Sunday, June 6, 2021

This time last year I was recuperating from hiatal hernia surgery.  Only soft foods.  Eat extremely small bites and do it slowly.   The state was slowly reopening from the first lockdown.  Retail stores and restaurants were getting up to speed on curbside pickups.  Shortages meant one requested bread but you really did not know if you would any.  Eggs were almost as scarce as toilet paper.  Drug companies were doing everything in their power to create vaccines.  Daily news conferences with then President Trump did not bring any comfort.  Travel was so reduced gasoline prices dropped to the lowest in decades.

Today our state is wide open.  Some establishments still require masks but there is no state wide mandate.  44% of Texans have had at least one dose of the vaccine.  That is about 12.8 million folks vaccinated.  The rush to get your shots has dwindled in the US.  Different states are offering lotteries of up to a million dollars when you get vaccinated.   Everything from free college tuition chances to free beer at ballparks are being offered to encourage fence sitters to get the shots.  Whatever it takes is fine by me.  Life is, however, not back to pre virus life.  Businesses are rethinking the need for large brick and mortar locations for office jobs.   

Beyond the current life with Covid 19 this particular date has greater significance.  Over the last 24 hours just over 9,200 world wide have died of Covid-19.  D-Day, June 6, 1944.  Losses for the Allies including MIA was around 10,000.  D-Day was just an infant step toward bringing down Hitler and his Nazi regime.  While the initial But it was the step that led to so many others.  While the D-Day objective to reach the city of Caen was not achieved on that day, foot and toeholds were gained on the various beaches.  Caen was liberated by mid July.  Paris was liberated in late August.  That was 250KM, 155 miles covered by Allied forces.

The young man in these photos was part of the second wave of soldiers to storm Omaha Beach.  He is my Uncle Bud.  He survived D Day and the remainder of the war.  He would share is wartime stories in his later years with his four daughters and one son.  

Uncle Bud's profession was a house painter.  He could easily walk on stilts in order to paint ceilings, etc. In addition, Uncle Bud could 'throw his voice'.  That capability would cause many of the fellow painters to be the butt of jokes.  A favorite joke was to throw his voice behind the wall one of the guys was painting.  The voice would ask for help to get out of the wall.  That left many a wide eyed, spooked painter.

On this 77th anniversary of the Normandy D Day.  I pay tribute to my Uncle Bud.  Painter, jokester, and horse trader supreme.

Y'all take care.

Janice