Songs on Saturday ~ American Tune
hello America, how are you?
In these dark and somber days, when nothing seems to be going quite to plan, I thought this Paul Simon song might be appropriate for the holiday weekend. Of course we English do not celebrate the fourth of July at all. Some of us still think you were wrong.
Please listen with a little pride in your nation.
But, be realistic about Life in America today.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
y’all have a nice day
Monochrome Monday ~ Lancaster
the aircraft that broke Hitler’s reich
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
crew and ground crew
Enola Gay
on August 6th 1945 the B29 Superfortress Enola Gay
became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb
The Boeing B29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated, complex, and expensive aircraft ever built up to that time. After Japan’s leaders ignored a demand to surrender, President Harry S. Truman authorised the atomic strike, in order to avoid the millions of casualties expected if ground troops invaded Japan’s Home Islands. Under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets the Enola Gay flew from Tinian in the Mariana Islands and released the bomb at 08:15 over Hiroshima.
At that time the B29 Superfortress was the only aircraft capable of carrying the 10,000 or so pounds of the atomic weapons Little Boy and Fat Man the approximately 1,400 miles from Tinian to their targets in Japan, and getting home again.
The Atomic age had begun.
Japan unconditionally surrendered on September 2nd 1945 after a second strike by the B29 Bockscar on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. More people were killed and injured by the RAF’s conventional bombing of Hamburg than the casualties caused by the atomic bomb at Nagasaki.
Today, the Enola Gay is exhibited at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA. Bockscar may be seen at The National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, OH.
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jack collier jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Tunes on Tuesday ~ Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Zulus to the Southwest ~ thousands of ’em
In all the turbulent history of the Natal in Southern Africa, one thing stands out, the respect the British have for the wider Zulu nation. I think this is a fabulous track. Tremendous bass baritones.
The town of Ladysmith on the Klip River in Natal also has a special place in British history.
The Ladysmith Black Mambazo featured prominently on the Paul Simon Album ‘Graceland’.
Please listen with respect.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Zulu singers at Drakensberg Mountains
Accepting the Past
you can’t learn anything if you deny history
the gloomy sunset can still presage a bright new dawn
Some things in our past may be painful, uncomfortable, unpleasant, disgusting, illegal, or just a big mistake. Personally, I will admit to trying hard to forget the painful, uncomfortable, unpleasant mistakes I’ve made ~ and there have been more than a few. But, you know what? Without fully accepting and trying to understand the what, why, and how of the mistakes in my past, I will never learn anything. To be a real man I need to learn from my past so that I will not make the same errors of judgement again in the future.
More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t busy denying them. ~ Harold J. Smith
Conversely, I also need to remember the good people, places, events, and things in my past so that I can repeat and reinforce anything virtuous, righteous, ethical, principled, and enjoyable things I have done, experienced, or been responsible for. And you know what? There are far more of those good things in my past than there are expressions of my dark side.
The very worst kind of people are those who will never honestly look at their past and say; ‘I should not have done that…..’ But, those who look at the past and see only negativity and darkness are not such good people either. The past is what it is, nobody can change it, we can only accept what we do in this moment and resolve to do better in the future.
Perhaps the very worst people of all are those who have no ambition to be better tomorrow than they are today. Those who have no good aims, goals, dreams, desires, and aspirations are doomed to fester in the slough of despond forever.
Some say that the past has nothing to teach us. And that we should wipe out history as being unacceptable and pointless. All I know is that as you give to the world, so you shall receive in return.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
tomorrow is another day
another chance to be better
Songs on Saturday ~ Glen Miller
Sowohl für die Verbündeten als auch für Deutschland
wird es der längste Tag, der längste Tag
27,760 days ago, Allied Air Power made the landings on the beaches of Normandy possible. It was the longest day.
Please listen with respect.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
of course on June 6th 1944, these aircraft would have worn invasion stripes
Monochrome Monday ~ England
Any mature and educated Englishman will recognise these images.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Dixon of Dock Green
‘evnin all
Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe
Desire is the history that drives the engine…..
In Albuquerque I went to see an old railway locomotive being restored by a bunch of unpaid enthusiasts ~ older and interesting guys.
It turned out that the massive 450 ton engine ran on the AT & SF, and how cool is that?
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
go to New Mexico and see this
The Guns Fell Silent
Ninety-Nine years ago today;
on the eleventh hour
of the eleventh day
of the eleventh month
in 1918
the guns fell silent
From Great Britain and it’s colonies 744,000 were killed in combat, or were missing in action, and 1,675,000 were wounded in the Great War ~ The War to End All Wars.
If I should die,
think only this of me,
that there’s some corner of a foreign field,
That is forever England.
~ Rupert Brooke
Jack Collier
JackCollier7@talktalk net
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Scenes on Sunday ~ Durham, England
Durham; half church of God, half castle against the Scot.
The City of Durham was founded in 995 AD, although I guess there were people living there for centuries before the monks arrived to ‘officially’ found Durham City. Building work on the spectacularly imposing Norman cathedral was begun in 1093 AD, but there was an earlier Anglo-Saxon cathedral on the site for about 100 years before that.
History is always written by the winners.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
get a book about Durham
The first picture of the cathedral is a stock photo, the tower was covered in scaffold when I was there.
In medieval times touching the door knocker gave criminals sanctuary.
I used to drink in that pub when I was a younger man.
JackCollier7 
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