May 29, 2017 - Memorial Day in the US

Memorial Day is a holiday in the US that is celebrated the last Monday of May to honor the sacrifice of those who have died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle in service to their country. What began nearly 150 years ago, has become one of the nation's most solemn and hallowed holidays. Americans traditionally clean headstones and decorate them with flowers in remembrance of the war dead in almost every city and cemetery across the US.   

What began with dozens of informal commemorations of those killed in the Civic War has continued to this day. From its earliest incarnation as "Decoration Day" to a more modern "Memorial Day" observance, the dead who served are honored and it is a day that brings people together.  We are proud of all the men and women who have served, who serve now and those will will serve no matter where they might be.  God bless and keep them in the hollow of His hand.

I love this very old patriotic photo of George Holyoak from Burley, Idaho riding in a parade (see float behind him) and more than likely a parade for the 4th of July. 

When I met first Garth's parents in 1963, I learned more about Memorial Day and the tradition in their family. Garth's mom was the daughter of Arthur Clark and Ruth Craner Judd and their son, Ross, died after serving in World War II. He served honorably but when returning home, he died tragically in an airplane crash. He was buried in the Burley, Idaho, cemetery. G'pa and G'ma Judd never got over their loss nor did his siblings. I recall my first visit to the Burley cemetery where my future mother-in-law took me to the cemetery and pointed out a small headstone next to where his parents would one day be buried. Every time we went to Burley, we would visit the cemetery.

Photo:  Gravestone of Arthur & Ruth Judd. 

Visiting the cemetery was something Mom Holyoak did on a regular basis in 

the effort to honor her brother and make sure his gravestone was well-kept.

Karisa, G'ma, Keri and Garth at G'pa John's grave Memorial Weekend.

When G'pa John died in 1991, Mom Holyoak visited his grave every week. She spent hours scraping off the buildup of calcium from sprinklers and I think felt closer to G'pa as she lovingly cared for his tombstone. This was a beautiful tradition that was never part of my life when I grew up in Boise, Idaho. After I graduated from college, I never returned to Boise to live and therefore was never around Memorial weekends.

Photo:  1992

After G'pa died, we visited his grave every Memorial Day when we went to Idaho with our family to visit G'ma.

This photo was the first Memorial Day after Garth's mom died where both parents are buried. Keith Judd, her brother from Sacramento, made sure that two beautiful arrangements were delivered for his sister, Clea, and her husband. Ruth Marie, Mom's only sister and her husband, Lynn, always visit the cemetery and take flowers. I am sure that Garth's parents are fully aware and appreciate their devotion. We as a family also make certain that an arrangement is sent every year and are grateful for the many others who also pay tribute to them. My best friend, Sherry Summers from Blackfoot, has also visited their grave and even planted new grass when it needed some TLC. Susan Broadhead Denham, one of Mom's favorite junior high students, also visits her grave. We appreciate everyone who pays tribute to Garth's wonderful parents and go out of their way to visit their graves Memorial weekend. 

Our daughters also make an effort to visit the cemetery when they pass through Burley. 

I believe in so doing they will learn to appreciate a reverence for grave yards.  

Did you know that red poppies are a symbol of Memorial Day and wearing them is done only on Memorial Day?  The origin of the red poppy was a modern day symbol of this day and was idea of an American Woman, Miss Moina Michael.  She was an American professor and humanitarian who conceived the idea of using poppies as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in World War I. Her picture was also placed on a US postal stamp.

The red field poppy was one of the first plants to grow in war-torn battlefields. The seeds scatter in the wind and stand dormant in the ground then germinate in the Spring.  In Israel, poppies are the first flowers to bloom. 

The practice of wearing poppies was further inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," written by a Canadian soldier John McCrae. He saw fields of poppies in areas around his artillery position in Belgium. Today, poppies are the symbol of not only loss of life but also of new life and the recovery of life of soldiers who were damaged physically and emotionally.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies

grow in Flanders Field.

Garth and Mom at the cemetery Memorial Day.

Karisa and children visiting the graves of my parents in Boise, Idaho this past year.  

Visiting the graves of my parents does not give me a sense of peace as both died 
tragically but I am sure it probably does others.

Arlington Cemetery is the location for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier refers to a monument in dedication to the services of an unknown soldier and to the memories of all soldiers killed in any war. Throughout history, many soldiers have died in war with their remains being unidentified. Following World War I, a movement arose to commemorate these soldiers with a single tomb, containing the body of one such unidentified soldier.

It is very difficult to become a Tomb Guard. Members of the Old Guard must apply for the position. If chosen, the applicant goes through an intense training period, in which they must pass tests on weapons, ceremonial steps, cadence, military bearing, uniform preparation and orders. Although military members are known for their neat uniforms, it’s said that the Tomb Guards have the highest standards of them all. 

Did you know that everything the guards do is a series of 21, which alludes to the 21-gun salute? The twenty-one gun salute is the  highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary. 

This is the guard's regime:  it takes 21 steps to walk across the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The guard stops on the 21st step rather than an about face. He then turns to face back down the mat, changes the weapon to the outside shoulder while mentally counting off 21 seconds, then steps off for another 21 steps down the mat. He faces the Tomb at each end of the 21 step walk for 21 seconds then repeats this over and over again until the Guard Change ceremony begins again.

In early rural America, this duty was performed in late summer and was an occasion for family reunions and picnics. After the Civil War, America’s need for a patriotic ceremony to honor its military dead became prominent, as monuments to fallen soldiers were erected and dedicated and ceremonies centering on the decoration of soldiers’ graves were held in towns and cities throughout the nation. After World War I, the day expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars.

Some very interesting facts regarding the Tomb Guard:

         1. His gloves are moistened to prevent him from losing grip on the rifle.
         2. He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb.  After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.
         3.  The guards are changed every 36 minutes twenty-four hours a day, 365 days/year.
         4. For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5'10" and 6'2" tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30". 
         5.  A guard must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in the barracks under the tomb and cannot drink any type of alcohol on or off duty for the rest of his life.  They cannot swear in public and cannot disgrace the uniform or the tomb in any way.
        6.  After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin to wear on his lapel signifying he has served as guard of the tomb.  Presently, there are only 400 worn.  The guard must obey all rules the rest of their lives or give up the wreath pin.
        7. His shoes are made of very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from his feet.  There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as he comes to a halt.
        8.  There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform.  Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.
        9.  The tomb has been patrolled continuously,  24/7, since 1930, regardless of rain or shine.
        10.  The honor to be a guard is incredibly rare and is the least awarded badge in the Army and the 2nd least honored bade in the overall army.  Tomb Guards are held to the highest standards of behavior and can have their badge taken away for any reason on or off duty for his entire lifetime.  Those who wear the badge do so in honor and respect of their country.

President Donald Trump gave a Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery and laid a wreathe at the cemetery.

Arlington is not the only cemetery that traditionally honors fallen soldiers. I was born in Hawaii and my parents lived there when World War II started.  I recall the stories told by my father and brother about their experience the Sunday morning of the attack. When we visited Hawaii years later, the Punch Bowl Cemetery was high on the list. It is located on the island of Oahu and this photo was taken at the overlook of the Honolulu skyline.

The cemetery is called the Punch Bowl Cemetery of the Pacific and was given it's name because of its shape.  The cemetery lies in an extinct volcano called Pouwaina and consists of 116 acres. Roughly translated, Pouwaina means Consecrated Hill or Hill of Sacrifice. As of 1951, all of the graves are marked with marble slabs.

At the top of the steps is a fountain and a memorial chapel where one can ponder over the thousands of engraved names of 28,788 military personnel who are missing in action, lost or buried at sea in the Pacific during World War II. It is a sobering moment to stand there and view the thousands of engraved names. At the base of the staircase is a dedication stone engraved with the following words:

IN THESE GARDENS ARE RECORDED THE NAMES 

OF AMERICANS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES 

IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY AND WHOSE

EARTHLY RESTING PLACE IS KNOWN ONLY TO GOD

Also at the top of the staircase is a statue of Lady Liberty who represents all grieving mothers. She stands while holding a laurel branch and the inscription below the statue reads:

THE SOLEMN PRIDE THAT MUST BE YOURS

TO HAVE LAID COSTLY A SACRIFICE 

UPON THE ALTER OF FREEDOM.

Every year children across Hawaii make handmade flower lies which are then placed upon every single grave at Punch Bowl as a sign of respect and as a very grateful "mahalo" (thank you) to the soldiers buried therein.

And  . . . one more tradition that truly sets Hawaii apart of the state's reverence for this day is the most well-known Lantern Floating Ceremony. After a beautiful ceremony, specially crafted floating lanterns inscribed by hand with prayers and personal messages are launched into the water.

The day ends right before sunset when

more than 40,000 participants

 gather at Ala Moana Beach 

Park to launch the floating lanterns.

And lastly, is a song written by Irving Berlin that all Americans love:

God Bless America, 

Land that I love. 

Stand beside her, and guide her 

Thru the night with a light from above. 

From the mountains, to the prairies, 

To the oceans, white with foam 

God bless America, My home sweet home.

May 21, 2017 - Jerusalem Day: 50 Year Renunfication of Jerusalem

The following is an article regarding Jerusalem Day and the 50th Anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem after the 1967 "Six Day War" and published in the Jerusalem Post.  . . Three weeks after the Six Day War, the two Jerusalems became one again, when the Knesset annexed some 79 square km. across the former armistice line and incorporated them within the municipal boundaries of Israel's capital. . Overnight, Israeli Jerusalem was tripled in size and Jordanian Jerusalem ceased to exist. The annexed area included not only Jordanian Jerusalem (just 6% of the area) but a large rural hinterland. In delineating the new border, a panel consisting of senior civil servants and a general, Rehavam Ze'evi, was guided by history - not Jerusalem's ancient history, but the kind they had lived through themselves just a few weeks before. . Jerusalem had gone to war with itself twice in one generation and the expanded area was seen as a security buffer. It incorporated high ground, from Gilo in the south to Pisgat Ze'ev in the northeast near Hizme, where Jordanian artillery had bombarded the city for two days in June. It attempted to avoid areas heavily populated by Arabs. The annexation included parts, or all, of 28 villages. . Only a small fraction of the annexed area was connected to biblical Jerusalem, principally the kilometersquare Old City itself. . . THE DAY before annexation was to go into effect, defense minister Moshe Dayan invited security and municipal officials to a meeting on the terrace of the King David Hotel, overlooking the Old City walls. Tomorrow, he said, the border between the two halves of the city will be opened and residents will be free to cross - Arabs as well as Jews. . Virtually everybody present objected. . It was too soon, they said; enemies who had just fought a war cannot become peaceful neighbors overnight - pent-up passions would inevitably explode. But Dayan was unmoved. "East Jerusalem is Israeli," he said. "Open the city." . The next morning, Arabs and Jews, generally in family groups, passed through the crossing points with profound curiosity and a sense of awe to explore streets they had not seen for two decades and which most believed they never would see again, an area that for 19 years had been as inaccessible as the far side of the moon. . . Israelis headed first for the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall. Many Arabs went to see homes they lived in before fleeing the 1948 war. Sometimes, they knocked and asked whether they could see the house. One Arab woman could not restrain herself when she saw the condition of the garden and asked the Jewish resident why she hadn't looked after it better. . The day turned out to be one of the most peaceful Jerusalem had known in modern times: the police received not a single complaint from the public. Some Jerusalemites crossed the border in search of old friends. Menashe Eliachar, whose family has lived in Jerusalem for 500 years and whose father had had Arab business partners, entered the Old City through the Jaffa Gate and immediately ran into a rug dealer who had worked for his father. . Eliachar was head of the chamber of commerce on the Jewish side of the city and had been asked by mayor Teddy Kollek to make contact with business leaders in the Arab sector whom he had known, in order to begin reviving commercial life in the reunited city. . It took Eliachar two hours to walk the short distance to the Arab Chamber of Commerce at the Damascus Gate, as acquaintances along the way embraced him and wanted to talk. . . Within days, the Old City marketplace was flooded with Israeli shoppers. . In Jewish Jerusalem, Arabs seeking employment began inquiring at businesses and workshops. Within a short time, thousands would be working there. . Businessmen from both sides crossed the old border to explore opportunities. . By midsummer, many of the enrollees in Hebrew language courses in west Jerusalem, intended for new immigrants, were Arabs from across town. . Almost forgotten were the calls over loudspeakers just a few weeks before by preachers in east Jerusalem mosques to slaughter the Jews, and as a frenzied mob carried PLO leader Ahmad Shukeiry aloft after he pledged that there would be "few [Israeli] survivors" in the coming war. . On June 19 - one week after the war's end - the government agreed on a proposal for peace treaties with Egypt and Syria, under which Israel would give up Sinai and the Golan in return for their demilitarization and Israel's right of passage through the Suez Canal and Tiran Straits. The offer was rejected. . . Israel had made no offer with regard to the West Bank, because the political leadership was divided over whether a deal should be sought with Jordan or whether the territory should be earmarked for a Palestinian entity. . Meanwhile, the physical unification of the two Jerusalems proceeded swiftly. . Some 90,000 mines in and around the city were removed, but not before a dozen army sappers and 70 Jewish and Arab civilians venturing into no-man'sland had their feet blown off. Utility lines were laid across from the Jewish side and east Jerusalem residents, who previously received water in their taps twice a week, now had it round the clock. Outlying villages were linked to an electricity grid for the first time. . Within months, the government began rebuilding the Jewish Quarter and drawing up plans for a housing development, Ramot Eshkol, linking Mount Scopus with west Jerusalem to ensure that Scopus would not be cut off again. . . The international community rejected the annexation, but without the whiff of ultimatums that had forced Israel out of Sinai in 1956. Israel's three weeks of restraint in the prewar "waiting period," despite Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser's provocations, gave Jerusalem political capital with which to maneuver. . So did the Arab rejection of Israel's postwar peace offer. Seeking to ensure continued Jewish demographic dominance in the expanded city, the government expropriated a third of the land in east Jerusalem - almost all of it rocky, uninhabited hills - for Israeli housing developments. Built along the outer edge of the annexed territory, these developments constituted, in effect, a new city wall. . Mayor Kollek reportedly sought to exclude some of the area that became Pisgat Ze'ev from these plans, in order to permit Arab residents of adjacent Shuafat, who owned much of the land, room to expand. Then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin overruled him. . AS THE shock of the war passed and no political settlement appeared on the horizon, the Arab population became increasingly alienated, with periodic acts of civil disobedience and terrorism. . Nevertheless, Arabs continued to work and shop in west Jerusalem and Jews walked and shopped freely almost anywhere in Arab Jerusalem. This would last for some two decades, until the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, in 1987. An east Jerusalem businessman would in time refer to those 20 years as "a golden age." . . Relations become more guarded after the intifada, but coexistence still prevailed, even if strained. However, the violent second intifada that broke out in 2000 narrowed the areas of contact significantly. . For some Jerusalem Arabs, the sense of being a conquered people was offset by the substantial economic benefits of Israeli residency. In a 2011 poll cosponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, 35% of Jerusalem Arabs said they would prefer to live as Israeli citizens after the creation of a Palestinian state. . Only 30% said they favored Palestinian citizenship, with the rest declining to answer. A more telling measure of political identity, however, was the fact that only 1% exercised their right as permanent residents to vote in municipal elections. No Arabs ran for city council, lest this be regarded as acceptance of Israeli rule. . In the half century since the Six Day War, only some 12,000 east Jerusalem Arabs (who numbered more than 300,000 by 2015) requested Israeli citizenship and only 5,000 received it. . In a census after the 1967 war, Arabs constituted 26% of the population. . Israeli officials assumed that the massive construction of Jewish housing in east Jerusalem would inevitably dilute that percentage. However, half a century later, the Arab population ratio had risen to 37% and demographers were projecting an Arab majority in the city within a few decades if there were no significant political change. . . Unusual close relations? . A few years after the war, with the removal of the border fence in Abu Tor that had separated them, Haim Machsumi, an immigrant from Iran who worked as a janitor in the Finance Ministry, and his neighbor, Abu Ali, who used to live before the 1967 war on the other side of the fence, developed an unusually close relationship. . I would stop by periodically to reassure myself that a connection of this kind between Jewish and Arab families could survive in a city defined by ethnic and nationalist tensions. . On one visit, Haim was not home and I walked down the slope to Abu Ali's house. Haim was sitting on a couch in the living room with the old man, drinking mint tea. Haim's wife, Rachel, sat in a corner with Abu Ali's daughter, both of them knitting as they chatted in Arabic. . Children from both families were sitting on the floor in front of the television, where American marines were storming ashore at Tarawa behind John Wayne. . "You fellows don't know what this is all about," roared Abu Ali, who was then 91, as he gestured at the screen. "I was a soldier in the Turkish army. I fought against the Russians in the Caucasus." . He was talking to his grandson, Ziad, and to Ziad's best friend, Avraham, Haim's 17-year-old son. . Haim's children plainly adored Abu Ali and he had his favorites among them. Asked if he thought true peace would come, he said, "Only Allah will say. Man without God is nothing." . When Haim and his family walked back up the hill to their house, accompanied by Ziad, Haim's five-yearold son, Avner, ran to the Arab youth and clasped him around the knees. Ziad tousled the boy's hair and Avner gave him his hand as they walked. . "Our relations are stronger than ever," Haim said, as we watched the scene. "We just don't discuss politics." . Every Saturday afternoon, Abu Ali came up the slope with a finjan of hot coffee for Haim and Rachel. "He knows that we don't boil water on Shabbat, so he insists on bringing us coffee." . The night that Passover ended, Abu Ali and other Arab neighbors would come to Haim with fresh pita to end the Jewish family's week-long abstinence from bread. Haim and Rachel made reciprocal visits on Muslim holidays and were invited to weddings in Arab Abu Tor. . When I visited a year later, Avraham was in the army. His father said that when his son came home on leave, the first thing he did was to go down to fetch Ziad for a game of billiards in the café on the Arab side of the hill. . The bonding of the two families was exceptional, but warm relations between Jews and Arabs who came to know each other was not uncommon. The owner of a small printing shop opposite City Hall told me that, during Ramadan, when Muslims do not eat, drink or smoke during daylight hours, he also refrained from doing so in his shop out of deference to his two Arab employees, even though he was a heavy smoker and liked his morning coffee. . He had taken on the workers as youths, attended their family celebrations, given them large bonuses to help them start married life, and left them in charge of the business when he went abroad. . For the most part, however, the Arab and Jewish populations still live separate lives, nurturing grievances and fears regarding one another. "Not talking politics" could work on the individual level; but at the communal level, man remains a political animal. . The passage of decades by itself did not mitigate political differences. . For all its built-in tensions, however, Jerusalem proved resilient enough to permit a tolerable level of accommodation among its diverse populations. Resting on the slopes of a political volcano, it would remain for believing Jews, Muslims and Christians a gateway to heaven. .

May 26th - TWO VERY SPECIAL BIRTHDAYS

  









Today is my dear husband's 
birthday and also
 the birthday of 
our youngest 
grandchild, 
Taft.

Looking back one year ago, I remember how excited we were as we anticipated the birth of Taft. When we return home in August, he'll be 15 months old and I'm sure will be running around (not walking) and climbing everywhere and one step ahead of his two adoring sisters. We can't wait to smother him with 15 months of love we've missed out on while living in Israel.

Garth is 76 today and even though he's a little older and wiser, he's still the cute guy I fell in love with more than 50 years ago. 

The past two years have brought a lot of changes in our lives. As Garth retired from dentistry, we sold his practice to a couple of wonderful Jewish dentists who grew up in Israel. Knowing that our practice of forty years would be in some very capable hands, we left our home in Arizona, moved to a country we knew very little about and prepared for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure! 

After 15 months, we have learned to appreciate life in the Middle East,  to love people of all walks of life, have had many life-changing experience and truly a bog adventure. When people ask if we like living here, my response is "Every day is a gift!"  One of our favorite pastimes is to walk the streets of the Old City  . . . to soak up the culture, the sites, the smells and walk in places that are so dear to the heart of people from all around the world.

G'ma and G'pa Smith from Ohio have had the pleasure of getting know this little guy before we have, so move over other grandparents, it's our turn very soon!

We have missed our family so much but somehow as we celebrate the 

birthday of Taft and G'pa Garth,  it brings us our hearts a little closer to home.

Taft with some of his cousins celebrating ONE year!

Every time I look at this photo of Keri & Keith's children sitting on their doorstep,

I smile and feel so grateful to have such adorable grandchildren.

 However, these are only three of 11 more who are all so precious to us. 

I am reminded of a little song our family used to sing when we only had 3 children:

"Oh, I've got FIVE people in my family . . . and there's not one of them I'd trade. . ."

Holland is growing up and a little mother to Taft.

Audrey adores her baby brother.

Taft is a lucky boy to have such loving sisters and parents,

 cousins, not to mention uncles and aunties.

Before Taft was born, his sisters could hardly wait to welcome him into their home.

Happy birthday to the youngest

and oldest boys in our family! 

One year old!

King for a day.

Seventy six and still making a roar . . .

And . . . a big splash in the Dead Sea!

I didn't bake Garth a birthday cake this year. . . just a big cookie instead!

I'm grateful for a wonderful husband. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

I hope this day will fill up your heart

 with joy and blessings. 

In 3 months, we'll be back in Arizona but for now, we are enjoying the adventures and good life in Israel!