Veterans Day, Embroidery Projects, a Gift Idea and a Travel Story

AnnTheGran — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:40:00 GMT

Can one paragraph be about current events, information, an embroidery project, a gift idea and a travel story? Last week we in the US celebrated Veterans Day. Most holidays in the US fall on Mondays so as to provide long week-ends, but Veterans Day is always celebrated on November 11. So this got me to wondering, what is so special about Veterans Day that it falls on a specific date, like Christmas and Independence Day, instead of on the nearest Monday? I was also wondering what’s the difference between Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Armed Forces Day. As long as I was wondering, I wondered what happened to Armistice Day and Decoration Day. Have I now got y’all wondering, too? We live in the Information Age and Google is at our fingertips, so I was not long in finding the answers to all of my wonderings.

•    Veterans Day always falls on November 11 because that is the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.) After World War II the name was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans Day in order to honor the veterans of both wars.
•    Memorial Day, contrary to popular belief, is not the day we remember our white shoes and begin wearing them again for the summer. It was called Decoration Day because it was a day to place wreaths on the graves of fallen Union soldiers of the American Civil War. After World War I it was officially proclaimed Memorial Day and was expanded to include American casualties of any war or military action.
•    Originally each branch of the armed forces had individual celebrations. In 1950 President Truman proclaimed Armed Forces day to honor the members of all branches of service.

So, Veterans Day honors all military veterans who served during any war; Memorial Day honors all soldiers who died during any war and Armed Forces day honors all soldiers who are currently serving.

I have done two embroidery projects for Bill, my favorite veteran, who served in World War II and retired from the Army in 1961. I made the first one several years ago before a Memorial Day picnic. I wanted Bill to have something special to wear, so I purchased an olive drab polo shirt and embroidered all of Bill’s battle ribbons above the pocket along with a purchased design of laurel leaves that was part of a military designs collection. I copied the battle ribbons from Bill’s dress uniform and digitized them with PE-Design. It was so easy to do, just basically drawing little rectangles and filling them with the correct colors. Bill Wears his every Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Pearl Harbor Day. He gets a lot of attention and often gets to tell some war stories. If you have a military veteran in your family, this would be a wonderful gift that you could easily make.

The second project was really something so simple, but it had a lot of impact. Bill was just a 20-year-old kid, stationed in Schofield Barracks at Pearl Harbor, when World War II began on December 7, 1941. We were getting ready to visit Hawaii last March, the first time Bill was returning since the war began. As a member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Bill has a special hat so, of course, I insisted that he take it along so he could wear it when we visited Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial but I wanted him to be easily identified as having been stationed in Schofield Barracks. I knew that many of the other survivors have the names of their ships embroidered on their caps, so I had Bill write down exactly how he wanted the name of his barracks to appear, I digitized it in Alphabet XPress, ran it by Bill for approval and very carefully embroidered it on his cap. I can tell you that from the time Bill stepped off the gangway in Honolulu until we returned to the ship he was treated like a special VIP guest. At the memorial people came up to him and asked to have their pictures taken with him and asked him to sign their tickets. Even young kids came up to shake his hand and ask him questions. Everywhere we went that day people came up to Bill to shake his hand and thank him for his service. Our last stop that day was at the Home of the Brave Museum where Bill’s picture was taken and placed on the Wall of Honor with the photos of all the other returning veterans. If I could give Bill a day like that again I would do it in a heartbeat.

Well, that wasn’t really the travel story I was planning to tell. A couple of years ago, along with out travel buddies Loes and Theo, we visited Normandy and Utah Beach where Bill’s company came ashore in August of 1944. He wasn’t part of the D-Day invasion, but followed soon after and marched all the way to the Ardennes Forest where he served in the infamous Battle of the Bulge. We followed Bill’s march all the way to Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge museum and memorial. I can only assume that, given Bill’s age and where we were traveling, people saw him for a returning veteran and came up to shake his hand, welcome him back and thank him for their freedom. Bill and Theo sat in the front seat of the car and Theo asked question after question. Bill was in heaven, having a new pair of ears for all of his war stories.

Okay, so it wasn’t just one paragraph, but I did talk about a current event, give a little history, describe two embroidery projects and tell a couple of travel stories.

So long for a while. On Tuesday Bill and I are setting out on an Amazon Adventure, leaving from Miami, island-hopping down to Brazil, sailing up the Amazon River and back and then island-hopping back to Miami. We’ve had this trip planned for nearly two years and we’re both pretty excited about it. I’ll be out of touch for about 4 weeks. I’ll have some spotty Internet access and may be able to check in from time to time. I’m leaving you in the capable hands of my staff and I’ll probably miss you all more than you’ll miss me. I’ll be taking LOTS of pictures and will have lots of stories to tell when we get home. To those who celebrate the US Thanksgiving, have a wonderful and grateful day. To everyone, be kind to each other. Keep those machines cranked up and try to get all your gifts finished BEFORE December 25. CUL8R, TTFN.

If it weren’t for the last minute I’d never get anything done.

AnnTheGran — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:16:00 GMT

Well, this is a first for me. I’ve frequently thought that if I didn’t get something finished before leaving on a trip I could do it in the airport or on the plane, but I’ve never actually done it. Until today. As we were leaving for the airport I turned to Bill and said, “You know, it takes us longer to get on the plane than we’ll be on the plane.” It’s 2 hours and 15 minutes from Orlando to Louisville. Our plane is scheduled to leave at 2:25 p.m. We left the house at a bit after 11:00. I think it took about 20 minutes to get to the car park and check in. We waited for the shuttle about 10 minutes and the ride to the airport was another 10 minutes. Check in at the curb took about 10 more minutes and security took about 20 minutes. That’s an hour all by itself. We’ve had lunch and are now waiting at the gate. It’s about 1:00. So, there you have it. By the way, Orlando International Airport has free wifi. Cool, eh?

Ah, technology!
Back when Bill and I were square dancing we were getting ready to go to Indianapolis for the national convention. We made arrangements for our daughter to stay with a friend and we boarded the animals. In the hubbub of packing and getting ready, I turned to Bill and said, “You know this would be a lot easier if we could just throw the phone in our suitcase and take it along with us.” Now, I’m not saying that I invented cell phones, but I definitely had the idea years and years before cell phones became part of our lives. During the years that we were motor-homing our way across the country it was such a hassle to keep in contact with the kids. Every evening I had to call our home phone from a public phone to check for messages. That was the only way we could be reached in an emergency. Now with computers and the Internet and cell phones motor-homing would be a snap. I even have a miniature Brother sewing and embroidery machine I could take along. Alas, we sold the motor home when the grandchildren began coming along.

The best of times
I get up to Louisville a few times a year for a grandchildren fix. The airport is a pretty small one and every time I walk from the plane past the security check-in I (or we) eventually run into our son-in-law who has been waiting for me. He helps me with my luggage and Jen brings the car around with whatever children she has with her. Hugs and kisses all around and then we’re off. But every time I take that long walk I have a faint flicker of hope that some, or even one, of the children will be waiting for me and will fly into my arms as soon as we spy each other. Today that happened! I could see Steve as we got closer and I thought I saw a thatch of blond hair beside him. As we got closer I saw Reed. I put out my arms and he came laughing, flying into them. It was the best and oh, my word, he’s already grown out of the goody two shoes I got him in July!

The worst of times
Well, nothing ever goes off without a hitch. I put the pictures for this blog on a thumb drive so that I could upload them away from home. Well, I switched out laptop bags and somehow managed to leave my gaggle of thumb drives and software security devices behind. So, the picture of Bill and me in full square dance regalia will have to wait until another time. Instead I will offer for your consideration, completely off topic, a picture of what it looks like when a bag of popcorn explodes in the microwave and a picture of me, my brother and two cousins on a horse at an aunt and uncle’s farm in Virginia. I look to be about 4 or five and, well, to get a bit back on topic, my overalls were made from left over fabric in my dad’s blouse factory. Here’s my scrapbook page commemorating that visit.

Well shut my mouth!
We have Pat and Judy to fill you up with their wonderful blogs full of sewing and embroidery tips, techniques and projects. And we have LaRue telling us everything we could ever possibly want to know about quilting and fabrics. Now we have June waxing poetic about Brother’s wonderful new Quattro, Leora dazzling us with tales of Africa and Susan filling us full of projects using her remarkable blanks. What more is there for me to say. Every time I sit down to blog I have to rack my brain to come up with something and usually can’t think of anything that someone else isn’t already talking about in their blogs. I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings this week because I’m afraid that it’s all that I’ve got.

Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other and don’t forget to turn your computer off once in a while and sew something.

AnnTheBlogger : travel stories

Veterans Day, Embroidery Projects, a Gift Idea and a Travel Story

If it weren’t for the last minute I’d never get anything done.