June 1, 2018
Wednesday is the 74th anniversary of “D Day”. If you have seen the movie “Saving Private Ryan”, you have some idea of how bad it was. It is hard to imagine that anyone who lived through that experience would ever be the same. The many years of living with those memories are hard to imagine. Aymer Nelson, a farm boy from Upsala, was there. Aymer was also at The Battle of the Bulge, one of the bloodiest of the war. I asked him if he had been wounded and he told me that a 88 mil shell landed next to him, but it was a dud. He lived to the ripe old age of 104. He was truly part of “The Greatest Generation”.
It is also the 29th anniversary of the day that my son packed all of his worldly goods into his rust free 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and headed back to Minnesota from Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1988 I had taken a position as General Manager of an office furniture dealership in Charlotte and it turned out to be a not so fun experience for my family. Erik had worked many late evenings with an office cleaning service to save the $1,000 needed to purchase the vintage Olds. School was out at 2:30 in the afternoon and he headed north at 5 PM. The battery was weak so I told him to not shut the engine off if he expected to start it up soon after the stop.
Early the next morning he ran over a dead deer and when he was pulling the carcass out from under the car he heard a knock in the engine. He made it to the Big Foot Gas Station in Shelbyville, Indiana and called me at 6 AM. He ended up finding a backyard mechanic who changed the timing gear for $400. It was the one and only time I have had to use Western Union to wire money. The mechanic fed him supper and allowed him to sleep on the couch. If I remember correctly he went fishing with the mechanics son. They fed him breakfast the next morning and sent him on his way to Chicago to have lunch with my brother Geoff and his wife Susan. Quite the experience.
Live From Here this week is one last rebroadcast before the gang closes out the season with four live shows on the road. It is a look back to January when they visited Portland’s Keller Auditorium with Tune-Yards, Willie Watson, The Fairfield Four, and The Lucas Brothers. Plus: Chris Thile celebrates the City of Roses, Madison Cunningham sings “Beauty Into Clichés,” and there is a look at the perils of reincarnation. Join Chris and the gang on the radio this weekend, and they will be back live on June 9th from Ravinia, with guests Parker Millsap, Hawktail, Tom Papa, and Gaby Moreno.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with the cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt
Category : General 