Detroit’s Greatest Generation

The week of Memorial Day over 500 WWII veterans gathered at Willow Run Airport to participate in a photo shoot for a new documentary, “Detroit: Our Greatest Generation.”

The Detroit News ran a nice article about it afterwards, with a good summary of the event.

For some terrific photos of the event, check out the special page the documentary’s production company, Visionalist, has put up about it.

For another nice photo album with some shots of the event, check this out, courtesy of the Ann Arbor News.

My SIL took my mother so that Mom could participate (thank you, Mary – all the stuff you do is so appreciated!). Mom, who is 88 and served in the Pacific Theater, says it was a wonderful event. She was one of the few women WWII vets present, not surprising as female commissioned Army officers were as scarce as hen’s teeth even during the War, much less 65 years afterwards.

The organizers asked the vets to bring a photo of themselves in uniform from WWII, if possible; wearing of uniforms and medals was encouraged. Pictures were taken of each group of vets holding up their photos, and in a few weeks each of the vets will get their own group photo from the documentary makers. The vets are also all invited to a special preview of the documentary before it airs on television in December.

There’s more information about the project and documentary at: Detroit: Our Greatest Generation. A Documentary Film About Common Folks with Uncommon Courage.

It’s always great to see our veterans honored and remembered.

Awwwwwwwwwwww!

This morning, as I peered out the window, I noticed that one of the asiatic lilies had a rather odd top to it. Sort of… fuzzy. And stripey.

Then I started laughing. It was a young chipmunk, so small that it could perch on the top of the plant to survey the yard.

He is soooooooo cute! Yeah, I know, he won’t be cute two months from now when he’s mowing down my cherry tomatoes, but still…

I’ve dubbed him “Half-Pint.”

Here’s Lookin’ At You, Kid

So, it’s been ten weeks since I developed a nasty respiratory infection… broke my ribs coughing… rebroke my ribs coughing… and more.

I’m better. Finally. Not back to status quo, but close enough.

Took this shot of James while I was feeling pretty punk. He didn’t even budge from his spot when I came up close enough to literally put the camera down near his nose and snap this shot.

I’m quite certain he’d decided that my worst-than-usual wheeze and nasty cough, added on top of my usual version of “walking” (Imagine a plump very lame duck waddling about while using crutches… got that image in your mind? Yeah. That’s what it looks like when I ‘walk.’ Except sillier.) meant I didn’t have enough breath to catch him even if he hopped away in slow motion.

Veeeeeeeery sloooooooow motion.

He was so right.

So, here’s how it went. James eyeballed me. I eyeballed him. I snapped his portrait. He swiveled an ear back and forth, making sure I knew that he was a very alert bunny even if he didn’t think I was any particular danger. After a long conversation covering how no, I wasn’t going to remove the fencing from those tasty-looking perennials and yes, I had noticed that the rugosas were growing up quite heartily in spite of having been gnawed to the ground but that didn’t make me any happier about having had them chewed to bits, we went our separate ways.

We’ve got a new visitor, one that I doubt I’ll get a shot of for you to see, Oh Best Beloved. She’s a singularly self-possessed raccoon, and quite large. She trots from behind our house around to the front, and then patters down our driveway and across the street to check out the pickin’s at the river. I’m very respectful of the raccoons, having seen an old male take on a huge farm dog I knew well (a rottweiler/shepherd mix) — and win. Raccoons are as cute as they come, but if it ever comes to a street fight? I’ll take a raccoon on my side, hands down, thank-you-very-much.

Got lots of new flower photos and more stuff to share over the next weeks.

It’s sure nice to be able to breathe again!