tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post4252720693505003788..comments2024-03-28T16:31:23.093-07:00Comments on Books in Northport: France in Three 20th-Century BooksP. J. Grathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-23235114369884633192014-01-10T13:03:10.621-08:002014-01-10T13:03:10.621-08:00Gerry, I can't tell you how delighted I am to ...Gerry, I can't tell you how delighted I am to have you BACK! Okay, Korea. It was undoubtedly a bigger deal at the time than I recall, as I was very, very young then. About all I remember was that my father, a WWII vet, had a day off work on Veterans Day, and the Korean vets did not, as it was never a declared war, and my father never felt that was fair. He felt guilty having the day off while other men in his office had to work, unrecognized for their service. Yes, probably a bigger deal at the time, maybe less visible retrospectively, but still, it didn't tear our country apart like Vietnam or bring down the government, as Algeria did in France. But there again -- how old were we, where were we, what were we doing? All that figures into our perspective on any given time period in recent history.P. J. Grathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-83108421485963107562014-01-09T17:49:52.882-08:002014-01-09T17:49:52.882-08:00So many thoughts - working backward, I found Hare ...So many thoughts - working backward, I found <i>Hare with Amber Eyes</i> fascinating and troubling and will be very interested to know what David and you think of it.<br /><br />There was a movie sometime in the last three or four years about memories - maybe flashbacks - of Algeria, and the lingering doubts and guilt that remain in the present. Wish I could remember. I thought the film was very fine, and now it's just a ghost of itself in my mind. But I think if I get myself in the right frame of mind for Camus on Algeria I would want to see that film again. <br /><br />Until recently I would have agreed with you about the relative invisibility of the Korean War in the US in the 1950s. However, I've been rummaging around in Central Lake newspapers from that era for other reasons, and the headlines are big and bold across the front page, with more stories inside. It was, it appears, a bigger deal than I'd always believed, at least in Central Lake, Michigan. My only personal memories have to do with my grandfather listening intently to the news of the war on the big old radio in the kitchen.<br /><br />Which raises the question in my mind, was it, let's say, regionally invisible or retroactively invisible? And what the heck is going on in Afghanistan anyway????<br /><br />And you thought you were writing about France.Gerryhttp://torchlakeviews.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com