Singing Waters

So, with the end of Mrs J's medical treatments (and an optimistically good assessment of status), She and I decided we needed to take a day off and go have a bit of fun.  LJW suggested we go visit some wineries in the local area.  Local Area in Texas is roughly defined as the same amount of square miles as in Rhode Island.  

This site says Rhode Island's east/west length is 37 mles and north/south is 48 miles.  This site says the distance from The Burg to Austin via 290 is 78 miles.  The majority of Texas wineries are along or within about 20 miles of that highway.

Not that there's anything bad about RI, mind you.  Just kinda giving a mental picture. 

In any case, having been to most of the "Good" (Greek for "crowded") wineries, LJW suggested one that's a bit off the beaten path, specifically located near the town of Comfort, a thriving metroplex of maybe a couple thousand people, and an awful lot of cattle. 

The winery is named Singing Water due to a creek that ran through the property.  Very nice place, very nice folks,  a quite talented young songstress, a tasty cheese and sausage plate and a very nice red wine* made for quite enjoyable outing.

 

Miss B even had a good time.

She was trying to out "Goofy" her grandfather.  I won hands down!

 

As I went inside to settle up, I noticed a few things that caught my eye.

James Avery has several custom jewelry stores in Texas.  His home and one of his first stores are in "The Burg".  I thought it was interesting that he'd been a pilot in WWII in Europe.

Here is the letter he wrote to the winery explaining the significance of the picture.

Thought that was interesting, crossing the Atlantic with temporary fuel tanks on board.  Lord help them if they didn't feed.  (And I'm sure more than a few crews experienced that disaster.)

So, as I finished reading this, I noticed another picture next to it.

If you'll notice in the top right of the picture, there's a picture of a B-25 on the deck of a ship.  Caught my eye, yes it did.  Right away, I thought of the Doolittle Raid and that this guy from Comfort might have participated in it.

I couldn't have been more right.  I asked one of the staff who was in the room with me what the relationship of Richard "Dick" Cole was to the winery.  The guy that answered was about my age and also retired Air Force.  He said that Mr. Cole had, indeed, been on the raid and that he was born, raised and lived in Comfort (TX) up to and after the war.  The significance was enhanced when he told me that he'd been General Doolittle's Co-pilot on the raid.

Here's a picture of the crew before takeoff.  Then Colonel Doolittle is second from the left,  Mr. Cole is second from the right.

Talk about a brush with history.  He'd been present at the grand opening of the winery.   The owner and he were good friends and the owner is also retired military.  Unfortunately, Mr Cole has passed away.  That would have been out of this world amazing to have met him personally.

As one may surmise, the winery staff has a large former number of former military staff on it, So they are inclined to offer a variety of specials for military and former military folks. They also have a significant collection of "Challenge Coins" and will exchange one of their challenge coins for one of yours.  I believe there might be some "encouragement" included in the exchange.  

 

Excellent place to visit with excellent wines (and the food isn't bad either). As I mentioned, Military Vets get a significant discount there.  Mrs. J and I highly recommend a visit.

Peace out y'all!

*

I like the Name

Source

A New Tale

Lech, Czech, and Rus oaks in Rogalin, Poland.
(Source)

 

... three brothers went hunting together but each of them followed a different prey and eventually they all traveled in different directions. Rus went to the east, Čech headed to the west to settle on the Říp Mountain rising up from the Bohemian hilly countryside, while Lech traveled north. There, while hunting, he followed his arrow and suddenly found himself face-to-face with a fierce, white eagle guarding its nest from intruders. Seeing the eagle against the red of the setting sun, Lech took this as a good omen and decided to settle there. He named his settlement Gniezno (Polish gniazdo - 'nest') in commemoration and adopted the White Eagle as his coat-of-arms. The white eagle remains a symbol of Poland to this day, and the colors of the eagle and the setting sun are depicted in Poland's coat of arms, as well as its flag, with a white stripe on top for the eagle, and a red stripe on the bottom for the sunset. (Source)

So yeah, history. I've decided to start another fictional tale of the Second World War, prior to really digging into that, some research is required. While I do know quite a bit about WWII in Europe, some of that knowledge is rather old and could stand some updating. While starting my research I came across that old legend mentioned above, I truly had no idea ...

So you might get the impression that I've decided to start the tale very early in the war, at least from a European standpoint, fighting in Asia had been going on since 1937 -

On July 7, 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War began with a conflict known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Japan was attacked by Chinese troops while carrying out military training—they didn't warn the Chinese they would be shooting gunpowder rounds at the bridge that led to Beijing. This amplified already tense relations in the region, leading to an all-out declaration of war. (Source)

 I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like to live in that era, especially in Poland, where the war began at 0445 when the German pre-dreadnought battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire at Polish defenses in the vicinity of Westerplatte. (An excellent movie which covers this is the film 1939 Battle of Westerplatte .Tajemnica Westerplatte is the original title, roughly "Westerplatte Mystery." You can watch it dubbed in English or in the original Polish with English subtitles, which I recommend.)

Though tensions in Europe had been rising ever since the Germans marched their army into the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936, the invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939 began a war which would see millions die, both combatant and civilian, which wouldn't end until the 8th of May 1945. For the Poles, the betrayal by the West, the Nazis, and the  Communists wouldn't really end until 1990.

I did a lot of reading on Poland, the country has a fascinating history, bits of which I have written about numerous times here on The Chant. It's time, I think, to write about the early stages of World War II in Europe, at least up until the moment when Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps is turned back at the gates of Egypt at El Alamein. (Yes juvat, I'll try to end on a high note ...)

Some of the characters from my first novel will show up, at least among the Brits, Poles, and Germans, it's a bit early for the Yanks but you never know ...

It's going to be a few days before I get started, much research remains to be completed, or at least started. I'm looking forward to this, hope you enjoy it. Feel free to offer suggestions, complaints, corrections, etc., just like with the last book. This should be interesting! (Lord I hope so.)