Prisoners together when Sgt Glass talked of his Sister. Sgt Hughes met her and Married her. (See Wire Story) -
I don't think the Wire Story was ever published, I could never find it but it sounds like the BEST of Wartime love stories. Could Hollywood have dreamed up fresher faced more wholesome looking kids? As POWs together these two had been witness to some very bad situations. I wonder how things turned out for them.
Often times at estates of WWII vets we see the same thing, that one photo of a handsome young airman, 3/4 profile - sepiatone, maybe a stash of sweetheart trinkets and costume Victory jewelry. Sometimes you might find two photos of young men and find out that the lady of the house was engaged to one young man who didn't return and eventually married another young soldier. Most of this stuff is dismissed as detritus and is left behind for the less informed weekend shoppers.
PreSale buyers are an interesting bunch, the focus is profit and so they dismiss the sentimental things entirely. The old school crusty dealers who usually smoke like chimneys and smell like an ashtray soaked in old coffee get their knickers in a twist to get at the "good" military items - helmets, some metals, souviners.. but they see no vaule in memories. Which is fine, there are lots of things at presales that I buy that no one else does. I specialize in art, furnishings and lighting, but there are small little things that catch my eye and flip my switch too.
These WWII estates are becoming less and less frequent. Most of these men and women would be in their 90s now. This was the last war where almost everyone called these returning men "heros". Korea didn't generate the fervor. My Dad was an airman in the Korean war, but he was stationed in Japan and doesn't really have any 'war' stories. I wonder about the men who fought in Vietnam, do they hold on to old photos or do they try and get rid of any and all reminders? How many of the guys in wheelchairs on street corner intersections holding signs really ARE Vietnam vets? What do actual vets think about these guys?
I wasn't born until Vietnam was almost over, but it seems like Vietnam was not a time of "Pride in the US Military". No flag waving and Jimmy Stewart style parades for Hometown Heros.
What about the kids fighting in Iraq now?
Jim's cousin has been sent back TWICE. Three tours of duty, how is that going to affect him mentally?
Who knows how any of this will turn out. In a weird way I feel like we've been in a recession/depression and at War since shortly after GW Bush was elected. That's ten years. My entire 30s have been spent in this global funk. An entire decade, gone. Yeah ok, that sounds kind of selfish in the big picture. But this is just a blog, written from one small perspective.
