My dear friend Alyce recently posted a photo when she was 16 years of age. We were commenting on her beautiful picture when she told me the following.

...Marion you would be interested to know that the necklace I'm wearing was something my brother brought home from China/Burma where he served in the Air Force as a radio repairman for the Flying Tiger's during WWll. I came home from school after a day of wearing it, with a headache, it was sooooo heavy.It was a hand tooled intricate piece.

Received this letter from an author whose book is to be released soon. Sounds like a great book.

Hello:

 

I visited your website and thought you might be interested in my project. I am writing a book about a young Philadelphia artist, Edward Shenton, who enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard in early 1917. He went on to train with the 103rd engineers, later attached to the 28th Division and sailed for France in May of 1918. He saw action as a combat engineer at the battles of the Marne, Fismes, and Meuse Argonne, all the time carrying with him his canvas-bound sketchbook and drawing everything he saw. When he returned to the states in 1919, he put away his drawings and resumed his art career, attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and eventually becoming one of the foremost book and magazine illustrators of his day. The sketchbooks remained among Ed’s papers for over 90 years when they were discovered by his son many years after his death. I am putting together a book of his drawings in the context of the places he saw and the battles he fought. I have attached an announcement for the book, which will be out in the fall for the centenary of The Great War. You can see the book’s progress on facebook.com/thelostsketchbooks.

 

Rex Passion

Komatik Press

I can still remember my Grandfather talking about the reunions with his "Army Buddies". And every member of the 157th that I have had the pleasure of speaking with or meeting in person talks fondly of the many reunions they had.

The reunion photographs below are from a wonderful man, Sgt. Alton Heimbach, from C Company, Second Platoon, of the 157th. I do have names for some of the group photographs and am slowly working on trying to put names to the others so if there is a request, I may be able to add those in.

25th Reunion - 1970

26th Reunion - 1971

28th Reunion - 1973

Possibly the 34th reunion

36th Reunion - 1981

38th Reunion - 1983

40th Reunion - 1985

42nd Reunion - 1987

A good book should shake you up, and make you walk around in a haze for a while, re-thinking all the tidbits placed before your eyes. That's what happened to me this morning.

My sister-in-law Anne lent a book to me from her sister. This was the second one in a row which came highly recommended for me. She knew this would nourish my soul. It did that several times over. I started reading it late on Sunday and finished it this morning. Yes, you can say I consumed the book in huge mouthfuls.

It was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. As I was nearing the half way mark, I said to myself, "This is a must read, along with Anne Frank's diary. Strange that I thought those words, for when I finished the book and read the back cover, one of the reviewers stated, "Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank". Hmmmm!

Yes, I know there is a movie too, and I heard it's good, but I don't see how it could possibly do justice to the book, since the narrator is death itself. How could you portray all that on a screen. Ah, time will tell.

Now my husband will have to read it and so will Anne. Thanks Betty, you know what I like!

Hey, just realized we reached a milestone - we have 200,631 hits as of today. Knew we were getting close to that mark and poof, there we are. Glorious feeling!!!

:waving: