My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings » anniversary

Wednesdays Heros – Anniversary Edition

Lisa — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:29:45 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

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March

Lisa — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:21:25 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

March is an interesting month in my house. First, Bill and my anniversary from when we first started going out is this month. This year, we will have been together twelve years (we’ll be married 7 years in June). The other event in March is my birthday which is on the 20th of March. I am still young enough that I will tell you all my age — I will be 31 this year. Since I was pregnant last year over my 30th birthday, we didn’t get to go out and celebrate it. I think we got Chili’s-To-Go that night. I know, real exciting. To be honest, I am not sure if we’ll do anything this year either. Going out drinking isn’t as fun when you have to get up with kids early the next morning. My new laptop is my birthday present, so I won’t be getting anything from him. I will be lucky if I get any birthday cards. I am still waiting on my Valentine’s Day cards (which I know he bought and just never gave it to me). I’m not picky at all.

Wednesday’s Hero

Lisa — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:22:03 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

This week’s hero is a good one. Robert Cone is the second Cousin of Wednesday Hero’s partner in crime, Greta.

Robert S. Cone
85 years old from Delray Beach, Florida
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

Surrounded by family, feted by a U.S. congressman and a Veterans of Foreign Wars color guard, one of the few surviving members of the “Filthy Thirteen” was honored on October 8, 2006 in a backyard on Massapoag Avenue.

Robert S. Cone, 85, now of Delray Beach, Fla., finally received the 13 military medals he was due for his service on D-Day during World War II, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, POW medal and Presidential Unit Citation.

“To tell you the truth, I never expected it. I’m very honored to get it and really feel good about it,” Cone said.

“He’s finding it an honor, and he’s a little embarrassed, to be honest,” said Cone’s son, Edward R. Cone, 45, who hosted the family barbecue that included a visit from U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch.

Only a few members remain of the 101st Airborne Division’s famed “Filthy Thirteen,” an elite parachute and demolition unit that volunteered for a suicide mission on June 5, 1944, the eve of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

The Filthy Thirteen, who shared a Quonset Hut in England, were a group of “pretty bad boys,” Edward Cone said, renowned for hard-living and fierce fighting. They are believed to be the inspiration for the 1967 movie “The Dirty Dozen,” although none of the Filthy Thirteen was a convict.

The unit’s mission was to parachute behind enemy lines on the night before D-Day to blow up bridges and impede the Nazis.

Many were killed on the drop. The survivors found it difficult to reunite on the ground because the pilots had panicked when the Germans opened fire.

Cone said he spent two days in a hedgerow battle and was shot in the right arm. When he escaped to a French farmhouse, the owner turned him over to the Nazis and he became a prisoner of war.

His unit and his family thought he was dead. His mother, in Roxbury, received a telegram from the War Department saying he had been killed in action.

Cone spent 11 months in three POW camps in Germany before being liberated by the Russians near the Polish border. He fought alongside the Russians as they made their escape, his son said.

Cone walked to freedom through Poland, Russia and Romania, journeyed by ship to Egypt and was eventually flow to Italy, finally making his way home.

All the medal ceremonies had taken place without him.

Cone married Ida, now his wife of 61 years; became a postal worker and plumber; raised three children in Hull; and spoke very little about the war, Edward Cone said.

About four years ago, Edward Cone decided to find out whether any of his father’s Army colleagues were still alive.

He found the Filthy Thirteen’s leader, Jake McNiece, in Oklahoma, and put his father in touch by telephone. Their conversation was recorded by the BBC and played on the anniversary of D-Day.

Later, the History Channel filmed its own segment on the pair, which still airs, Edward Cone said.

The group reunited in Taccoa, Ga., the home of their jump school.

“My Dad and I drove from here to Georgia. I heard everything on that trip,” Edward Cone said. “Three were alive from the unit. They talked and drank and told stories for days.”

Three years ago, McNiece published a book, “The Filthy Thirteen: From the Dustbowl to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest: The 101st Airborne’s Most Legendary Squad of Combat Paratroopers.”

It was McNiece who mentioned that Cone was due a few medals. Edward Cone and his fiance, Kate Guthrie of Leominster, who works at the Statehouse, gathered documentation and contacted Lynch.

The result was the Sunday party, also attended by Cone’s daughters, Ronna Townsend of Monroe Township, N.J., and Natalie Gaudet of Hampton, N.H., and most of his seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Cone admits he never talked much about the war before.

“I really didn’t,” Cone said. “But they insisted I tell the grandchildren and the great grandchildren. So I talk to them. I tell them stories. I tell them true stories. They all enjoy it.”

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

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Little House on the Prairie

Lisa — Mon, 07 May 2007 15:51:32 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

Do you remember the “Little House” series about Laura Ingalls Wilder? April marked the 75th anniversary of first publication of “Little House in the Big Woods”. Did you know that the series of Little House books has sold more than 41 million copies in the Unites States and has been translated into more than 40 languages. The house that she wrote her books in is still standing in Mansfield, MO. Laura was already famous in her lifetime, and her home was preserved as a museum shortly after her death in 1957 at age 90. Amazingly, her house averages about 40,000 visitors a year. Here are some scary numbers. Almanzo and Laura bought the farm in 1894 for $400. I can only imagine its worth now.

I still have all my Little House books. Even though they are not in great shape, I hope to pass them on to my kids. It is a great read for both kids and adults.

Gift

Lisa — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 02:38:00 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

Jim was in trouble.

He forgot his wedding Anniversary.

His wife was really angry.

She told him, “Tomorrow Morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!”

The next morning Jim got up early and left for work.

When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift- wrapped in the middle of the driveway.

Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, brought the box back in the house.

She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Jim has been missing since Friday.