Howdy from Bob Duff,
A small group of 'headers attended a Leighton O'Connor photo exhibition last night in Beverly, Mass. We had fun despite FALSE claims expressed there by Beverly's Mayor, a Justice of the Peace and several others. They boast that the U.S. Navy originated in Beverly when we all know that the navy started right here with General Glover and his men of Marblehead!
In my blog "movie" of January 23rd, I used several of Leighton's still shots for reporting on a winning sailboat. She was yacht RUN from Great Britain racing in Florida last month at KEY WEST 2009. We ran that "flick" yesterday at Leighton's show where the mayor and his friends misspoke.
I have used some of Leighton's great shots in the past. Yesterday I purchased several new things from him. The first at the top shows a small fleet of "frostbite" Sonar sailboats racing in the cold, cold winter water in Marblehead Harbor with the Corinthian Yacht Club in the foreground. CYC is closed each fall and reopens in the Spring.
Following that, I show Leighton's picture of midshipman standing on spars all the way to the top of a square rigger. We are fairly sure that this is the United States Coast Guard Ship EAGLE. Notice the four jibs hoisted in place. She was taken from the Germans as reparations after WW II. Serving as a midshipman training ship, she sails here from time to time and will join a fleet of "TALL SHIPS" at Boston in the second week of July. They will then leave to sail "down East" to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
That colorful picture is Redd's pond where ducks compete with racing model sailboats for "water rights" in the warmer months. Originally, Redd's pond was the source of water for people without good wells.
Down below I sneak in a little flick of friends from a party "down home in TEXAS" this Christmas. I tried sending this to friends via e-mail and am told that no one succeeded in opening the iMOVIE. So, I am trying it here. I extracted each person's head shot from digital "snap shots" created by several people. My friend Maurice Tunnell and wife Liz hosted the wonderful party and sent a DVD of everyone's pictures to all of us. Many thanks to the Tunnells.
Turn up your volume now to hear Tom Lehrer sing "MY HOME TOWN" for this is what the iMOVIE is about --sort-of. Tom was teaching math at Harvard College when I found him there. He and his many funny "sarcastic" songs fit nicely with my old home town group. Several of us studied high school math under "Brother" R. N. Smith who conducted classes like a Sunday School session with roll call and selections from "the blue book of happiness" (Trigonometry). He applied special names for each of us which appear in that small type in the movie. His humor reminds me of Tom Lehrer.
Click the small triangle to play. I had to click it a couple of times to make it go. Turn up your speakers. It can be replayed.
Pictured folks are associated in one way or other with the same graduating class at Adamson High School-Dallas, Texas in June 1947. The guys were all in Junior ROTC starting at about age thirteen and continuing until we got through with college. I jokingly refer to us as "the Hitler Youth of the U.S.A." because we were similar to what we read of the Germans being trained as "Hitler Youth" youngsters to kill the enemy, whoever that might be. In retrospect, it has been interesting to discover that none of these "cadets", with all that training in ROTC, will admit to ever having killed anybody.
See you again soon,
Bob Robert Bobby Olin Junior Duff
US Junior ROTC-Cadet Colonel-commission dated April 1, 1947
