you are there

It is exciting to me to become so involved in a great project. The only time ideas seem to lift off the ground is when I think of doing something for someone else. Don't get me wrong,- I'm no altruist or people-pleaser. But flowing creativity instead of head-banging comes when there is a personal connection for me on some level. And it's nothing I can purposefully instigate, it just happens. To be creative-on-demand is not my forte.

I have had to learn many new things in a short period of time, most of which has to do with slogging into the 21st Century: doing research, starting a blog, (do I have to buy a domain??), buying a video camera, learning about lavaliere microphones...do I want an omni-directional or uni-directional? (uni). Whew!

So far, I'm working my way backwards from my father's capture and subsequent imprisonment on April 3, 1945. It happened during the Jagst-Kocher River Engagement, an eight-day battle with the 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division (for all those of you who give a rat's ass), where his 253rd Regiment fought alongside the 254th and 255th to cross the Jagst and Kocher River, north of Stuttgart.

It was a few months after the Battle of the Bulge, just south of the Ardennes. At that point, the Germans knew they had lost the war, and they were putting in their best fighting forces in a last ditch effort. These SS Divisions were known for their aggressive fanaticism. Fortunately for him, my father was taken just before the crossing, as it ended up being a hell of a battle, ending up, finally, captive in a farmhouse in Augsburg. I Google Earth'd the two rivers, and the stands of forest are still there, post-war. Kind of eerie.