Clarity25 has tagged me yet again! And then she laughed wholeheartedly while apologizing half-heartedly! What's up with that girl?
She will regret asking me the first question. I doubt very many DiaryLanders will be fascinated with it. The rest of the answers, with one exception, are very short. Keep in mind as you read "Ten Years Ago" that I am mostly a pacifist; however, I am totally fascinated with stories of survival against overwhelming odds.
Ten years ago:
Intro:
After stumbling onto some 1940s newspaper stories about a young World War II naval officer from South Dakota (a graduate of Annapolis Naval Academy), I simply had to learn more about him and the 82 men with whom he served. My college study habits would serve me well. These men were all stationed in the doomed Philippines when the war began in December 1941. After being attacked repeatedly for months, American and Filipino forces surrendered in April and May 1942, due to severe starvation. Then began almost four years of humiliation, torture and death in Japanese POW camps and on POW ships.
The young officer from South Dakota was among an incredibly lucky few (50 out of 15,000) to be selected for evacuation aboard one of two seaplanes shortly before the surrender. However, his seaplane was damaged while still behind enemy lines on Mindanao. The passengers were stranded. Most were forced to surrender. He chose not to do so. Instead, he tried to sail 1,500 miles to Australia in a native boat. After going only 200 miles with another officer, they were captured and executed (July 1942). He was only 26. You can barely imagine my disappointment when I learned of his fate (after I had done so much reading and research). I felt as if I had gotten to know this man and his family through those articles. I had been praying for his safe return (although 52 years too late).
Roughly half of the 83 men in the squadron became POWs. About a quarter escaped to Australia. Most of the remainder hid in the jungles of Mindanao and fought as guerrillas until the Americans returned almost three years later. From 1994 through 1996, I wrote and phoned various historical archives around the country; I read a vast number of books and military documents; I made contact with 13 of the surviving veterans of the squadron (man, was it ever hard finding them).
My Point: At about this time in 1995, I found the 89-year-old sister of the South Dakota officer (like finding a needle in the universe). Amazingly, I had lived in the same town of 1,000 people with her in 1994 and had not known it! When I returned to meet her, I discovered that she had Alzheimers. In her only lucid comment, she told me where her son lived. I contacted him, and he gave me the address of the man's only surviving brother. So, in 1995 I hopped on a Greyhound Bus (that LAST TIME I will EVER make that mistake again!!!) and went to San Marcos, CA, a suburb of San Diego, to meet him. He and his wife invited me to stay with them for a few days of research. Coincidentally, the top-ranking enlisted man on the South Dakota officer's boat lived in nearby Coronado. He, too, invited me to stay with him and his wife. I introduced the brother and the former navy man to one another over lunch at an upscale restaurant in Coronado. It soon turned into one of those wonderful moments you only get to see on a PBS documentary. And I had been the instigator of it all! I couldn't believe what I had accomplished.
Regrettably, I soon learned why most published authors are independently wealthy before they write their books. I didn't have the money to continue doing my research, and I was nowhere near the end; so, in order to get the money, I had to go back to work. Once I had a job again, I didn't have the time to do the research anymore; and the vicious cycle began.
Aren't you glad you tagged me, Clarity? :-)
Five years ago:
I had been working for two years as the Network Administrator and Computer Lab Manager at a middle school here in western Nebraska (all Macs, of course). I was soon to be promoted to handling duties at the high school also. I was so busy all the time that I had forgotten what it felt like to be free. I certainly no longer had time for the research mentioned above.
One year ago:
I had just returned to Nebraska from living on that "desolate" ranch in Wyoming. I was still burdened by certain responsibilities pertaining to that ranch (from which DiaryLand was initially my only "escape"). Not long before I had moved to that ranch, severe budget cuts (and a very slimy, sleazy and unbelievably unqualified superintendent) caused me to be laid off from my Network Administrator's job (for which, however, I was secretly grateful). Some day soon, I'll have to tell you what the entire staff of the middle school and half the staff of the high school did regarding that sleazy super's decision...
Yesterday:
Aside from writing my last diary entry, absolutely nothing happened that is worth remembering. I had a headache yesterday morning from having drank those three sixteen-ounce beers the night before without eating any supper (I forgot to eat).
Today:
Do I really have to answer these embarrassing questions? Among other things, I wrote a long email and am filling out this survey. I am enjoying the gorgeous temperature of 65 degrees (late afternoon) after having suffered through two or more weeks of 100-plus-degree temperatures with minimal air conditioning.
Tomorrow:
I don't have a clue. I should quit being so picky about the sort of job I want, and where I want it to be located, and just take a low-wage affair in this less-than-appealing town. Sounds horrible.
Five snacks I enjoy:
1) Ice cream sprinkled with dry-roasted peanuts and crushed Butterfinger Candy Bar.
2) Peanut butter cookies.
3) Dakota Style Potato Chips, made near Clark, SD (no other potato chip comes close).
4) Excellent homemade hamburger beef jerky (sorry, you vegetarians).
5) Smoked oysters.
Question for Clarity on her 5th snack choice: What if you are a few miles off the Swedish coast and cross a few feet over into Finnish waters. Do the fish there not taste as good? ;-)
Five bands where I know the lyrics to most of their songs:
I don't mean to wiggle out of answering this part (nor do I mean to brag), but I know the lyrics to so many songs by so many groups that I wouldn't know where to begin.
Five things I would do with $100,000,000.00:
My vindictive, justice-driven side is displayed, for all the world to see, in one of these answers. Forgive me, please. I'm only human.
1) Continue the research on the veterans I mentioned above (including doing some heavy research in Washington, DC).
2) Start businesses for people in my home towns in South Dakota (which they would own entirely). I would do this in order to revitalize those towns.
3) Give to family, of course.
4) Give to certain charities, of course (obligatory answer).
5) Offer the historical society in my home county in South Dakota something like $500,000 to $1,000,000...., but ONLY if they remove the name of a fraud from the several-hundred-thousand-dollar granite veterans' memorial in front of their museum (and, NO, I don't mean a veteran's name). Six months before said memorial was built, that fraud visited with me during a big Christmas party in a local restaurant (I didn't know he was a cheating fraud yet). At the time, I was preparing to return to college in Nebraska to begin my student-teaching semester (after being out of school for three years). He asked me if I had any ideas on how the proposed veterans' memorial should look. I thought for a while and drew my favorite design on a napkin and handed it to him. It was a design that I had been doodling all my life. I thought it would accentuate the new giant flag pole very nicely. I went away to college the day after the Christmas dinner. When I returned six months later, the memorial was completed, and there, etched into one of the four $80,000 sections of that granite memorial was that man's name (along with his wife's name) as its designers. That was the day I stopped trusting most people. I told many residents of the county what had happened, and they all said, "We could have warned you about him." I asked, "Then why didn't you!!!??" The members of the historical society pulled a coup a year later and nominated me to replace the fraud as president of the historical society, a position I would normally never have taken (because I hate being a member of anything). It was sort of satisfying watching him squirm very uncomfortably due to my presence in that room, but not satisfying enough. I'm sure he suspected that I had told everyone what he had done.
If the future members of the historical society want my giant donation, then they will take that fraud's name off of the memorial and replace it, some day, with some deserving veterans' name (certainly not my name). If they refuse to take that name off of it, then they can live with the knowledge that they were "this close" to being wealthy and blew it.
After what you've just read, you may be amazed to learn that I don't think about that "theft" most of the time. I only think about it deep in the night sometimes (or after I've visited the museum again). I then begin to worry that no one will know the truth fifty or one hundred years from now, and that really bothers me.
I was there two weeks ago, and completely forgot to take a digital picture of the memorial to replace the one blurry copy I presently have. You can see that blurry copy by clicking here: Veteran's Memorial [The link has been updated.]. It's hard to make out the design, but I try to describe its design below the picture.
Five locations I'd like to run away to:
1. Australia (I've wanted to move there ever since I was a little kid).
2. Greece (I've always loved islands, and the Greek islands are just too perfect).
3. Czech Republic (to do family history research).
4. Italy (Some of my favorite European movies, especially Il Postino, make me want to go to there.
5. Alaska (warmer southern parts).
Five things I like doing:
1. Writing
2. Taking pictures (either for myself, for National Geographic or for Playboy :-) [I'm kidding.] Actually, Playboy models are so coated with makeup and suntan oil that they are totally fake in my opinion; but you get the idea).
3. Sitting on a lonely hill in the middle of nowhere with someone I love.
4. Doing historical research (reconnecting the pieces of a long-forgotten mystery).
5. Darn that Clarity! If I put "sex" here (which I was going to do!), it will look like I am just copying her; if I leave it out, especially now that it has been mentioned by someone else -- her, I will look like a... a... What would I look like? Well, I'm not about to find out, so: Sex.
Five things I'd never wear:
This isn't my sort of section, so I will do the best I can.
1. An earring (well, I guess I wore some at a Halloween party in 1989, which I will forever regret, because it gave one guy the wrong idea about me).
2. baggy gangland jeans (or gangland anything).
3. Men's Olympic-style skimpy swimming suit (I mistakenly bought one of those once; never wore it outside of my bedroom after I saw it on me; how on earth do those swimmers manage to make "themselves" look..., um..., concealed?).
4. a training bra.
5. white gloves.
Five TV shows I like:
1. Desperate Housewives.
2. Grey's Anatomy.
3. The Simpsons.
4. Gilmore Girls (don't give me any grief! It's funny! Or, at least it used to be funny).
5. Everwood (an extremely well done program).
If I were to name shows from a few years ago, the list would be five times as long as it is now.
Five famous people I'd really like to meet:
I'm not into famous people at all.
1. Steven Spielberg (to convince him to produce the World War II story mentioned earlier).
2. Shania Twain (although I don't like country music, I do like one of her songs, and she has a heck of a personality, if I can judge her by her appearance on The Larry King Show a couple of months ago).
3. Jewel (maybe not so much now as I did a couple of years ago; another seemingly great personality).
4. I cannot think of anyone else.
Five biggest joys at the moment:
You cannot be serious! I'll give it my best shot.
1. That I am no longer burdened with certain responsibilities (sort of involving that ranch) that have been alluded to in the past. The sense of "freedom" (for lack of a better word) is just wonderful.
2. That the temperature is bearable for the first time in weeks.
3. That I am actually in constant touch (or the next thing to it) with a bunch of the nicest diarists. Just one year ago, I could never have imagined such a thing. It sort of makes you wish the world was a smaller place.
Five favorite 'toys':
I don't really have favorite things (such as toys) anymore, and I'm not obsessed with the following, but...
1. Both of my computers, Power Mac and PowerBook (really! I'm not obsessed with them).
2. My digital camera.
3. My scanner.
4. My video camera (although I need to upgrade to digital video, so I can take clearer shots of the inside of this sensory deprivation tank that I inhabit).
5. This is a struggle... I'm not much of a materialist, so I give up.
I tag the following and hope they had as much "fun" filling this thing out as I did: katm_6, f-girl, nikib and whereibgin (even though "where's" mind is definitely on other matters right now; maybe this will be a pleasant diversion for her).
