Jamaican Luge Team

Family Fun on the Fourth...


The Star-Spangled Banner still waves...


...but this looks like a Caribbean Winter Sport!

After three tours in the Middle-East and taking up a career in the financial sector after his discharge, my nephew must have thought our family get togethers needed some... er... excitement! Yes, as he drove to our gathering at Graves Mountain Lodge the idea hit him... we needed a Big Wheel!

A stop at Toys-r-us was all it took and my nephew arrived with the magic tricycle. He'd already broken the spot-welded rear wheel assembly and run to Lowes for a 24" threaded rod and some heavier tires [with bearings] by the time I arrived on the scene. "You are NOT riding on that thing" my lovely wife stated tersely, but after my son-in-law made his run I decided it was time to do a serious structural analysis on the tricycle of death.

Our course ran from the Ridgetop rooms all the way down to the grassy flats below the main lodge. You crossed through the remains of an old orchard and got air crossing two old orchard roads.


The course.

See those cars at the bottom. You shot past them. When you shot over the paved road into the grassy flat, the assembled family let up a rousing cheer! It was a lot like the old sledding hills we remember. I made two trips when I could get the thing away from the younger crowd.


Sparklers at Graves' Mountain Lodge.

'Don't Know Much About History'

Those Who Rewrite History Risk Falling into a Well Marked Pit

When I was very young, and perhaps in answer to one of my youthful impolite questions, my mother explained to me one day the origin of the tattoos. I must have noticed them on some ladies' arms and as gently as she could, Mom explained the hideous and well orchestrated death of six million people. Before I was born we fought a war that brought an end to the killing, but the horror lingers on in pictures I later saw of what went on in the camps.

There is a movement afoot in intellectual circles to dismiss our role in preserving civilized society that time. This Piece by Jonathan Tobin is required reading as we celebrate this Independence Day. I know Charles Linbergh and other notable individuals argued against our involvement in the war, thinking Hitler would counterbalance Stalin. Appeasement didn't work with Hitler and Europe was on the verge of becoming a reincarnation of the Roman Empire.

The war was not without blunders on the part of the allies, but it must be noted that an American reporter in Leningrad in the seventies was surprised by the warm greeting he received from an older lady there. Clearly the Americans have been the liberators many times and there are those who remember their liberators with great kindness.

Honest history will do well to remember as much!

Celebrating Independence Day

Some Practical Ways to Say Thank You

Click Here to Show Your Support for our brave men and women in the Armed Services. This website offers a number of practical opportunities to say "thank you" for the freedom we celebrate on July 4th!