It’s a really slow news day. Which is nice, because I didn’t have to spend a ton of time scrolling on my phone this morning, during breakfast.
We had some mild storms during the night, and a tiny bit of clouds first thing this morning, but it is clearing and it should be another really pretty day for the Memorial Day holiday.
I post these photos every year on Memorial Day, but the sad thing this year is that, of course, now my adoptive dad has died. So everyone in these photos has now passed on.
But here they are again!
My paternal biological great-great- grandfather, David May, was a Kentucky State Senator and he fought as an Officer on the side of the Confederacy. He died in the Battle of Cynthiana, in Kentucky. And he is buried in Battle Grove Cemetery, in the ring of the Civil War Confederate Memorial (pictured below).
Here are David May’s sons. (He also had 3 daughters, but I don’t have any photos of them.) I am descended from Ashbel Patton May, who is standing on the right. He was the District Attorney of Winchester, Kentucky.
My maternal biological grandfather, Dwight Ellison Seaman, fought in WWII, and here he is in Normandy, France. I was lucky enough to know him for many years before he died. We had an interesting relationship, since he is the one who put me up for adoption. We met when I was 25. He told me some very intriguing stories about his life over the years, but what I remember most was what he said when we first met: “Everyone called me the bad guy for doing what I did, putting you up for adoption, but I did what I thought was best for you and your mother. I hope you’ve had a good life.” (My birth mom was only 13 when I was born and at that time, she wouldn’t tell anyone who the father was.)
When my grandfather died, in 2017, he had a full military 21-gun salute. It was a tiny cemetery, so the sound of that was very impressive. We each got to take home a spent cartridge as a memento.
My adoptive dad, Alan Nathan Barck. (July 23, 1930 to April 17, 2024) He was a Supply Officer in the Korean War, stationed just outside of San Francisco. He was supposed to be sent out on a ship, to go into combat, but since he was a college graduate with a degree in Accountancy, at the last minute, they kept him on base in San Francisco and made him a Supply Officer. He was really disappointed about that because he really wanted to go to sea — until the ship he was supposed to be on sank and basically everyone onboard, drowned. He loved living in San Francisco, though. Back then, in the early 1950s, it was a really, really beautiful area and he and my adoptive mom were newly married and happy there.
My biological dad, Donald Jennings May, was also in the US Navy, but he was a Navy SEAL. He served during the Vietnam War and was there for many years. He was highly decorated with medals, and he was injured by a flame thrower during a skirmish on the Mekong Delta during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
He said the worst day of the war was when Saigon fell, in April, 1975. He was on a Chinook helicopter, getting all the rich people out of Saigon and he said he never saw people behaving as horribly as they behaved on that day — everyone scrambling to get on those helicopters no matter what.
When he would tell me his stories of being a SEAL in Vietnam, it always reminded me of the movie, Apocalypse Now. Just incredibly intense, surreal, dark and insane. There was always easy access to prescription amphetamines, so my dad acquired a pretty severe drug & booze habit while serving in Vietnam. In the photo below, 1964, he is 19 and on his first submarine, before the madness began. He died in 1999, from esophageal cancer that they believe he developed from exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.
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Okay.
In other news–
Here’s Charlie’s update for today.
CHARLIE WARD DAILY NEWS WITH PAUL BROOKER & DREW DEMI – MONDAY 27TH MAY 2024 (17 mins):
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And that’s it for now.
If you live Stateside, Happy Memorial Day. If you live elsewhere, have a beautiful Monday.
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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I leave you with this great song from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
It was recorded while they were making their hugely successful 3rd album, Damn the Torpedoes, in 1979, but it was not included on the album. For decades, you could only get it on their 4-CD retrospective, Playback. But it is now available as a bonus track on their deluxe re-issue of Damn the Torpedoes.
I love this song. It always reminds me of summer. “Casa Dega”, by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, 1979. Enjoy!!
“Casa Dega”
Well the clouds roll by in the big blue sky
As the sun beats down on Casa Dega
And the moon pulls the tide and the tide brings night
But night is more than just night in Casa Dega
Oh, baby I think I’m starting to believe the things that I’ve heard
‘Cause tonight in Casa Dega I hang on every word
She said to me as she holds my hand
And reads the lines of a stranger
Yeah, and she knows my name, yeah she knows my plans
In the past in the present and for the future
Yeah, baby now think I’m starting to believe the things that I’ve heard
‘Cause tonight in Casa Dega I hang on every word
Then she said
And you almost pay the price of a whisper in the night in Casa Dega
Time rolls by, night is only night, can I save ya?
Yeah, yeah, alright
More than just a night
c – 1979 Mike Campbell & Tom Petty
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