The Cultured Bumpkin

 It's Memorial Day. I think of friends that I lost, like 1LT Tyler Parten (we went to two Army courses together and became really good friends, then we split up and went to our separate units. I remember walking back from the chow hall in Camp Beuhring Kuwait with my unit en route to Iraq, when I ran into a West Point class mate of Tyler's who broke the news to me). I also think of the thousands who gave their lives to win and help to preserve our freedom over the years. I like to view it as a day of observance for the fallen, but also a day to celebrate the freedom for which they died to save.  Personally I do something strenuous for the former (a longer than usual workout like a 100k row-pictured- or something) then have a meal with family and friends for the latter. I hope that you have your own ways of giving thanks for those who enabled you to have the freedoms you enjoy, and I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day.

Lamplighter Ministries, Mount Morris NY I spent the week in upstate New York recording an audio drama at the sound studio at Lamplighter Ministries. It was a great experience. I prefer driving when I travel, so I drove four hours to Nashville and stayed the night with a friend, then stopped in Cincinnati to pick up Nato Jacobson (the lead actor in the production we worked on) and then ended up in Mount Morris, New York that evening.  My first trip up was in February of 2019 to be in the Lamplighter Theatre audio drama "QUICKSAND" written and directed by Kathy Buchanan (I played the Dad and one of the Doctors), and also in "MY GOLDEN SHIP" written and directed by John Fornof (I played Black Darley, Mr Rivington, and a few other minor or unnamed characters). My second trip was in the summer of 2020 for THE HIDDEN HAND" also written and directed by Kathy Buchanan where I played Colonel LeNoir and a few smaller roles, and on my third trip I taught a class on commer

I'm currently reading "My Life On the Plains" by George Armstrong Custer, the Cavalryman who was killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn in southern Montana in June of 1876. I picked up this copy at the bookstore at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Crow Agency, Montana awhile back. The memoir was originally published in 1873, three years before he was killed (and interestingly enough was called "My LIE on the Plains" by Major Frederick Benteen, one of Custer's battalion/squadron commanders who fought and survived at Little Bighorn). I'm currently about halfway through it and am throughly enjoying it. He writes in a very factual, (see note above!), storytelling style. Some of it is dry, while some can be downright Shakespearean. You get the feeling that he finished last in his class at West Point because he was busy chasing girls, not because he was an idiot.  He talks about going out West, chasing his first buffalo (accidentally shooting hi

  My favorite copy of Leaves of Grass, with my glasses, on the arm of my Adirondack chair on my Mississippi front porch  One of my current reads is Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (I'm usually reading several books at any given moment, as you probably do as well!) It's divided in sections, and so far I've read Inscriptions , Starting from Paumanok , and now I'm about halfway through Song of Myself . I only read it for 10 or 15 minutes at a time, and never allow myself to become bogged down or bored. Poetry is not very conducive to speed reading, so I don't even try. Of what I've read so far, I love parts of it and dislike others. I suppose that one of the goals of art is to get a reaction from the person experiencing it, and by that definition alone this is great stuff. Some Bumpkin observations: 1. He likes being outside. 2. He's a people watcher. 3. He likes being naked. 4. He truly loves and cares for everyone regardless of their race, social status, e

  (Left to Right - Private Ulugberter, Specialist Crady, Staff Sergeant Sulham, and myself.  Photo taken at Platton Gunnery at Fort Riley Kansas in late 2008 before going to Fort Irwin, California for desert training then deploying to Sinjar, Iraq.) Years ago, I read J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy while training in the Mojave desert. As "executive officer" of a U.S. Army Cavalry Troop, I arrived 9 days earlier than everyone else since that's what executive officers (and select Non-Commissioned Officers) have done since the early days of organized warfare. Efficiency schmeficiency. I accomplished the mission of arranging for billeting and sustenance of my Troop soon after getting off the plane (it took about a half hour), and this gave me something in the neighborhood of 8 days twenty three and one half hours to read, workout, or just sit quietly on my cot to think and sweat. Anticipating this, I had brought along, as was my wont, a small du

                                                          This is my copy of Owls and Other Fantasies on the arm of my Adirondack chair on front porch in Mississippi  I first heard of Mary Oliver when I was a U.S. Army first lieutenant serving in Iraq. A friend back home who knew of my bookwormish tendencies thoughtfully sent me a copy of her "Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays", and I became hooked. Her descriptions of quiet, pastoral settings really moved me, and her contemplations on how they related to life provided much needed mental escapes for a few moments at a time, when I needed them the most.  As a kid I'd been an avid bird watcher, and her descriptions of sitting quietly in a meadow to watch hummingbirds, or walking through a pine thicket to see her old friend the nighthawk were wonderful. Like British soldiers who stuffed copies of Adrian Bell's "Corduroy" into their knapsacks before going abroad in the Second World War to remind them of