January, 1944, while I was snug in my crib

 We sometimes forget how fortunate we are to live where we do, amid the turmoil and dangers and poverty and disease elsewhere in the world. 
While I was snug in my crib 70 years ago, children and grown ups were starving, being murdered, dying, with no possibility of safety, much less warmth.
Here's the evidence:

Jan 1st - Army defeats Navy 10-7 in football "Arab Bowl," Oran, North Africa
Jan 1st - Gen Clark replaces Gen Patton as commander of 7th Army
Jan 2nd - 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
Jan 3rd - Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
Jan 4th - Ralph Bunche appointed 1st Negro official in US State Department
Jan 5th - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
Jan 7th - Air Force announces production of 1st US jet fighter, the Bell P-59
Jan 10th - British troops conquer Maungdaw, Burma
Jan 11th - Crakow-Plaszow Concentration Camp established
Jan 12th - Churchill & de Gaulle begin a 2-day wartime conference in Marrakesh
Jan 15th - European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany
Jan 15th - General Eisenhower arrives in England
Jan 15th - Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die
Jan 16th - Gen Eisenhower took command of Allied Invasion Force in London
Jan 17th - Korvet Violet sinks U-641 in Atlantic Ocean
Jan 18th - 1st Chinese naturalized US citizen since repeal of exclusion acts
Jan 18th - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
Jan 20th - RAF drops 2300 tons  of bombs on Berlin
Jan 21st - 447 German bombers attack London
Jan 21st - 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg
Jan 22nd - Allied forces begin landing at Anzio Italy
Jan 24th - Allied troops occupy Nettuno Italy
Jan 27th - Leningrad liberated from Germany after 880 day seige with 600,000 killed
Jan 28th - 683 British bombers attack Berlin
Jan 28th - U-271 & U-571 sunk off Ireland
Jan 29th - 285 German bombers attack London
Jan 29th - USS Missouri the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy is launched.
Jan 29th - The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy.
Jan 29th - About 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.
Jan 30th - US invades Majuro, Marshall Islands
Jan 30th - United States troops land on Majuro.
Jan 31st - Operation-Overlord (D-Day) postponed until June
Jan 31st - U-592 sunk off Ireland
Jan 31st - US forces invade Kwajalein Atoll

On a wing and a prayer

Six months before D-Day, this 9" by 12" birth announcement was sent out by my parents. My dad, a technical illustrator at Consolidated Aircraft between Dallas and Fort Worth where the B-24 Liberator bomber was built, drew this stork flying in, with a B-24  radial engine. 
"Coming in on a wing and prayer," was the war-time phrase of many bomber crews flying home with planes shot up in combat and perhaps with wounded on board. So here it is, glued to a  brittle and yellowing page out of a family album.
Dad drew the announcement, had some printed off, and then did the color paints individually. He didn't go to the war, like three of his four brothers, because he had a wooden leg, having lost it under a freight train in Tucumcari 11 years before. That's probably why I'm here at all. If he hadn't lost his leg, he'd never have met my mom. His example led me to do individual birth announcements for each of my children, but they were never works of art.
Seventy years later, I'm still trying to wing it, and praying.

Three score and ten

My daughter Dallas and I

Tomorrow I will reach three score and ten...Lord willing.
The blessings of those years are uncountable, but four of them are at the top...Vance Conrad, Travis Austin, Dallas Page and Derrick Rogers.
Last night Dallas, husband Todd, and grandchildren Erin, Abby and Max drove in from Amarillo, spent the night, and took me, Susan and Travis out to lunch at Hideaway. This has to be the best birthday present ever. 
More reminiscing, some black and white photos,  and my unique birth announcement tomorrow.

Sunset--Western skies

Rush hour lights--Edmond

"Out here there's the sky," wrote Willa Cather. Yep!

Gospel of Back Roads

Narrow is the way--3 by 5 watercolor

"But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and  only a few find it." --Matt 7:14
Jesus had only three years to do his work, and we never see him in a hurry or late.
Why are we? Our technology and Interstate culture makes us hurry and fear being late. He walked or rode a donkey.
When he spoke about living, it was about a narrow, twisting trail where your feet got hot and dirty, but where you could also "consider the lilies of the field."
We live on Interstates, and ride at 60 plus miles per hour, chafe at "stop" lights, always work on a "dead" line, and wonder why we don't get more out of life. He was right--it's no wonder so few find life.
What are we afraid of? Do we even know how fearful we are of everything in our high-speed culture? Of how controlled we are by a man-made clock? Why do we consider those who slow down as abnormal, or even threats to our lives?
I know this sounds hypocritical coming from me, who hates traffic lights, mutters at slow drivers, and glories in covering many miles in record times. Long-time friends will be sure to point it out with snide remarks. My oldest son refers to me as "the patient man that you are." I am indeed a creature of my culture, and on top of that, a first-born Capricorn, who expects timely results and perfection.
But as the miles and years roll by, I'm finding more and more enjoyment in taking the back roads, slowing down, walking in the park, sitting silently on the back porch with a piñon fire in the chiminea. One high-achieving friend says she's never happier than when she's on her bicycle, pedaling long miles across country. Another friend says I seem the happiest when I'm painting, mind completely slowed down from the surrounding world.
I think Jesus must have spoken those words about the narrow path to life after a long day walking a dusty trail, enjoying cool water and a meal with his friends; but 2,000 years ago, he somehow knew about the dangers of Interstate "living."
On those narrow dusty trails, I find the Gospel of Back Roads, where  you can slow down and find  the vibrancy of life in full color.
***
Numerous other chapters with photographs in the Gospel of Back Roads appear in earlier posts on this blog. If you're interested, just type in "Back Roads Journal" or "Back Roads" in the search box. Here's Back Roads Journal-I.