IF WALLS COULD TALK, Week of October 5, 2017

by Katie Ouilette

WALLS, you have a lot to talk about today, for sure. Yes, you have the program that has been featured about the Vietnam War and we’ll soon have November 11 and all that must be told about it and those brave souls who have laid down their lives for our United States and all that our flag’s flying has stood for.

Y’know what? I’ve been reading Smithsonian magazine and, as with every issue, I learn what I’ve never learned in my school days. Well, maybe our faithful readers and you, WALLS, have learned such, but I do feel compelled, WALLS, to write about what I have learned. O.K., faithful readers, I’ll begin with Smithsonian magazine’s teaching of World War I. The magazine has an article entitled Save by the Bell. Yup, WALLS, you guessed it! The bell is our Liberty Bell.

It seems that in April 1917, our USA was in trouble. You are so right, faithful readers, the trouble was “no money.” Our country’s treasury department undertook raising $2 billion through the sale of War Bonds (that would be $4 billion today). You and I weren’t even born in 1917, but it was decided that important people would gather around our cracked Liberty Bell, ring it and all people, upon hearing a bell ring in their community, would flock to a bank to buy a bond! Oh, do you know what the final day of the champagne was? You guessed! Yes, it was June 14, 1917! Flag Day! There’s more for you faithful readers to know, aka what a newspaper editor did to save our bell, but word count doesn’t permit such at the moment.

Yes, I want to tell about our being involved in the Vietnam War. Frankly, many, many people of our Armed Forces died, as Ken Burns, a great story teller, depicted throughout the weeks of programming that he produced for TV. Yes, with all the wars that our United States has been involved in, we have lost our true Americans who were willing to fight for our freedom….and we must be thankful for those in our military who have given their way of life, whether during war-times or times of peace.

Tomorrow, we Ouilettes will have Lew’s family here. Yes, there are heroes who have gone to a better place, but from World War II to those who have graduated from Maine Maritime Academy, we offer our thanks. And over dessert on a Sunday afternoon, surely we will all remember days gone by.