Material success as it is measured by the world's standards, does not interest me. I desire only enough to fill my needs, which are surprisingly few. I am not ambitious: I have no desire for recognition either in business or any other earthly endeavor; immortality does not interest; I do not wish to be remembered by posterity either as a…
Brief telegram that airmen were permitted to send home after the Pearl Harbor attack. It took seven days to reach his family. Bradley's first letter home to his parents in Towanda, PA, after the Sept. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. 12 December 1941 Dear Mom & Pop I am OK, and doing fine. There is little to…
Lakeland Ledger theater writer Brad Beahan experienced the attack on Pearl Harbor as a 21-year-old private in the Army Air Corps stationed at Hickam Field, adjacent to Pearl. The story is a first-hand account of Beahan’s experiences and observations the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. By Brad Beahan Sept. 7, 1991 The dawn breaks cool and soft on a December…
On Friday, September 9, I went to work with my son-in-law Russ, an ironworker on the Four World Trade Center building. He has to be at work at 7:00 a.m., so we got an early start with a subway car full of other bleary eyed commuters from the Beverly Road station in Brooklyn. With a quick change at DeKalb Street…
We spent most of our time in LA at the Cuba exhibition at the Getty Center, where Virginia participated in a panel discussion on Thursday night and led a gallery talk for Dartmouth alumni on Saturday morning. Both events drew large crowds and went really well. And such a thrill to have another chance to see the exhibition (http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/walker_evans_cuba/), which…
Night view from Hotel Angelena restaurant Flew into LA this morning after taking off twice from Boston Logan. The pilot aborted the first attempt three quarters of the way into the takeoff roll, apparently because we had been directed to the wrong runway. Or did the controller spill hot coffee on his lap. As the pilot stood on the brakes…
It's 6 p.m. on Friday and we're on Shelter Island, NY, visiting John Cadwallader and his girl friend Annie Boylan. Hurricane Earl is spinning up the east coast at 18-23 miles an hour. Downgraded to category 1 hurricane and then a tropical storm, it is still kicking up 35 to 45 mile per hour winds with some gusts as high…
Back again, Just rolled in to the Whale Watch Inn in Gualala, CA (you need a couple of cocktails to pronounce it correctly). We're in the room called Cliffside and since it's dark and I can hear the waves crashing below, I'll take their word for it. See for yourself at<< http://www.whalewatchinn.com/>>. The day began at the breakfast table at…
We crossed the border into Calif. and redwood country and are staying at the Victorian Inn in Ferndale. The only room left. It's actually a small apartment with kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom bigger than some of the hotel rooms we've stayed in this trip. More about all this in a minute. But first, speaking of kitchenettes, I think we left…
We landed in Portland, OR, last night and stayed in a hotel near the airport. We used frequent flyer miles for the tickets and got stuck in first class. It wasn't that bad, honestly. Big wide seats and our own flight attendant who kept coming around to ask if we needed anything--alcohol or snacks. On the first leg of the…