Memories from WWII

WandaVision started today, and we've been looking forward to this one.  Madison's favorite character has been Wanda Maximoff, and I've always loved the character of Vision.  We sat down to watch the first two episodes, and it's been great.  It's comical and it's worrisome, a nice friendly sitcom with strange and slightly moments within that add to an overall mystery that will be fun to work through.

I was at the chiropractor again this morning, as I will be on Monday with the family.  The back was getting to a point where it's been unbearable, so I got myself in there.  My SI was out of rotation, or something like that.  I did feel better after he did some work on the spine, using the table in ways that I haven't experienced yet.  I saw him do that with Mom before, but not me.  I think my trouble started when I was getting some Christmas decorations downstairs over a week ago, nothing heavy, but perhaps the angles and positioning of the way I was repeatedly bending over to get things and pick them up, carrying them downstairs and so on.

Anyway, today wasn't the best day for Madison at school.  I write all the good and bad here, so I suppose I have no choice but to say we got a call from the vice principal, and basically there was a joke that went too far.  The end result is that her phone was taken away, and in fact it's off limits here as well.  She was deeply, deeply remorseful about it all and sent an apology tonight.  And that's that, really.  Which is to say I have nothing else to say about this.  We are super proud of Madison, and we all make mistakes, and as long as you learn from those and move on in a positive direction, I think that's the best thing.  For her, I believe the feeling of dread and even embarrassment of it all was enough, and I didn't feel anything further was necessary, beyond the limiting of phone use for a time.  It just so happens that she was wanting to do that with the fast anyway, so that's fine.

Tonight I had to go back to the pharmacy to get my medication, so I took Nana along with me.  She was telling me a lot of stories from her childhood, stories of her uncle and his job as a firefighter in London, helping contain the damage immediately after each bombing run by the Nazis.  He fought in the first World War, along with Nana's father.  Her uncle helped build munitions during the second war.  From time to time she and her brother would sneak out and up into the attic and push out the windows there to see the dog fights above.  She laughed at her experience in schools, and there were no air raid shelters, so the thing the students did when danger approached was get under the desks for safety.  She still laughs at the pointless of that, feeling that it wouldn't have helped much.  Her father was an air raid warden, telling neighbors to draw their curtains to make sure no light was seen from above.  Private homes had shelters built in their gardens, called "Anderson shelters," named after the guy who made it.  Her family had one - but they never went in it.  There was no lighting in it, just a brick building.  Her dad would use it to store garden tools in it.  There was no light, no heat, and it was always damp.  Later on in the war, the government came and built strip buildings in the middle of the street, and there was lighting in them.  They also had a heating system in them, but her dad never wanted to go in there.  "If they're going to get me, they'll get me, but I'm going to be in bed."  In fact, there were times that he'd put the two children under the table, and then go to bed.  "I made it through World War I."

Paratroopers would come down, and the kids had to stay away.  You didn't know if they were English or German.

Most of the people who used the shelters had small children.  It was a stressful time for parents.  Kids went to school, and they were away.  Her dad used to build ships and landing barges, the kind you see in footage of attacks on Normandy.  He worked at Fairfields Ship Building Yards, while her uncle used to defuse bombs.  He actually collected volunteers from the prisons to help dismantle and dispose of bombs.  Some of those bombs came down in trees, and they'd have to climb up there and get them.  Her uncle was an expert at it. The kids had to be taught in school to stay away from the bombs, as some were created to have a delay in the explosion.  Some were created to start fires, while others just blew up.  Some came down with parachutes, gently coming down to a spot where there'd be a delay... and it was sad that students had to be trained to stay away.

It's fascinating, isn't it?  World War II seems so far away, and yet so many vivid memories of it being shared within our house. 

It wasn't that bad of a day today.  We had some troubles there, but it all worked out, and we're all okay.  We read tonight, and went to bed after prayers.  It sounds cold outside!