Of Memorials and Springtime Concerts

It was a beautiful weekend here in Smallville, and the perfect time to do some Smallville things …like visit The Wall That Heals …

Back on Veterans Day 1996, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund unveiled a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., that was designed to travel to communities throughout the country; since then, The Wall That Heals has been displayed at nearly 600 communities throughout the nation, spreading the Memorial's healing legacy to millions.

And this past week, it was in Camden, it’s only stop in South Carolina.

Broad Street, lined with flags

Arriving in Camden

Arriving at the Revolutionary War Park.

My father was in Vietnam, and thankfully was one of the few that not only came home but came home unscathed by that war and yet the Vietnam meorial has always held a special place in my heart for some reason ...

I remember as kids, my sister and I found out about POW Bracelets. A POW bracelet, or POW/MIA bracelet, was a nickel-plated or copper commemorative bracelet engraved with the rank, name, and loss date of an American serviceman captured or missing during the Vietnam War. They cost $3.00 back then.

When you got your bracelet, you promised to wear it until the soldier named on the bracelet, or their remains, were returned to America.

I think I got mine in 1970, as a wee queerling, and I wore it for a couple of years, then I took it off and kind of forgot about it. But I never forgot the name of the soldier on my bracelet … Stephen Paul Hansen. I wrote to his family when I got my bracelet and they told me about their father and husband and their hopes that he would come home. Sadly, Major Hansen never returned home, something I learned years later when I visited the Vietnam War Memorial at the State Capital in Sacramento and saw his name there.

The times I had visited The Wall in DC I never looked for his name, but this past weekend I did, and I found it. He died in captivity a few years before I ever got that bracelet; he was just twenty-seven, with a wife and family back home in California.

I didn’t know him, never met him, but I still felt that sense of loss from just having his name on my wrist for a couple of years. And I never knew what he looked like until visiting the Wall of Faces online.

Major Stephen P. Hansen 1/4/1940 - 6/3/1967

And I learned there that I could ask for a rubbing of his name from the DC Memorial and it would be done and sent to me, free of charge. I did that, too, just to feel some sense of …something from those terrible years.

I’m so happy my Dad came home safe, and sound, but I’m saddened by the others, whose names I don’t know, and the one whose name I have never forgotten, who didn’t see their families again.

Sunday was another gorgeous day, and Carlos and the Camden Community Band had their Spring Concert in Rectory Square and so I spent a lovely afternoon, in the sun and a cool breeze, listening to the band, and members of the Fort Jackson 282nd Army Band.

The concert band ... I'm there, in the back ...see me?

Ah, life in a small town … sometimes it’s near perfection.

A Little Fourth of July ....

I could get used to a Four-Day-Weekend; it really wouldn't take that much. But then there's that whole Four-Day-Work-Week with which to contend ... Oy. Still, it was a nice weekend. 

Friday was a lazy day, until it came time to travel down to the Kershaw-Cornwallis House ... that's it up there ... where Carlos would be playing with the Camden Community Band at a Fourth of July event.; that's him, over there, in the blue cap.

For those who don’t know, and, really, why should you, Camden is the oldest inland town in South Carolina. It began as part of a township plan ordered by King George II in 1730, and was originally called Fredericksburg Township and then Pine Tree Hill.

When Joseph Kershaw arrived in town from England in 1758 he established a store for a Charleston mercantile firm, and ten years later the town was the inland trade center in the colony. Kershaw then suggested the town be renamed Camden, in honor of Lord Camden, champion of colonial rights. 

In May of 1780, after Charleston fell to the British, Lord Charles Cornwallis, along with his 2,500 British troops, marched into Camden and took the house as their main supply post for the Southern Campaign.  A pair of battles were fought nearby: the Battle of Camden, the worst American battle defeat of the Revolution, on August 16, 1780, and the battle between the American and British a year later, when General Nathanael Greene and approximately 1,400 Americans engaged 950 British soldiers commanded by Lord Francis Rawdon; that battle forced the Redcoats out of Camden.

So, that’s where the band played ... It was a nice night, a little breeze, the threat of rain that never happened, and a multitude of patriotic songs.

Then it was off to dinner at a local bar, where they know me — go figure — and make the most delicious Bob-a-rita; yes, it’s named after me, because I invented it in California and brought it with me to the East Coast, but if you want one, here’s the deal:

2 parts Anejo Tequila

1 part Grand Marnier

1 part Fresh Lime Juice

Pour over ice, shake it until chilled, strain into a martini glass and garnish with Fresh lime.

It’s que delicoso!

On Saturday we joined The Gays at David and Neal’s — our former neighbors, AKA The Round-The-Way-Gays who moved a little further away, and are now the Down-The-Way-Gays — for some grillin’ and swimmin’ and chatting and drinking and eatin’ and just fun times.

I had planned to take pictures, but I was Sangria’d and so the camera stayed in the pocket, but suffice to say it was fun, and The Gays begged Carlos and I to have another Cinco de Never party next May. I’m kinda glad they asked now, because Carlos makes about a hundred tamales and that takes time, so we gotta get to work!

David and Neal has just purchased a new grand piano and Carlos will play any keyboard he comes across so after lunch he serenaded a group of us with his talents. I watched him play, and saw how much he loved it, and saw that maybe he'd like a sequined fur cape and a candelabra, so, on the way home, we discussed the idea of getting him his own piano.

Of course he'll have to mix in some showtunes with his love for Bach so I can Michelle Pfeiffer that piano; just sayin'.

Sunday was rest and relaxation and rain.

Today is my day because Carlos just had a Three-Day-Weekend and he’s back at work so I will do whatever I want today … until it’s time to make dinner and … sigh ... back to work tomorrow.

Hope y’all had a nice peaceful weekend as well.