Kicked off Veteran's Day with a short story and several poems from the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. Given Veteran's Day began as Armistice Day after World War I, it's not surprising that the material revolves around that war. The Singing Tree is the touching story of a group of soldiers who discover a still-living tree on a dead battlefield filled with homeless birds. The poems include In Flanders Field, which was written by a World War I soldier who died during the conflict. My friend Linda Young says they used to memorize it in school for Veteran's Day during her 60's childhood.
Since there's not a lot there, I also read the material for Book Week. My favorite story was a chapter from All-Of-A-Kind Family. One of the younger girls lost her library book. She's devastated, until a young librarian helps her figure out a way to pay for it. Rufus M is a little boy who is so desperate to take out his first library book, he brings the application for his library card back after hours.
Watched most of the Donald Duck In the Army shorts while I ate breakfast. More than good-natured Goofy or every-mouse Mickey, Donald's brash personality made him Disney's number one star in the early 40's. He jumped right into the army in "Donald Gets Drafted" and ends up with Sargent Pete ordering him to do drills on an ant hill. He doesn't have much more luck in "Sky Trooper." He wants to get in the air, but the last thing he was expecting was for Pete to send him with the parachute troop!
My favorite of the Donald wartime shorts is "The Vanishing Private." Pete orders camaflage painter Donald to make a cannon "hard to see"...and he does just that when he covers it with an invisibility paint. When Pete tries to get him out of the cannon, he lands in the paint. Pete ends up chasing "the little man you can't see" all over the base.
"Der Fuhrer's Face" is a unique look at the Nazi regime. Donald goes literally crazy when he finds himself in Nazi Germany and can't keep up with their incessant demands and rationing. "Fall Out, Fall In" is back in more typical territory. All Donald wants after a long hike is rest, but first, he can't figure out his tent, then his fellow soldiers keep him awake. "Commando Duck" is sent to Japan to take out a base. He proceeds to wipe...no, wash....out the enemy.
Headed to work as soon as the cartoons ended. Work, to my surprise, was quiet, or at the least steady, the entire afternoon. It never got as busy as it did last Veteran's Day. I did the recycling and trash outside, quickly mopped the men's bathroom, and alternated sweeping the store with the the head bagger, but I was mainly outside with the carts. I didn't want to be anywhere else. The weather was gorgeous today, sunny, breezy, and in the mid-60's.
Needed a few things on the way out. The Acme is clearing out a ton of items, including a lot of Nestle's chocolate chips. I grabbed butterscotch and triple chip bags. I also needed toilet paper and got money for the laundry later this week.
Did writing when I got home. Richard and Charles are going through their bags for rope when they see the evil Queen Malade climbing the tower and hear screams and yelling. Richard goes up first, but Charles is more reluctant to follow him, especially when he sees Malade attack Elaine in the window...
Broke for dinner at 7. Ran my remaining wartime shorts as I ate leftovers for dinner. Despite also being popular during the war years, Woody Woodpecker only figured into one war-themed short, "Ace In the Hole." Like Donald, he wants to be a pilot, but his commanding officer has him shaving horses. He's less-than-thrilled when Woody does finally end up in a plane and gets it into the air.
The other Walter Lantz war shorts were one-offs. "21 Dollars a Day (Once a Month)" uses stuffed animals (and cameos from Woody and Andy Panda) to spoof the peacetime draft. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" is the tale of a former jazz trumpeter who gets his camp moving with his swinging reveille. The black stereotypes run thick and fast here, but there's a nice version of the title song, and this is one of the few cartoons I know of to depict minorities in the military. "Pigeon Patrol" is the more typical story of a country bumpkin bird who has to get an important message past the enemy.
Ran two shorts representing earlier and later wars as I had my cake for dessert. Mickey Mouse didn't figure much into the World War II cartoons, but he did fight Hun cats during "The Barnyard Battle" in 1929. "G.I Pink" finds himself in Vietnam without a clue after he's swayed by Army recruiting posters promising power. All he does is annoy his drill sergeant, who ends up sending him to the Navy in frustration.
Finished the night with Here Comes the Marines. The Bowery Boys did movies representing all four of Armed Forces branches between 1952 and 1954. I went with Marines in honor of their win on Family Feud last night. The Boys are all drafted into the Marines, but Sach is the only one who keeps getting promoted, thanks to his father having known the general in charge of their camp. He's in charge of their barracks and is driving everyone crazy with his incessant demands and constantly blowing his whistle. Slip is more concerned with the Marine who turned up badly beaten after investigating a corrupt casino in town. He and the others have to figure out what the owner is up to...and how to get his female cohort out of Sach's bed, where she's hiding.
And I salute the veterans of all wars on this Veteran's Day, including the one in my life - my father Bruce was in the Vietnam War.
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