Staring Out the Window in Sunny Italy

Tags

Dad, Infantry, Italy, WWll

In my Dad’s last years when I did get to see him we didn’t have much to talk about which was not much different than when I lived at the house as a kid and a teenager and at breaks from college. He was already working at being detached and staring a lot which turned into his mo at and near the end.

He spent two years in Italy, France and Germany between 1943 and 45 as a rifleman in an infantry company. He saw the worst of the worst that people could do each other in the name of whatever name was being used that week. He may have even done the worst of the worst of things people can do to each other. He earned his thousand yard stare.

I can only piece his history together as he never spoke of what he had seen and done. All I have are scraps of information and maybe an anecdote from a relative who are either all gone now or on their way to being gone.

I think and I may be incorrect but when my Mom died my sister found the letters my Dad wrote to here from over there. They were married after he returned. He left as Person A and returned as Person B.

I don’t know where he went when he stared. Maybe he went nowhere or maybe he was right back there in what he liked to call ” Sunny Italy” which as everyone knows Italy was anything but during the war.

He never joined the VFW or the American Legion and to my recollection had packed up his WWll kit and kept it neatly stacked inside. Only there wasn’t anything neat or pretty or pleasant about it.

He had windows to silently stare out of. Maybe the soundtrack played in his head. Maybe it played a lot. Maybe it never went away.

He did come home in one piece I suppose but with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star and the Combat Infantry Badge I wonder how complete he really was.

I seem to recall that he was hospitalized once and as he recuperated at home in bed his midsection and chest were wrapped in bandages and there was some talk I overheard of shrapnel “working it’s way out.” This would have been sometime in the mid 1950’s a good ten years after Sunny Italy.

He never talked and we never talked and none of us ever talked and when I wanted to talk it was too late.

More Paris

Tags

jazz, music, Paris, WWll

More on my week long Parisian vacation with some musical notations added.

Before I get too far down the page I have to admit my two biggest regrets after I returned home from Paris.

One – I didn’t stay longer and two – I didn’t spend more money.

Ok, got that out of the way and before I lose my train of thoughts I have a few more recollections from The City of Light.

I was stunned to see how how any current and live references there are to the Second World War in Paris.

Correct me if I’m incorrect but I seem to recall a metro station named for D-Day, The Sixth of June and there is an FDR stop. Maybe one for the Battle of Stalingrad too.

I remember walking down the Rue du Winston Churchill which was near a street named for FDR. It was on this street corner that my daughter and I ran into a local with whom we had a very lively and enlightening conversation.

Maybe we looked like Americans, I don’t really think so as we were both dressed rather smartly. Americans stand out in a Paris crowd and we tried to blend in with the locals and the surroundings.

Somehow we struck up a conversation with a Frenchman from Morocco and the talk turned to great world leaders, remember while we were there we were on the cusp of the anniversary of the 70th of the liberation of Paris.

I remember how this fellow said DeGaulle’s nickname was “Deux Metres” since he was much taller than the average Frenchman in those days. He stood 6’5″ which meant he towered over almost everyone he met. He used his height to his advantage as one should I suppose.

By the way, the current occupant of the White House is nowhere near the purported 6’3″ he claims. He wears lifts in his shoes and is probably closer to 6’1″. The lifts make him lean forward all the time.

The Moroccan man was a real joy speak with and seems to be genuinely happy to be conversing with his two new found American amis although we never got his name.

Earlier in the day we visited Napoleon’s Tomb and spent time at the adjoining French military museum.

The history of warfare in Europe goes back to just about forever as the locals always seemed to be either carving each other up, bludgeoning each other, blowing up, shooting and mangling soldiers and non-combatants alike from the air, the sea and at ground level too.

It feels good to recall those memories especially these days. We rented a rowboat at Versailles, rode the train to Caen and visited the Canadian D Day beach.

When I saw the statue of Charlemagne at Notre Dame Cathedral all I could think of was the Steely Dan song” Kid Charlemagne.” That’s on me.

Our days were full, we walked almost everywhere and by evening we were bushed so there was no nightlife for us. Another regret – No Paris jazz.

” The Last Time I Saw Paris” was written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein soon after the Nazis occupied Paris.

“April in Paris” written in 1932 by Vernon Duke ( Autumn in New York, I Can’t Get Started) and E Y Yip Harburg ( Somewhere Over The Rainbow).

Possibly the best big band song ever is Count Basie’s version of the tune replete with the “One More Time” coda.

Finally, ” I Love Paris” from the show “Can Can’ and Mr. Cole Porter.

And still more finally, ” Midnight in Paris” the Woody Allen film.

Maybe the sense of history doesn’t hang on as much in the air these days for Parisians as it did for me. Time marches on as they say. Perhaps there is too much to occupy the local’s time and minds in the present environment.

I felt the weight of history like I was wearing a jacket with all the pockets stuffed with the years 1940 – 45.

The oldest structure in my neck of the woods is probably a log cabin from around 1600 something or so.

And since adding a new follower who recently added a post about visiting Philadelphia I distinctly remember looking at buildings in Paris and saying – “Gee, these look just like the Philadelphia City Hall.” And they do.

It was built in the Second Empire Style or as it is also known Napoleon III style.

To the Colorful Sisters – in your post about visiting Philadelphia you left out 30th Street Station, one of my favorite places to be ever.

I wrote a post once titled ” The Birds of 30th Street.” It’s somewhere out there in the mist and fog of the internet and WordPress.

As Casey Stengel said ,” You could look it up.”

I Love Paris

Tags

Paris, Remembrance Day, WWl, WWll

This post is inspired in part by Jackie B’s writings about Remembrance Day in England.

I visited Paris during the summer of 2014. While I was there the 70th anniversary of the liberation Paris was approaching as well as the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WWl.

The sense of history surrounding me was overwhelming as I thought I may be walking down on same street that my father did after the war. He served as an infantryman in a rifle company in Italy, France and Austria,

I have some of his souvenir postcards from Paris as he was probably on his way home.

There were exhibits everywhere. I recall one particular photograph of a square in Paris which featured a huge statue of a lion with about a dozen people climbing on it who were celebrating the liberation.

I walked passed that exact spot some 70 years later. I was there, they were there, my Dad might have been there. Maybe you know where it is located.

Hard not be awed.

And here we have bases named after confederate generals. That doesn’t seem to be right so many levels.

Passing the Time

Tags

England, music, Nazis, spies, The Wrecking Crew, WWll

Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day.

I watched a documentary film last evening.  When it’s a documentary it’s called a film, not a movie.

It’s call “The Wrecking Crew” and it’s about the group of LA studio musicians who cranked out all the most beloved music of my teenage years.

In one scene, Barry ( Eve of Destruction) McGuire showed up with a tune he had written called ” California Dreamin” and in tow were his backup singers, Cass Elliott, Michelle Phillips, John Philips and Denny Doherty.

The producer gets one listen to those four and says we better let them record this one.

In other news that’s barely fit to print I watched a movie last night called ” Night Train To Munich.”  It’s a 1940 spy thriller.  This is how I’m spending my evenings.

Rex Harrison stars in the movie as some kind of undercover spy agent guy who speaks perfect German although all of the Germans in the movie speak perfect English too even while everyone is in Germany.  Paul Henreid who would later play Victor Laslo in Casablanca was cast as an SS officer.  He spoke perfect German/English/German too.

I can’t imagine what the national stress level was in England in 1940.  The movie filled a need for people desperate for any shred of good news.

I get it.