Category Archives: history

Tar In The Blood

February 5, 2024 – 9:35 am

My father’s side of the family traveled to the New World on the the Mayflower. My antecedents were Howlands. A young indentured servant, John Howland, had been washed overboard mid-Atlantic and somehow had grabbed a trailing lanyard to haul himself to the safety of the Mayflower. Centuries later my Irish Nana had sailed on a […]

By Peter | Also posted in america, family, race, War | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

TORA TORA TORA 2023

December 7, 2023 – 1:24 am

Like JFK’s assassination everyone of a certain age remembered where they were during the announcement of the Japanese attack on the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor. Many had to ask, “Where’s Pearl Harbor?” This morning to commemorate their ignorance I posed the same question to younger people on the streets of Manhattan. Few of […]

By Peter | Also posted in 40s, War | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Glatt Thanksgiving

November 23, 2023 – 2:02 am

The Brownist English Dissenters fled their homeland in the 16th and 17th Century to escape religious persecution by the Church of England, which worsened with the return of the Catholic Stuarts’ return to the throne. Leyden in Holland welcomed the refugees, but the Puritans led a precarious economic existence in the Netherlands, whose people were […]

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Irish Revenge

November 22, 2023 – 11:53 am

I can remember what I was wearing on November 22, 1963. A white shirt, sky blue tie, and dark navy trousers were the boy’s uniform at Our Lady of the Foothills south of the Neponset River. It was a beautiful autumn day. Then Mother Mary Superior spoke over the intercom and tearfully announced, “President Kennedy […]

By Peter | Also posted in VDO | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

The Dream Is Never Over

November 22, 2023 – 4:27 am

After spending a lovely night in Houston, JFK and his wife boarded the presidential jet for a short hop to Dallas. The crowds lining the route applauded the president and his hostess, Mrs. Connolly, commented that Dallas loved him and the president replied, “That’s very obvious.” A second later a single bullet and then another […]

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