It rained around midday and then it rained this evening . . . while I was walking! But it doesn’t bother me. I love the rain.

Roger Hodson of Supertramp fame, the song, It’s Raining Again

I went to buy groceries today at the Wal-mart Neighborhood Market on 31st and Garnett in Tulsa. While I was looking for some sandwich cheese in the dairy section I saw a man in camoflauge pants and a army looking t-shirt. To get his attention, I asked him if he was in the military. He turned around and said, “Yes, Ma’am”.
He said he’d been in for 20 years and he went to Iraq when the Twin Towers fell. And then he raised his foot and knocked on the side of his leg. I heard a hollow sound. He said he got his leg blown off. And then he said in an upbeat voice that he would go and do it again.

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Irene Sendler saved around 2400 children from the Jewish ghetto by pretending she was a plumber. She would go into the ghettos and smuggle children out. She would use her tool box to smuggle out babies and she had a dog that she trained to bark when the Gestapo police were near. After she smuggled them out she kept their name in a jar buried in her back yard, hoping to reunite them with their parents later on. The site Life In A Jar gives more details of her story. Here’s a picture of this lovely lady.
She was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. Here’s a site that tells more of this amazing woman’s story. There is a play being performed in different areas of the U.S. Here’s its schedule.

A friend that betrays his friend makes a big mistake and loses a sweet privilege.
His gain is loss;
for he that wrongs his friend
Wrongs himself more, and ever has about
A silent court and jury, and himself
The prisoner at the bar, ever condemned.
~Alfred Tennyson.
Taken from Leaves of Live @ Oneplace.

This day in history from the History Channel website.

I found an official site which shows original documents from U.S. history! It’s @ American Treasure of the Library of Congress.

0311
Miltiades was elected 32nd pope of the Catholic Church. During his pontificate,Christianity was finally tolerated by Rome, following the Emperor Constantine’s conversionto the Christian faith.
1489
Birth of Thomas Cranmer, first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and primaryauthor of the ‘Book of Common Prayer’ and ‘Thirty-Nine Articles’ of the Anglican Church.
1752
The first Bible in America printed in English was published in Boston.
1918
Death of Washington Gladden, 82, a popular Congregational theologian of the SocialGospel. He also authored the hymn, ‘O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee.’
1930
Pioneer linguistic educator Frank C. Laubach wrote in a letter: ‘[God has saidto me,] If I do not speak to you in words at times, it is because the reality all about youis greater than the imperfect symbols of things which you have in words.’

Taken from Oneplace.com and Discover the Book radio program
The Safest Spot in the Universe
by Dr. John Barnett
The safest spot on earth is just outside Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is a super secure military command center called NORAD. There in the Rockies, under Cheyenne Mountain, a mile deep in the granite corridors, is the heart of America’s missile defense center.
The main entrance to the complex is approximately one-third of a mile from the North Portal via a tunnel which leads to a pair of steel Blast Doors each weighing 25 tons. Behind the 25-ton blast doors is a steel building complex built within a 4.5 acre grid of excavated chambers and tunnels and surrounded by 2,000 feet of granite. Excavation began for the new NORAD Combat Operations Center in Cheyenne Mountain in May 1961. The excavation was nearly complete one year later.

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I read a very good book recently by Jerry Stanley. It is called Children of the Dust Bowl. It is a true account of families who were farmers in Oklahoma during the Depression of the 1930’s and then after a large drought dust storms came and blew away the top soil. Many families decided to pack up belongings and move to California where they could work harvesting crops. But the migration was too much and the “Okies” soon became hated by Californians.
This book is a true account of “Okie” children that were able to help build the school in a camp where they lived. A man named Leo Hart is the hero of this real life story. The book and movie, Grapes of Wrath, is good use along with Stanley’s book.
Here’s a website that tells of the area where the school existed. Check out the pictures of the author, Jerry Stanley.

Hey, we’re having Jambalaya for supper tonight. I played this one for Jonathan. He fixed supper. He rolled his eyes and listened anyway.
Jambalaya, Crawfish Pie and Fillet Gumbo!! . . .