War clouds rekindle vet's bad memories

A miserable country.

I'll never forget Bill Field's words.

He was talking about Korea of 60 year ago.

I'd done a piece on the East Hampton, N.Y., native and American Legion Kirby Stewart Post 24 commandant in July 1999 for the 46th anniversary of the Korean War armistice.

A miserable country.

I'm reminded of Field's words because of escalating tensions on that peninsula after North Korea's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island last Tuesday, killing four South Koreans.

That follows the unresolved torpedoing of a South Korean warship killing 46 sailors last March.

North Korea's belligerence may have pushed its neighbor too far this time.

Will Uncle Sam, who dispatched a carrier battle group for joint exercises with South Korea as a show of force, be dragged into another Korean conflict?

The first was enough for Bill Field.

The day after he got his high school diploma in June 1950, 135,000 Communist North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Three months later, he was there with the First Cavalry Division, fighting in a war that lasted a little more than three years. It was a bitter struggle.

"One-hundred twenty degrees in the shade in summertime and 30 below in wintertime," he said in the story. "From April to June it rained every day. From September to November it snowed. Mud up to your ankles. Sitting in foxholes with water up to here. Sitting under two GI blankets on top of a mountain in 30 below. You couldn't dig a hole because the ground was frozen. No trees, no nothing. If there was any beauty to that land, I never saw it."

Field saw enough bloodshed.

Late in October 1950, he was with U.N. forces who had pushed deep into North Korea and reached within 20 miles of the Yalu River separating North Korea from Manchuria. Then 300,000 Communist Chinese troops began charging across the border, driving the Allies back into South Korea. Both sides dug in along a line north of the 38th parallel as truce talks began in July 1951. The war would drag on for two more years as both sides fought for strategic pieces of territory to be used like chips at the bargaining table.

"We'd take a place, the Chinese overran it, then we'd retake it," said Field, who was wounded by mortar shrapnel. "It was bloody and nothing was ever resolved."

An armistice agreement was signed July 27,1953, but not before 53,000 Americans were dead.

"It's an experience you live through once," Field said. "There are a lot of ideals you have as a young boy that you don't have after you've been through combat and you see your best buddy get killed.

"I was 19, but I felt like an old man."

Don't dig Christmas decorating? Let Watsons do it

Some folks enjoy decorating the Christmas tree.

Some don’t.

My wife is one of the former.

Sherri loves it.

As for yours truly, Christmas decorating was never my bag all those years of bachelorhood until we met.

Then she got me a little tree.

A Santa Claus with a Hawaiian shirt, too.

You might say I came to see the lights.

So any day now when she asks me to help get the Christmas decorations down from the attic, I’m there.

Or I could say, hey, let’s call Stanley Watson.

Who?

Christmas decorating is his business.


Read more in Sunday's Mannix About Manatee.

'Yes, We Can Dance!' twinbill Feb. 12, 2011

If you’re a fan of Manatee County school dance teams, mark Feb. 12, 2011 on your calendar.

That’s the third annual “Yes, We Can Dance!” extravaganza at Neel Auditorium.

It will be twice the fun.

After packing Braden River High’s auditorium in its 2009 debut, the show was moved to Neel last winter — to another turnaway crowd.

So this time there will be two shows: 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

By the way, program coordinator Helen Dolbec needs sponsors for this entertaining program, a stage for our county’s impressive dance talent.

Call (941) 792-8274. Or e-mail: bhsmabear@verizon.net.


Read more in Friday's Vin's People.

How my in-laws got a new mailbox

How are you going to spend Thanksgiving Day morning?

Mine will have nothing to do with helping out with the turkey.

More like being one.

Try putting in a mailbox.

My mother-and-father-in-law's mailbox.

Jim and Sue Manring arrived home from their cruise Tuesday night and my wife was there, too.

So after work, I drove to our house, changed clothes and went over to see them.

It was dark when I got there and pulled up to the front of the Manring house.

Or tried to.

Unfortunately, I got too close to their mailbox with my right rearview mirror when I drove up and ...

POW!

I looked back and the mailbox was hanging over on its broken wooden post.

Great.

I got out and tried to shove it back together, but no use.

So I picked up the mailbox, still attached to the post's broken top part, tucked it under my right arm, walked up to the front door, knocked and went inside.

You should've seen how their smiles turned to ... what are you doing with that mailbox?

Uh, I had an accident.

Then everybody started laughing.

The sight of somebody's son-in-law waltzing into their living room carrying their mailbox must be a funny sight.

That is, if your in-laws have a sense of humor like mine do.

Hey, they let me marry their daughter.

Anyway, Jim said he would make a trip to Home Depot in the morning.

"We needed a new mailbox anyway," Sue said.

And yours truly will spend Thanksgiving Day morning helping my father-in-law put in that mailbox.

'That's the miracle of Thanksgiving ...'

People began lining up before dawn.

"Five a.m.," said Barbara Parker, a longtime St. Joseph Catholic Church volunteer, taking a break from packing grocery bags at the church's Food Pantry Monday.

They were needy folks, looking for a bagful of holiday cheer for Thanksgiving.

Some came alone.

Some came with children.

Some came for others physically unable to make it.

They left with a little something -- mix for stuffing and mashed potatoes, canned fruit and vegetables, a gift certificate towards a ham or turkey, bread and rolls.

All of it came from a community that shares its blessings with the less-than-fortunate.

Parker and a team of volunteers were out back, sorting through dry goods, loading them into bags for other volunteers inside the pantry to distribute to needy people.

They'd been at it since 8:30 a.m. and it was getting on toward noon.

It would be the same Tuesday and Wednesday and more than 2,000 people would receive Thanksgiving bags by then.

"We always seem to have enough food. How does that happen?" Parker said. "We were about to run out of bread and a truckful shows up. Go figure. That's the miracle of Thanksgiving."
















"We were running out of break and a truckload suddenly shows up. Go figure. That's the miracle of Thanksgiving."

Staying home for Thanksgiving? Be glad

Flying somewhere for Thanksgiving?

Have fun.

Especially when you go through airport security.

You may be one of those lucky travelers who experiences the Transportation Security Administration’s new up-close-and-personal procedures.

Sounds like the TSA has adopted the old AT&T slogan:

“Reach out and touch someone.”

Only folks have objected rather strenuously to the TSA’s new intrusive pat-down policy.

Pilots are among them.

Which would be a drag if you happen to be on that pilot’s plane.


Read more in Sunday's Mannix About Manatee.

"Feisty Flamingos" finish Breast Cancer Walk

The “Feisty Flamingos” finished the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk in Tampa during Halloween. They are Darcy Arnold, Tina and Natasha Barrios, Jenny Bell, Cheryl Brady, Allison Butler, Cindy Kuhns, Lorie Starkweather and Cari Walz. Big ups from Von Ryan, Rylee Kuhns, Susan, John and Mya Johnson and Dale and Ann Dobbs.

Nolan Middle’s Lauren Strimer made the Florida Music Educator Association’s all-state mixed 7th-and-8th grade chorus. She’ll perform with them Jan. 15 at the FMEA convention.

Robert and Barbara Howard are wed 41 years. Cheers from Ron, Cherie, Shane and Nate.

Former DeSoto Queen Natalie Lopez plays Charity in the University of Tampa production, “Sweet Charity,” at UT’s David Falk Theatre at 8 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.


Read more in Friday's Vin's People