Musical bivouac in the California Hills.

I was watching Austin City Limits on my Roku last night. A Mexican band was playing Spanish music. As I listened my memory returned to a night during my Army basic training at Camp Coole. My company was bivoacing overnight in the soft rolling hills of central California. We were some where between Santa Maria and Lompoc.

My company was made up of draftees from Souther California. There were many Mexicans in the company. It was a nice evening. We were settling into our pup tents for a nights sleep. Nearby was a group of 5 or 6 Mexicans. They started to sing. They may have had a guitar, I am not sure. I have always remembered that evening! Beautiful country, beautiful music.They were good singers. I am partial to Spansh music. The evening is an outstanding memory of my time in the Army.

Jesse was one of the Mexicans singing. Jesse and I were on the tenth grade football team at Fremont Junior High in Pomona. He was a better player than me. A year later Jesse and I were in a platoon carrying explosives up Bloody Nose Ridge . That evening Jesse was shot and killed. He sang in the hills of California and he died in the hills of Peleliu Island.

Sunny is three weeks old.

 The newest member of our family in Franklinton Louisiana is a yellow lab puppy named Sunny. He lives in Kentwood. He will move to Franklinton when he is six weeks old. We went to visit him yesterday. It was exciting to see the new member of our family. John has the adoption paper but he really belongs to Johnny Lynn. She gave Sunny his name. Here are some pictures from our visit with Sunny.

JL and the Prunepicker say hello to Sunny.

A girl and puppy visit.

John visits with Sunny's mom. Sunny has 12 siblings.

Sunny's old and new families visit.

I think that Sunny and I will be good friends.

Why don't you speak for yourself, John?

Priscilla Mullins said these famous words to John Alden. John was proposing to her that she marry his friend Miles Standish. All three of them had been fellow passengers on the Mayflower. John and Miles had been room mates. Miles had been an English Army officer and was hired by the Pilgrims to be their military advisor for their settlement in America. He filled that position for the rest of his life.

Miles was a tough soldier and not too good with the words for proposing marriage. So he asked John to do the proposing to Priscilla for him. Which John agreed to do. But Priscilla had other ideas, hence the famous question. WHY DON'T YOU SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, JOHN?  She and John were later married and had ten children. I guess that Priscilla did have other ideas.

The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is one their descendants and wrote the historical poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish".He says all of the events in the poem actually happened. His poem was later made into a play.

Guess what? When I was in the Sixth Grade the school put on the play. I was chosen to play Miles Standish. My teacher said that I was chosen for the role because I was tall and stood straight like a soldier! After 80 years I remember her remark. I remember most compliments. I remember several events from the Sixth Grade. That year stands out in my memory.