Shots of the Day - # 20 - Autumn Light

Autumn Light out the Front Door (23 October 2015)

There’s something special about autumn light, especially here in the Maryland woods. Most of the trees around the house are tulip poplars, whose leaves turn yellow in the fall. There is a brief time when the canopies are still pretty full but some of the leaves have fallen. On clear days, during that special, ‘Magic Hour’ time when the sun is warm and low in the sky, the golden light will shine through the thinner canopy and illuminate the trees from the side. Unlike the summertime, when this area is enveloped in deep green shade, in the fall, it’s like the trees are lit from within.

Autumn Self-Portrait (23 October 2015)

Living in the woods does not provide many opportunities for shots like this. Long shadows on the golden ground. I look like a stilt-walker at the carnival. I like it…and I rarely like photos of myself.

Shot of the Day - # 19 - Viet Nam…Some Thoughts

I’ve been watching the excellent Ken Burns documentary on the Viet Nam war and all manner of thoughts and memories have been brought back into focus. They are about lessons learned and forgotten as we are mired for years in another part of the world with no hope of ‘winning’. They are about how we were lied to by our presidents and generals and how badly the war was prosecuted. They are about an immature city kid who had little idea what he was going to do after college but faced the possibility of trading his biology degree for an M-16 and jungle rot on the other side of the world.

General Westmoreland’s Grave, West Point (22 September 2007)

The United States Military Academy has a cemetery with a 

few notable residents like George Armstrong Custer and Winfield 

Scott. Also present is William Westmoreland, the Commander of the

U.S forces from 1964-68. We had over a half-million troops there

when he was relieved of duty and still requesting 200,000 more. 

I had a student deferment and when I graduated, it was gone and my draft classification was 1-A…ready to be called up…prime cannon fodder. By then the draft lottery was in effect and I had to sweat it out with Number 195 as my draft board recruited up to Number 193. With each passing year, I slipped further back in the pack. The war ended in 1975 and my education and career continued.

New Life on the Wall of The Dead, 
Viet Nam Memorial, Washington, D.C. (15 October 2006)

Not just from watching this show but regularly in the decades since that war, I have wondered what I would have been like…how my life would have changed had I experienced combat and exposure to that mayhem, horror and death. I’m lucky to have avoided all that and so very sorry that many good people did not.

May those who died rest in peace. May those who still struggle find some modicum of comfort. May those responsible for this travesty of leadership be forever remembered for their damnable actions.

Ballparks - # 8 - Shea Stadium, Queens, NY

(From Google Images)

I was born and raised in NYC. While I’m old, I’m not old enough to have Ebbits Field and the Polo Grounds on my life list. Those classic old venues, torn down soon after the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants broke millions of hearts and bolted for all that California sun and money, will have to be appreciated though other people’s stories and pictures.

However, this is my life list and we can add Shea Stadium to it. I was a Yankee fan in the Bronx and going to Queens seemed like an ordeal at the time so I did it just once. I don’t remember what year that was but likely in the early ‘70’s when I was in graduate school in Wisconsin. I don’t remember who I was with, who the Mets played, where I sat. Nothing. I did not bring a camera so there are no personal images. But I did do a game there and it’s now on the list…another ballpark you youngsters cannot see in person.

The home of the New York Mets (and the NFL Jets before they moved to New Jersey) from 1964 to 2008, the ballpark was demolished right after the last game was played in October…but not before memorabilia was stripped from the place. You could get a pair of stadium seats for $869…the two years the team won the World Series; ’86 & 69…get it? I have no idea how many of them were sold but you can Google “Shea Stadium seats” and still get a pair for too much money.

(From Google Images)

Unlike other stadia and large constructions that are usually

brought down by controlled explosions, the great poohbahs

of New York City decreed that the stadium be demolished

in the most expensive way possible…piece by piece. 

I guess they had their reasons.

In 1962, the Mets came into the league as a woeful expansion team, staffed by rookies and rejects from other teams. In that miserable first season, they posted the worst record in history with 40 wins and 120 loses. I remember reading the great Jimmy Breslin’s chronicle of that year, ‘Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game’. A favorite description of the team’s ineptitude was about their first baseman, Marv Throneberry. Because ‘Marvelous Marv’ was not a good fielder, Mets fans acknowledged his clumsiness by wearing t-shirts with his name spelled backwards – ‘VRAM’.

On the bright side, I will never forget the ‘Miracle Mets’ of 1969. After finishing near the bottom of the standings for their entire existence, they won their division and beat the heavily-favored Orioles in the World Series.

Sorry, my fellow O’s fans but that was special.