Crankin' It Up: A Double For Veterans' Day

F4U Corsair "Whistling Death"

P-51 Mustangs!

Bell P-39 Airacobra 'Brooklyn Bum'

The Bell P-39 always appealed to me as a really neat looking piece of fine flying machinery, but it had a poor record with our flyers, mainly due to it's lack of a turbo supercharger. It could not perform at high altitude when mixing it up with German fighters. The Russians, on the other hand, used it to great success on the Eastern Front, where the fighting took place at lower altitudes. Anyway, I think you will enjoy the photos.

Lighthearted Songs Helped The Effort During The Great War

Listen to a variety of songs from 1918, and you might think that World War I was no big deal.  Songs like K-K-K-Katy, How Ya Gonna Keep Them Down On The Farm, and others helped keep up spirits at home, encouraged men to enlist, and were fun to sing back when people sang to entertain themselves.  This old record is one of my favorites in spite of the poor condition.  I still haven't deciphered many of the words, but the lightheartedness comes through, and I hope that Young Johny Jones found true love.

Marines 236 Years Today

The Charlotte Observer ran a story on a Marine who earned The Medal Of Honor on Iwo Jima (Hat Tip to the Freeholder), and it's one I have to pass on.  As I read about Mr. Williams I noted that he was in the Third Marine Division, and was further surprised to learn that he was in the 21st Regiment; my father-in-law's regiment.  O.T. didn't say very much about the battles he was in, but he did tell us about using gasoline and flamethrowers on Iwo.  It was rough business.  I showed the story to a friend, and he told me that Mr. Williams had been featured on the TV show Sons Of Guns.  I did a search, and sure enough a couple of clips are available on Hulu.  Click Here, and Here to see them.  You do have to watch a brief ad at the beginning of each clip, but it's well worth it.

Sentimental Songs From The Great War

John McCormack's recording of Roses of Picardy is probably the best known version of this song. Posted by patriot4913.



Al Jolson recorded this sentimental tearjerker in 1918. Posted on YouTube by teoghiechimneys

Potatoes In The Root Cellar?

 We've had a long fall with good weather in Southern Illinois, so you should have all of your crops safely stored away now.  If you tire of digging potatoes by hand every fall, you should keep your eyes open for one of these nifty little rigs.

 I recognized the purpose of the potato digger before I saw the label on the side, because it is quite similar to the machines used for lifting tree seedlings, and I've seen those a few times.

 The tail piece shakes the soil of the spuds before they drop off, same as a seedling lifter.

 If you're going to produce a prodigious pile of potatoes, you should add one of these to your tool list for the machine shed. 

Sentiments From World War I

We posted several records from The Great War a few years back, and this week is a good time to recycle them.  Katy gets a lot of plays, and YouTube viewers still leave positive comments frequently; mostly in the vein of "My grandpa used to sing this song." 

BangBangBangBangBangBangBangBangBangBang.....

 We finished the siding project for the southwest corner of the barn Sunday.  I realized Saturday night that my old ears don't like the sound of nails being pounded, and I wore ear protection Sunday.  It doesn't take much to turn up the tinnitus volume nowadays.

While we worked on this side Saturday and Sunday we made frequent trips into the barn for boards and nails, then to the garage to run the table saw, then to the barn to drive nails.  The deer that hang out in our woods stayed right out back, only about 100 feet from where we worked.  They could see us clearly in the barn when we were pulling boards out of our stash.  They are pretty tame as long as we stay on our side of the line.  Our friend Troy stopped by for a brief visit, and when I took him back in the barn to have a look at the herd, they all disappeared.  Must have been his camo, or maybe they could read his mind.