[Magdalen] Mardi Gras.

Wed Mar 1 23:08:27 UTC 2017

wow... amazing memory to have and special.  You're sure right about the 
'education of war'...  Soon 'we' will be the ones who remember that 
generation. My own father passed away in '74 and never knew his grandkids, 
or saw my sister grow up (she was 12 when he died).

L

website: www.ichthysdesigns.com

When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not a 
single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me." 
attributed to Erma Bombeck
"Either Freedom for all or stop talking about Freedom at all" from a talk by 
Richard Rohr
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they 
oppress." F Douglass

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From: "Sibyl Smirl" <polycarpa3 at ckt.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2017 5:00 PM
To: <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Mardi Gras.

> One other thing about him: he was just a kid when he joined the army --a 
> lot of boys were champing at the bit to go, and joined as soon as they 
> were old enough-- seventeen with parents' permission.  I don't know 
> whether he finished high school.  The School Board gave those who came 
> back without finishing honorary HS diplomas, figuring that fighting in a 
> war was an education in itself.  I don't know the exact sequence of 
> events, but he asked my parents for a baby picture of me, saying he wanted 
> to carry something to remind him what he was fighting for, and he got it. 
> I have other copies of the same picture.  I was born 10 days before D-Day.
>
> On 3/1/17 12:27 PM, Lynn Ronkainen wrote:
>> Great story about your special uncle.  My dad was born in MN, both
>> parents were at least 2nd generation Americans (one with roots in Norway
>> - Hagen, the other migrated across the country to MN with roots in
>> Ireland - Tully). My dad was also 'great generation' ww2 Veteran. Funny
>> how names and nicknames can be so complex!
>>
>> Lynn
>>
>> website: www.ichthysdesigns.com
>>
>> When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have
>> not a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You
>> gave me." attributed to Erma Bombeck
>> "Either Freedom for all or stop talking about Freedom at all" from a
>> talk by Richard Rohr
>> "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom
>> they oppress." F Douglass
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "Sibyl Smirl" <polycarpa3 at ckt.net>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2017 10:40 AM
>> To: <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Mardi Gras.
>>
>>> On 2/28/17 10:27 PM, Lynn Ronkainen wrote:
>>>> Interesting Sibyl. My dad's name was Eugene and he was 1/2 Norwegian
>>>> from MN. I'm wondering if that was a popular Scandinavian name? When
>>>> he left home he was called by his last name by friends for the rest
>>>> of his life - Tully.
>>>> Lynn
>>>
>>> Uncle Gene was an exception.  He had a lot of names, and didn't really
>>> belong in my example.  His birth name was Harry Eugene Anderson.  He
>>> was native-born American, and his parents came from Sweden already
>>> married. For some reason, we had quite a few Swedish immigrants here
>>> in this little rural area who arrived in the early 20th century, many
>>> of them already related (came here specifically probably because they
>>> had a brother or a cousin here before them, and knew that this was a
>>> good place for farmers). The mother of one of my friends didn't speak
>>> any English when she entered the First Grade of one of the rural
>>> schools (those schools didn't have Kindergarten, nor did mine. That
>>> was for town kids).  She managed just fine, and grew up to be a
>>> teacher herself.  My Uncle Gene had an Uncle whom I knew here, who had
>>> a thick accent, called "Tory" (that was how I heard it, and assumed
>>> that it was similar to the Tories from the American Revolution and the
>>> British and Canadian political parties.)  I had read a lot of Norse
>>> mythology, and was amazed when I saw the proper spelling on his
>>> tombstone when I was an adult: it was spelled "Thor"!  I had never
>>> connected the American farmer I knew with The Thunderer!
>>>    Anyway, back to Uncle Gene, one of the Greatest Generation, fought
>>> in Europe in WWII, and totally American as far as anybody could
>>> notice, except for the nickname "Swede".  Besides the ones I
>>> mentioned, the people who worked at the fertilizer plant with him all
>>> called him "Andy", for Anderson, his surname.  If somebody they ran
>>> into in town when he was with my aunt, his wife, called him "Andy",
>>> she knew where he worked.
>>>   He was the finest of men, almost as perfect as my dad.  I miss him.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Feb 28, 2017, at 9:55 PM, Sibyl Smirl <polycarpa3 at ckt.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 2/28/17 9:24 PM, ME Michaud wrote:
>>>>> This makes no sense to me but, of course, it's cultural.
>>>>>
>>>>> I cannot imagine calling someone by a name that's not theirs.
>>>>> His first name is Youssef, not Tony.
>>>>
>>>> Ever hear of nicknames?  He bought the nickname with the business, in
>>>> this case, but I knew a lot of men when I was younger whose real
>>>> first names I didn't know at all until I was adult and looking at the
>>>> Farmer's Union accounts, and then never used them to call name.  We
>>>> didn't use the title-firstname (or nickname) convention in my area,
>>>> though. "Frenchy" Lawson even used his nickname on his election
>>>> posters, and if I ever knew his real first name, I've forgotten it.
>>>> Then there was my uncle, who went by "Swede" among men, but his
>>>> wasn't so firmly attached: I called him "Uncle Harry" or "Uncle
>>>> Gene", and some called him "Harry Gene", real first and middle names
>>>> (Eugene, actually, but for some reason he hated EUgene, and everybody
>>>> respected that).  Then I knew several "Shorty"s, a couple of "Bud"s,
>>>> and one "Red".
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Sibyl Smirl
>>> I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
>>> mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Sibyl Smirl
> I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
> mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net 