Liberation

Weekend Assignment #12: Thanks to time travel and invisibility, you can be on the spot for any important event of the last 100 years (1905 onward). Which important historical event do you choose? As a twist, if you actually were at an important historical event, you can't pick that one. Why? Because you were there already. What, you want to be there twice? Think of the paradox!

Extra Credit: Think of a piece of now-dated slang that should be brought back into circulation. Make it reasonably clean slang, please.

Um, am I allowed to invisibly jostle Lee Harvey Oswald's arm?  According to a The New Twilight Zone episode from the 1980s, saving JFK would probably result in World War III, but I'd like to give it a shot.  Ditto stopping Mark David Chapman from killing John Lennon.

If I'm not allowed to "put right what once went wrong,"  then I'd rather witness a happy event than a depressing one (naturally!).  In my lifetime, that includes the moon landings (I remember the first one, and I've seen Mission Control, with its clunky old computer terminals), the fall of the Berlin Wall, and, well, not much else, really.  I wouldn't mind watching JFK's inaugural speech live and in person. (But see below.)

A little farther back (ooh, Freudian!  I typed "father" instead of "farther"), 22 years before my personal lifetime, was the end of World War II. Since my dad was a POW in Germany, I'm more interested in VE Day (and the events leading up to it) than VJ Day.  The liberation of Stalag Luft 1 would probably have me in tears, though.  Those guys weren't terribly healthy by the time the the Germans moved out (late on April 30, 1945), the Russians arrived  (May 1-3, 1945) and the POWs were evacuated (about May 6-15, 1945).

Aww, the heck with it.  Even if it would make me cry, that's what I'd choose to see: the liberation of my dad.

Update: aside from forgetting the  Happiest Historical Event On Earth (but  Barb didn't!), I failed to mention a number of fun historical stops I wrote about in previous time travel tourism entries many months ago.  Chief among them: watching the Beatles on a Temporal Mystery Tour.  I did mention Disneyland in one of the entries, but only as a great place to shop in 1957.  Perhaps I can cheer myself up with such diversions once my dad is safely out of 1945 Germany.

Extra Credit: In keeping with the rest of this entry, I went looking for World War II era slang, but what I found was mostly about old equipment for killing people.  Even "Ace!" or "Aces!" (meaning "Great!") probably relates to flying aces (pilots who had shot down at least five enemy aircraft.)  Aw, the heck with it.  I could go with a Beatles era term like "fab" or "gear" or--wait a minute!  I've got it!  "Heck!"  People (other than me) hardly ever seem to use that any more.  They go for the stronger stuff.  But I prefer the relatively inoffensive substitute.

Karen

Photos:  left, a photo from Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, Germany.  From the collection of A J Zywiczynski. Copyright 1999 www.b24.net; used without permission.  But doesn't that guy look like the man in the picture on the right?  That's my dad with my mom in 1949. Photographer unknown.  One of the photos would have to be reversed to make the hair match, but otherwise, that's got to be him, don't you think?

As Many Wars As People Who Were There

My Favorite Veteran

My Favorite Veteran

I can't let Veteran's Day to go by without mentioning my dad, Dr. Frank E Funk. Born 21 February 1923 in Jersey City, he's still alive and well, still active in church and community in Wilmington, NC.

I don't know that much about his service career (he doesn't talk about it much), but here's what I do know:

1. He was a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Force, before the Air Force was a separate branch of the service. He served on a B-17 Bomber. I should know what country he bombed and where he was shot down, but I don't remember. Austria? Italy? These are not events he remembers fondly.
2. He was a P.O.W. in Stalag Luft 1, where he cut other prisoners' hair. Because of his parents' German heritage, he spoke just enough German that he once managed to talk German captors out of killing a fellow prisoner, according to my mom. The camp was liberated by the Russians in May, 1945.
B24.net/pow/stalag1.htm
George Simmons Stalag Luft 1 page
Stalag Luft 1 Online - Barracks listing

3. After liberation of the camp, Dad spent time in a V.A. hospital regaining his strength. Then he went to college at Syracuse University. He met my mom in the Corner Store, a University-area hangout where the Newhouse School of Public Communications now stands. They were married in 1949, divorced in 1976. Dad remarried shortly after that, and is still happily married to Ruth Christy Funk to this day.

I called him today for Veteran's Day. which amused and pleased him. He said that he'd never joined any veterans' organizations because "I'm not one of those people who think of their years in the service as the most important time in their lives." Looking at all my dad has accomplished since then, I have to agree in his case. Professionally, he was a speech professor, assistant dean and then dean of University College (and Director of Continuing Education) at Syracuse University. Since retiring he's been a reader on tapes for the blind, a volunteer and board member at a local NPR station, president of the local railroad museum and an elder and recording secretary at his church. He's still active at the railroad museum and at church, and is just as annoyed as I am about the election. "The voters in this country could have benefited from taking your critical thinking course before this election," he told me today. That's my dad!

Karen
Musings: The Aging Lottery