The numbers really bring things into perspective for me. It has been 50 years since I graduated from high school and exactly three times that at 150 years we were in the Civil War. A little more then twice the time back to WW II and we were in the Civil War. My mother’s father was born in 1863. A couple lines above his name on the Barbour County birth register, the birth of a slave is listed. About 1890, he took a trip by train to Denver and the train was robbed. I knew him for a few years before he died in 1952. If only I had known enough to ask him about his life. Dave Kuhl 210 Glen Eagles Drive Ocean Springs, MS 39564-9041 e-mail: dbkuhl@bellsouth.net ________________________________ From: Helen Thompson <helen.thompson@frontier.com> To: "hcgs@rootsweb.com" <hcgs@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sat, December 8, 2012 9:35:16 AM Subject: Re: [HCGS] Remember Pearl Harbor very interesting-I love history Helen ________________________________ From: Dave Kuhl <dbkuhl@bellsouth.net> To: HCGS@yahoogroups.com; hcgs <hcgs@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 7, 2012 11:22 PM Subject: [HCGS] Remember Pearl Harbor I sent this to another group today. I thought you might enjoy it. ---------------------------------------------- It has been 71 years. A 21 year old at Pearl Harbor in 1941 would be 92 now. Frank Buckles (February 1, 1901 – February 27, 2011) the longest surviving American veteran of WW I died at 110 in WV. Two of my high school classmates had contact with him. One was through their church and the other through their real estate firm (his wife worked there). My class of 62 celebrated our 50 anniversary this summer. The Civil War (1861-1865) was only 150 years ago. That brings big numbers like these into perspective. I thought that an Aussie, two Brits and a Frenchman outlived Buckles by a few weeks or months. Wikipedia says that only a Brit female mess steward outlived Buckles and by less than a year. My friends said that Buckles drove his car until he was 100 and drove his tractor until he was 105. He was not in combat but drove ambulances and motorcycles. Dave Kuhl 210 Glen Eagles Drive Ocean Springs, MS 39564-9041 e-mail: dbkuhl@bellsouth.net ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HCGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HCGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
Dave I can see the events your talking about only too clearly! I played basketball and football against Victory and WI and graduated from Elkins High School in 1951 and have great memories of those days. My dad was born at Wallace in 1881 and registered for the draft in 1918 at the age of 37 and again in 1942 when they had a draft that they called old man's draft for home front duty, he was 61 at the time. I think this is something that very few people if any can say, my grandfather Elias Swiger Jr. fought in the Civil War and was wounded and my great great grandfather Christopher Swiger fought in the Revolution. 150 years since the Civil War (grandfather) and 230 years since the Revolutionary War (great great grandfather). Arden -----Original Message----- From: Dave Kuhl Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2012 3:41 PM To: Helen Thompson ; hcgs@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [HCGS] Remember Pearl Harbor The numbers really bring things into perspective for me. It has been 50 years since I graduated from high school and exactly three times that at 150 years we were in the Civil War. A little more then twice the time back to WW II and we were in the Civil War. My mother’s father was born in 1863. A couple lines above his name on the Barbour County birth register, the birth of a slave is listed. About 1890, he took a trip by train to Denver and the train was robbed. I knew him for a few years before he died in 1952. If only I had known enough to ask him about his life. Dave Kuhl 210 Glen Eagles Drive Ocean Springs, MS 39564-9041 e-mail: dbkuhl@bellsouth.net ________________________________ From: Helen Thompson <helen.thompson@frontier.com> To: "hcgs@rootsweb.com" <hcgs@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sat, December 8, 2012 9:35:16 AM Subject: Re: [HCGS] Remember Pearl Harbor very interesting-I love history Helen ________________________________ From: Dave Kuhl <dbkuhl@bellsouth.net> To: HCGS@yahoogroups.com; hcgs <hcgs@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 7, 2012 11:22 PM Subject: [HCGS] Remember Pearl Harbor I sent this to another group today. I thought you might enjoy it. ---------------------------------------------- It has been 71 years. A 21 year old at Pearl Harbor in 1941 would be 92 now. Frank Buckles (February 1, 1901 – February 27, 2011) the longest surviving American veteran of WW I died at 110 in WV. Two of my high school classmates had contact with him. One was through their church and the other through their real estate firm (his wife worked there). My class of 62 celebrated our 50 anniversary this summer. The Civil War (1861-1865) was only 150 years ago. That brings big numbers like these into perspective. I thought that an Aussie, two Brits and a Frenchman outlived Buckles by a few weeks or months. Wikipedia says that only a Brit female mess steward outlived Buckles and by less than a year. My friends said that Buckles drove his car until he was 100 and drove his tractor until he was 105. He was not in combat but drove ambulances and motorcycles. Dave Kuhl 210 Glen Eagles Drive Ocean Springs, MS 39564-9041 e-mail: dbkuhl@bellsouth.net ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HCGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HCGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HCGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.2793 / Virus Database: 2634/5938 - Release Date: 12/05/12
Yes Arden, I think you have to have lived long enough to know what a half of a century or three quarters of a century worth of time means to really appreciate history. This may be part of the reason that young people don’t appreciate history as much as we older people appreciate it. My oldest brother graduated from WI in the class of 52, so you and I are pretty close in our ages. When your mental tool box for measuring time only includes small measuring sticks such as months, weeks, days and years, it is hard to wrap your mind around how long a hundred years is. Terms such as score (20 years), generation (33 years) or lifetime (70 years) are far more vague or less easy to grasp. Part of it may also be in how we were educated or how our minds are wired. When the news media throws around big numbers such as millions, billions and trillions, they are just numbers to most of us. In my environment, I can look at a new Navy destroyer which costs $2 billion each to build, equip, train the crew, etc. An aircraft carrier may be $5 billion. 500 destroyers would be $1 trillion. We have about 300 ships in the Navy. It is hard to picture 30 ships let alone 500 ships. The DDG 51 Arleigh Burke class ship is 510 feet long and according to Wikipedia cost $1.843 billion to build with over 60 in the water. The CG 47 Ticonderoga class was 567 feet long and about 55 feet wide with 22 still on duty. Picture 10 DDG 51 ships anchored bow to stern with 20 feet between them, which would be one mile. Now picture a second line of ships anchored 45 feet in parallel from the first line. Each line of ten ships would occupy a patch of ocean 100 feet wide and I mile long and would represent about $20 billion. To visualize $1 trillion worth of ships, expand this visual example to 50 lines of 10 which would be 500 ships and occupy a little less than one square mile of water. To visualize our $16 trillion national debt, expand this one square mile of ships image to a square 4 miles on each side which would be 16 square miles. That many ships could easily fit inside of Chesapeake Bay or Mobile Bay if the bays were deep enough to accomodate the ships 27 feet of draft requirement. To provide a visual example of $1 billion which is relevant to most people in WV, 50 years ago I had a summer job where I worked on a survey crew building I-77, I-79 and I-81. Then they said it cost about $1 million per mile with no big bridges to build an Interstate. I’m sure that it is now many times that. The Jane Lew exit on I-79 is at mile marker 105 which means that from Charleston where I-79 starts is 105 miles to Jane Lew. In 1960’s dollars, that would have been 100 miles times $1 million per mile equals $0.1 billion to build I-79 from Charleston to Weston. Add in a few more similar size patches of roads and you have $1 billion. Part of that time I worked in Beckley and drove US 19 home on weekends. Building the Interstate cut that travel time in half. A nearly 4 hour trip then only takes 2 hours now. You probably see the same savings in travel time with the improvements on US 33. Of course, there are trade offs. You don’t see as much of the beautiful scenery when a roads cuts through a hill. But, you are not as likely to get wiped out by a coal truck coming around a curve on your side of the road. Just like watching Jeopardy, It is good exercise for our aging brains to think about these things and do a math calculation once in a while. Dave Kuhl 210 Glen Eagles Drive Ocean Springs, MS 39564-9041 e-mail: dbkuhl@bellsouth.net ________________________________ From: Arden Swiger <aswiger@suddenlink.net> To: hcgs@rootsweb.com Sent: Sun, December 9, 2012 6:33:26 AM Subject: Re: [HCGS] Remember Pearl Harbor Dave I can see the events your talking about only too clearly! I played basketball and football against Victory and WI and graduated from Elkins High School in 1951 and have great memories of those days. My dad was born at Wallace in 1881 and registered for the draft in 1918 at the age of 37 and again in 1942 when they had a draft that they called old man's draft for home front duty, he was 61 at the time. I think this is something that very few people if any can say, my grandfather Elias Swiger Jr. fought in the Civil War and was wounded and my great great grandfather Christopher Swiger fought in the Revolution. 150 years since the Civil War (grandfather) and 230 years since the Revolutionary War (great great grandfather). Arden -----Original Message----- From: Dave Kuhl Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2012 3:41 PM To: Helen Thompson ; hcgs@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [HCGS] Remember Pearl Harbor The numbers really bring things into perspective for me. It has been 50 years since I graduated from high school and exactly three times that at 150 years we were in the Civil War. A little more then twice the time back to WW II and we were in the Civil War. My mother’s father was born in 1863. A couple lines above his name on the Barbour County birth register, the birth of a slave is listed. About 1890, he took a trip by train to Denver and the train was robbed. I knew him for a few years before he died in 1952. If only I had known enough to ask him about his life. Dave Kuhl 210 Glen Eagles Drive Ocean Springs, MS 39564-9041 e-mail: dbkuhl@bellsouth.net ________________________________ From: Helen Thompson <helen.thompson@frontier.com> To: "hcgs@rootsweb.com" <hcgs@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sat, December 8, 2012 9:35:16 AM Subject: Re: [HCGS] Remember Pearl Harbor very interesting-I love history Helen ________________________________ From: Dave Kuhl <dbkuhl@bellsouth.net> To: HCGS@yahoogroups.com; hcgs <hcgs@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 7, 2012 11:22 PM Subject: [HCGS] Remember Pearl Harbor I sent this to another group today. I thought you might enjoy it. ---------------------------------------------- It has been 71 years. A 21 year old at Pearl Harbor in 1941 would be 92 now. Frank Buckles (February 1, 1901 – February 27, 2011) the longest surviving American veteran of WW I died at 110 in WV. Two of my high school classmates had contact with him. One was through their church and the other through their real estate firm (his wife worked there). My class of 62 celebrated our 50 anniversary this summer. The Civil War (1861-1865) was only 150 years ago. That brings big numbers like these into perspective. I thought that an Aussie, two Brits and a Frenchman outlived Buckles by a few weeks or months. Wikipedia says that only a Brit female mess steward outlived Buckles and by less than a year. My friends said that Buckles drove his car until he was 100 and drove his tractor until he was 105. He was not in combat but drove ambulances and motorcycles. Dave Kuhl 210 Glen Eagles Drive Ocean Springs, MS 39564-9041 e-mail: dbkuhl@bellsouth.net ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HCGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HCGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HCGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.2793 / Virus Database: 2634/5938 - Release Date: 12/05/12 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to HCGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message