H Is For Herbert A. Littleton

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week the letter is H. H is for Herbert A. Littleton.


Herbert A. Littleton was a United States Marine who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for falling on a grenade during the Korean War.

Littleton, was born on July 1, 1930, in Mena, Arkansas. He enlisting in the Marine Corps Reserve on July 29, 1948, for a one-year term. After the outbreak of the Korean War, Littleton reenlisted in the Marine Corps. He went to Korea with the 3rd Replacement Draft, fighting in South and Central Korean operations from December 17, 1950 until his death.

Littleton earned the nation's highest award for valor on April 22, 1951, at Chungehon. At the time he was serving as a Radio Operator with the First Marine Division. Littleton was standing watch when a large well-concealed enemy force launched a night attack from nearby positions against his company. PFC Littleton quickly alerted the forward observation team and immediately moved into position to assist in calling down artillery fire on the enemy force. When an enemy hand grenade was thrown into his vantage point shortly after the arrival of the remainder of the team, he threw himself on the grenade, absorbing its full impact with his own body. By his prompt action he saved the other members of his team from serious injury or death and enabled them to repulse the enemy attack. For his valor in the face of certain death Herbert A. Littleton was awarded the Medal of Honor.


The Herbert A. Littleton Detachment 1261 of the Marine Corps League is named in his honor. It is composed of Marines and former Marines with honorable service. Some of their current projects are the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots, assisting the Salvation Army with fundraising efforts, and the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball.

The Marine Corps League was instrumental in the installation and dedication of the Herbert A. Littleton Memorial at the Polk County Courthouse here in Mena.


On September 12, 2009 approximately 1,000 people gathered in Mena, Arkansas to honor the selfless service represented by Herbert A. Littleton. An Unveiling Ceremony took place in which a Memorial to Marine PFC Littleton was unveiled. The memorial displays an image of PFC Littleton, his Medal of Honor and a citation by the President of the United States that states the deeds for which PFC Littleton received the Medal of Honor.

Herbert A. Littleton and the unselfish choices he made serve as an example to lead and inspire us both as individuals and as a people. He was an extraordinary ordinary American.

Hipstamatic Cool

The Hipstamatic for iPhone is an application that brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras from the past. I recently purchased the app and have been having a great time playing with it. It is the most fun I have had in a long time. In the past couple of days I have been taking lots of pictures with the app.

When I first downloaded the app I was at work. I had to try it out as soon as possible. I walked outside and took a picture of a Model A. This is the very first photo taken with my new Hipstamatic.


BUCKAROO'S MODEL A

Yesterday afternoon as we were visiting with my nieces and our friend Deanna's grandson I snapped some more shots with my Hipstamatic.


LAURA HUGS BROOKE


CHRISTOPHER PLAYING

Later in the afternoon we visited friends who have recently purchased some Belgian horses. The Belgians are magnificent creatures. Gina just had to give one of them a kiss. I was there with my new Hipstamatic.


GINA KISSES A BELGIAN

While we were visiting I snapped off a couple more shots. Tuffy the Australian Shepherd was more than happy to model for me.


TUFFY

I thought that some horns that were lying on the ground near the corral would make an interesting photo. Here is the result.



I'm looking forward to having lots of fun with my new Hipstamatic.

Queen Elisabeth

Last weekend my wife and I made a trip to Baton Rouge to see Queen Elisabeth. We had been wanting to see her so when we had the opportuninty we took it.

When we arrived, Queen Elisabeth gave us a royal welcome. I was surprised at how vivacious she was. She smiled at us and her eyes sparkled as she talked to us.



My newest grand daughter is named Elisabeth, and her Uncle John Bridges has dubbed her Queen Elisabeth. She is definitely royalty to me. We refer to her sisters as Princesses. They love to dress up in their Princess gowns and pretend to be Disney Princesses.



The Princesses love their new baby sister a lot. They don't seem to mind that she is a Queen.



When I look at Queen Elisabeth she reminds me so much of the way her Mommy looked at that age. I just had to dig out some of the old photos from when her Mommy was a baby to compare.


circa 1979


circa 2011

I was honored that Queen Elisabeth took time from her busy schedule to spend with me. She even allowed me to have my picture taken with her. I will treasure it forever.



I am looking forward to my next visit with Queen Elisabeth. I will get to see her again in a week.

God Save The Queen

G Is For Glass Blowing

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week the letter is G. G is for glass blowing. In January, Gina and I took a trip to Lincoln City, Oregon for a reunion of her siblings. One of the things that we did while we were there was to visit The Jennifer Sears Glass Art Studio.

The glass blowing artists have some of their work on display in the studio. We met Kelly Howard, and she explained some of the process of producing these beautiful fish that are some of her signature pieces.


One of the things that the studio offers is the chance to blow your own glass. You can make a Float, Fluted Bowl, Paperweight, Starfish, Heart or Jumbo Float. They supply everything you need and have expert artists help you. You can get up close and personal with the process of creating Art Glass. Friendly instructors guide you through a creative process that has been handed down from generation to generation through the centuries. Gina wanted to experience blowing glass, and decided to make a sea float.



Her instructor was Andrew Kogle. He was right with her for each step and made sure everything was done correctly while letting her do as much of the process as possible.







To view a slideshow of Andrew helping a customer make a float click here.

Gina really enjoyed the experience of working with the glass, and the float that she created was beautiful. She was really proud of her float.



Here is some video of the glass blowing process starring Gina and Andrew.



The beautiful float is now displayed prominently in our entryway for everyone to see when they enter our home.

F Is For Folk Music

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week the letter is F. F is for folk music. I have always loved folk music. As a young kid in the 60's I grew up listening to Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie. Some of the earliest records that I owned were by The Wedgwood who were a Christian folk group. I still love to listen to their music. It takes me back to my childhood.



For those of you who have never heard The Wedgwood; here is the song, There's A Light, from their Country Church LP.



Over the last couple of years, my favorite folk music group has been 3 Penny Acre. Their name comes from the fact that the price of the Louisiana Purchase was three cents an acre. 3 Penny Acre is Bayard Blain, Bernice Hembree, and Bryan Hembree. They are all wonderful musicians, vocalists and songwriters. There sound is acoustic, and has been labled as Folk, Bluegrass, and Americana.



I first heard 3 Penny Acre when they came to Mena, Arkansas and gave a concert at The Ouachita Little Theater. I was curious about them because Bernice Hembree grew up here in Mena. I was blown away by how talented they were. Last fall I heard that they would be at the Ozark Folk Festival in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We made plans to attend and were weren't disappointed. They put on an awesome show.


One of my favorite songs of theirs is the title track off of their new album Highway 71. Highway 71 runs through Mena, and my shop is located on the highway. When we first moved to Arkansas in 1981, Highway 71 still had one lane bridges and there was a popular bumper sticker that stated "Please pray for me; I drive Highway 71. Here is their performance of Highway 71 at The Ozark Folk Festival.



For the past few weeks 3 Penny Acre has been providing the music for the world premier of the play "Sundown Town" in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Sundown Town is a significant new addition to the American stage. When an African American drifter wanders into a rural North Arkansas town in the summer of 1918, a law prohibiting "strangers" after dark threatens to tear the tight-knit community apart. The play features more than a dozen bluegrass, folk and gospel songs. Sundown Town is an uncommon theatrical story of prejudice and redemption, persecution and hope.


This Sunday evening was the 3 Penny Acre Sundown Town Closing Concert. We were able to attend, and it was an incredible two plus hour concert. They played all of our favorites plus some new songs from Sundown Town, and from a new album they are working on that will have a Celtic influence. Here is video from the concert of the song, Ballad Of John Lambeth.



To close out the show, the band invited the cast of the play to sing "I'm Ready For The Times To Get Better" What a fun way to end the concert on such an upbeat note.



For more information on 3 Penny Acre, you can go to their website here.

Climbing For A Cause

My wife and I have been involved in our local Relay For Life since its inception in 2007. My wife is the chairperson and I am the online chair and the accounting chair. American Cancer Society volunteers hold more than 5,000 Relay For Life events in the United States. There are also Relay For Life events held in 19 countries around the world. One of those countries is Australia.

One of the Australian Relay For Life stories that I recently came across was the story of Sharon Cohrs. Sharon and her husband are avid mountain climbers, and in 2007 they were preparing to climb Aconcagua, a 22,841 foot tall peak in South America, the highest mountain outside of Asia, when Sharon found a pea-sized lump in her left breast. After a biopsy and days of waiting, she learned she had breast cancer. “Instead of embarking on an amazing adventure with my husband doing what we love, I was undergoing surgery and chemotherapy treatment,” she says.


Sharon had climbed several soaring mountains in the past 4 years, but this time she was scaling a different kind of mountain. Taking “one step at a time,” she remained focused, positive, and determined to beat breast cancer.

Now she is “Climbing for a Cause” in an effort to raise $250,000 for cancer research and to bring awareness to the disease. With a goal of being the first breast cancer survivor in the world to reach the summit of Mount Everest, Sharon climbed Ama Dablam in Nepal in October 2009 and is climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Cho Oyu in Nepal this year. When Sharon reaches the peak of each mountain, she showcases her Relay For Life pride by putting on her Relay shirt and taking a photo with her homemade banner saying, “Survivors can conquer mountains.”


Sharon’s story is an incredible message of hope. If you are a cancer survivor with a story to tell, will you share your story as well to motivate survivors worldwide to keep up the fight? Use this form to submit your message of hope and encouragement to cancer survivors across the globe, then encourage friends and family to do the same. Help us gather 1,000 messages of hope by the end of February! The more messages we have, the stronger our collective voice will be.

E Is For Epilepsy Awareness

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week the letter is E. E is for epilepsy awareness.

Epilepsy affects over 50 million people worldwide. That's more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson's disease combined.

When I was a boy I suffered from a mild form of epilepsy. I had episodes called petit mals. A petit mal seizure is the term commonly given to a staring spell, most commonly called an "absence seizure." It is a brief (usually less than 15 seconds) disturbance of brain function due to abnormal electrical activity in the brain. I had no idea that other people did not experience them. I could feel them coming on and knew to sit down or hold on to something for a few seconds.


MY SCHOOL PHOTO CIRCA 1967

The first time that my Mother witnessed one of my petit mals she was very scared. I guess that my eyes rolled back in my head. I knew that for those few seconds that I could not see, but did not know that my eyes rolled back. I didn't think that it was a big deal, but my Mom said I had to see the doctor as soon as possible. The doctors were able to control the petit mals with medication, and told me that I would most likely outgrow them by the time I was 20. Fortunately I did, and was taken off of the medication by the time I was 18 or 19.

Epilepsy is a medical condition that produces seizures affecting a variety of mental and physical functions. It’s also called a seizure disorder. When a person has two or more unprovoked seizures, they are considered to have epilepsy.

A seizure happens when a brief, strong surge of electrical activity affects part or all of the brain. One in 10 adults will have a seizure sometime during their life.


Seizures can last from a few seconds to a few minutes. They can have many symptoms, from convulsions and loss of consciousness to some that are not always recognized as seizures by the person experiencing them or by health care professionals: blank staring, lip smacking, or jerking movements of arms and legs.

One of the reasons for this Epilepsy Awareness post is because of my blog friend Michele over at Rocky Mountain Retreat Photography. Take a look at her blog and you will see some of the most outstanding photography you will find anywhere. I always enjoy her blog. Michele is an excellent photographer, but she battles epilepsy and suffers from tonic clonic (gran mal) seizures, a type that affects the whole brain.



Michele says that she has been suffering seizures since she was a young person. People with seizures often suffer more from the attitudes of those around them than from the seizures itself. Michele is in my prayers daily as she battles the seizures.

Please take the time to learn more about this condition that affects over 50 million people worldwide. Based on recent surveys, The Center For Disease Control estimates that nearly 2.5 million people in the United States have epilepsy, with 150,000 developing the condition each year.



One way to get involved is to participate in Purple Day. Purple Day was started in 2008, by nine-year-old Cassidy Megan of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is an international grassroots effort dedicated to increasing awareness about epilepsy worldwide. On March 26, people from around the globe are asked to wear purple and spread the word about epilepsy. You can learn more about Purple Day by going here.


CASSIDY MEGAN

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I am very involved in my local Relay For Life. You can view my Relay For Life Blog here.