Monday, May 27, 2019

Memorial Day

My wife goaded me into going to the town parade, and as I told myself I would enjoy the event, the walking, the lemonade and iced tea, the river, I did. And I experienced a moment of heady gratitude for our armed services, which, after all, is what the holiday is all about.

Last night, we watched a special on TV about a WW II battle between British and Nazi forces. Never before in all my life--it featured real footage of skulls splintered and bodies of former friends dumped in view beside trenches, rotting corpses, trench foot, talk of tanks running over their own who had fallen dead, because they had to get forward position, etc.--never have I experienced battle as realistically as this documentary recreated it. Supposedly, creative art does that, not documentary, but no, this production was so intensely realistic it beat any story. What nations have to do, sometimes, in defense.

On the way to Far Hills, we walked over the North Branch, witnessing a fly caster catch a trout. On the way back, we witnessed a trout caught on a spinning rod.