PrunePicker: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Two Happy Travelers!

This is the famous daughter and father team of Nancy Ann Wright and Charles Elbert Monson. We have been on a great trip to England and France since May 15. There have been mishaps. Nancy fell and broke a rib. She walked to the emergency room! Lost one day resting in her room. She can not lift anything but otherwise is carrying on. Stiff upper lip, you know. Chuck came down with a bad cold and lost a day resting in the room in England, but soon got over it.

The best part of the trip, I think, is the extended visit that the two travelers have had. I think that they have bonded again. I have been living with my beloved youngest daughter, Kerry Lee Adams, for several years in Ruston, Louisiana.

I have two wonderfull daughters. I have also been blessed with two wonderful sons! My heart is full of love and gratitude for my wife, Jackie.

Needless to say, this has been a trip of a lifetime. I will always treasure the memory.

Museum of the Battle of Normandy.

There is a good war museum in Bayeux that commemorates the Battle of Normandy. It is really well done and has a good film.

Farmers Market in Bayeux, France

What pretty and interesting things for sale. It was a fun walk by.

Melons

Cheese. France has more than 400 kinds of cheese. I thought all cheese was Monterey Jack.

Escargot. Snails I think.

Fish. Some weird looking.

Cider. Hard.

Flowers

Vegetables The lettuce is so good.

Meat and sausages

They have andouille in France!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

D-day Beaches

They seem so just like pretty beach towns of anywhere. There is a special feeling to beach air. But what horrible things happened here.

1944 was a busy year. Jackie married me on June 3, D-day was June 6, and I was wounded on Peleliu in September. If I think selfishly, my wedding was the most important.

A visit to the abbey at Mont St Michael

A walk up the hill to this abbey is really a climb. I am proud that I made it. It took many rest stops along the way.

This abbey dates to the 700s which is awhile ago. In the battles of France, it has never fallen to the enemy.

The American Cemetery

Yesterday I visited The American Cemetery in Normandy. I was impressed to learn that the ground that the cemetery is on is American soil. The French Government gave the land to America and it is administered by an agency of the US Government. The cemetery only holds 30 per cent of our casualties, as the heirs of 70 per cent elected for burial at home in America.

The photographer got in the picture again.

The area in the Pacific where I was wounded during WW II was depicted in the monument at the cemetery. I was wounded on Peleliu Island. It is shown in the center of the picture below.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Trip day 15. See you in 7.

Next Tuesday Nancy and I fly out of Paris. Nancy will fly non stop to Los Angeles. I will fly to Heathrow/London, from there to Dallas, from Dallas to Shreveport. I am scheduled to arrive in Shreveport at 10:25 pm. On Wednesday morning at 5 am I expect to be at Jefferson Corner hugging Rhonda. Gee, I hope that she works that day.

This is Tuesday which is my vital statistics check in day. I only have my steps available. Last week I walked 48000 steps or 21.8 miles or an average of 3.1 miles per day. Well today I outdid myself! While my daughter, Nancy Ann rested her body with a broken rib in the hotel room I went on a all day tour bus trip. In the morning was a trip to the Mont St Michael Abbey. In the afternoon was a D-day Beaches tour. I got a little bit mixed up at Mont St Michael and walked some extra steps. But here is the total for the day. 17000 steps or 7.7 miles! Boy am I stiff and sore. I have been training for months for the trip and I believe that it paid off in being able to make it to the top of Mont St Michael.

Monday, May 28, 2012

The Cathedral of Bayeux.

This building is one the most photogenic things that I have seen on this trip. Nancy and I walked around it last night. Then we went inside and walked around the outer aisle. There was beautiful chanting being sung while we walked. I must have taken a hundred picture.

My niche in the Blogosphere.

My blog is about me, my family, my interests, my opinions, and my daily activities. My name is Chuck Monson. I am a native born Californian. I worked in the oil exploration and production business and am now retired and living in Ruston, Louisiana. I am a 91 year old widower. I blog because I really enjoy it. Posting gives me a schedule and is a wonderful make work project. I like pictures, both the taking and looking at them. I really like old historic pictures. I enjoy a good photograph. I like putting pictures and text together in a way that is hopefully interesting to others and that will be interesting to me in the future. I like to be silly now and then. It is also putting my memories down on paper. My blog serves as a diary. I have used it for a reference quite a few times.

I do mix it up. Some of my blogs are “what I had for breakfast”, some are just pictures, some are items of genealogical nature, and there are items from my family history. I have a history of the Munson/Monsons in America. The study of this history has led me to the discovery of much American history that had previously been unknown by me.

I have had a lifelong interest in history, archeology, philosophy, religion, politics, architecture, technical subjects, music, food, and sports. I spend time every day reading blogs and posting to my blog. I do not pontificate on religion or politics because I do not consider myself wise enough to try to persuade others to my beliefs. My beliefs are quite nebulous anyway.

I was started on blogging by my late son, Christopher David Monson. Chris wrote the blog "snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition" There is a link to his blog above. I look at Chris's blog often. I have read most of his posts.

My adult years.

I married Jackie Lois Ireton in 1944 in San Luis Obispo, California. I met her on a blind date when I was taking amphibious training at Moro Bay. We have been blessed with four children, nine grand children, and nine great grandchildren. They are an exceptional group. I love them and I am proud of them.

I was an army combat engineer (infantry with shovels) during World War II. I served in the Pacific. I was wounded on Peleliu Island helping the marines on Bloody Nose Ridge. I was shot in both legs just above the knees. The wound locations indicate that I was not running away.

I received a BSME in 1950 from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. Jackie received a PHT. (pushing husband through.) I retired from oilfield work in 1985. Jackie and I moved into a fifth wheel trailer and enjoyed the RV lifestyle until Jackie's health failed. We traveled across the continent 3 1/2 times. We spent a summer as volunteers at Acadia National Park. For 17 years we helped build an Escapee RV park in Chimacum, Washington. Jackie passed away in 2007. We had been married 63 years. We were married on June 3, 1944. I still live in our fifth wheel trailer. It is parked in the yard of my daughter Kerry's home in Ruston, Louisiana. It is by far the nicest RV park that I have ever lived in.

My teen age years.

I was born in 1925 in Pomona, California. Pomona is on the east edge of Los Angeles County. It is halfway between Los Angeles and San Bernardino and halfway between the mountains and the beach. I thought that it was great to be an hour from snow covered mountains and an hour from the ocean surf.

In my days of growing up, Pomona was completely surrounded by orchards and truck farms. Oranges, lemons, grapefruit, peaches, apricots, olives, persimmons, and walnuts. Watermelons and strawberries. During the depression I had many meals from the orchards.

They say that you cannot go back home. That is true of the Pomona Valley of my youth. Because it is no longer there. Most of it is now covered with asphalt and stucco buildings.

My ancestors.

I am getting more and more into genealogy. I have a trove of information on the Munsons/Monsons. My father is buried in California. His father by adoption (He was an uncle.) is buried in Kansas. His natural father is buried in Kentucky. So I have two grandfathers. I have a grandfather and four great grandfathers buried in Kentucky, one great buried in New Jersey, and three greats buried in Connecticut. I have two greats buried in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England. I have been led to believe that my ancestors before that came from Denmark and Normandy.

Captain Thomas Munson was the first Munson to move to America. He was baptized in Rattlesden, England in 1612. The baptismal font is still in use. He served in the militia in the Pequot Indian Wars in 1637. He served in the militia all his life and reached the status of Captain. His signature is on the founding document for New Haven, Connecticut.

In 2011 I visited New Haven and took pictures of his gravestone. In May 2012 my oldest daughter Nancy Ann escorted me to England and France. We visited Rattlesden and I took some pictures of the Captain's baptismal font.

Why is the old prune picker living in Ruston, Louisiana?

In 2006 my wife Jackie was in poor health. Jackie had kidney failure and was on dialysis. She had heart problems for some time with A-fib. She had fallen and broken her hip. She had broken ribs and vertebra just moving around normally. My family thought that I needed help caring for Jackie. My daughter Kerry and her husband John offered to park our trailer in their backyard in Ruston and help. Jackie and I accepted their kind offer. My daughter Nancy accompanied Jackie in an airplane flight from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to Ruston. My son Mike took time off to help me pull our trailer for five long days to our new home. We were and are grateful. We enjoyed our new home very much.

Unfortunately and sadly, Jackie passed away in six months. I had sold our truck and was permanently parked. I was ready to give up full time RVing anyway. It is very pleasant in Ruston and I am close to family. So that is why I have been living in Ruston, Louisiana since October 2006.