A LIFE REMEMBERED AND A GOOD FRIEND STILL MISSED AFTER ALL THIS TIME. BARRY SADLER.
on 03/11/2010 at 11:18 AM
It’s been 20 1/2 years since you lost your friend. Sad that you still suffer so, but that’s what true love and loss does. My dog has been gone for 17 years now, and I can still well up when thinking about her. My father’s been gone for 13 years, but we were 90% estranged, so I don’t react that way at all when thinking of him.
But what drove you to write about him today? I Googled him up looking for news, but didn’t find anything.
Drew - sometimes the most simple thing can set these things off.
Right now dealing with this estate (such as it is) stuff, I go back and forth between sell everything, torch it and over my dead body will a single thing be sold. I’ve crunched the numbers - If my Uncle (he took over after the lawyer quit - 2/22 - it is now 3/11 - would just get out of the way - I would sort, pack and inventory the place - there are things I want - admit it - it is my family history/possessions and does that make me a bad person? I don’t think so. The Uncle is elderly and not taking his sisters death well - and insists no one can go into the apartment without him - if he does not bend - it will kill him. And so it sits - to the tune of $1100. a month - not packed, not touched. Give me a break - I called on January 18, 3 days after she passed and offered to go in and pack up her clothes for donations and the little everyday stuff to dispose of. Somehow the lawyers have taken over America and I have no legal right. I’ve run the numbers - we can do this and pay the Uncle/Lawyer if - we get the stuff out of the apartment - without auctioning off all her possessions. Back to reality.
Now since I’ve ranted - I think it’s neat when we get to know someone who makes people sit up and take notice - and his song did - probably one of the few proud moments for a lot of Vets of that era. And sometimes our friends end up closest to us - they know us best and still like us!
I remember reading the entirety of the CASA series. I have the set up in the attic somewhere.
Posted by emdfl
03/11/2010 at 07:42 PM
You’re kidding? Right? You actually knew the author of the Casca series?
For those that don’t know, the Casca series is about one Casca Rufio Longinus, the Roman legionary who stuck Christ with his spear and was… what? Condemned? Rewarded? With living ‘until we meet again’. ‘We’ being Casca and Christ.
I still think the first book is the best.
No, not kidding Christopher. Saw him most days he wasn’t out of town or the country.
The Hall of Fame bar and restaurant was a gathering place and gather we did. It was also directly across the street from my office. I’d get in earlier then need be to beat any traffic and instead of going to office I’d just park and walk across the street and sometimes have breakfast there and spend an hour or two drinking endless cups of coffee and talking to others doing the same. Sometimes Barry would come by earlier, that is late morning or early afternoon. Other times after offices started to close when he’d be between the bar and restaurant. There was a kind of standing joke, he told my wife that as soon as he saw me when he came in, he knew he’d be telling jokes because I always said he had to share the latest with whoever I was sitting with at the time. He really was a natural story teller and because he was a musician he had an ear for sound and languages.
Barry was much into history and describing some WW2 foul up, he’d tell the story using the accents of all the belligerents and make it funny. He was Monty, and Zukof and Rommel having a conversation that he’d make up for example. Ppl don’t know that about him. He was a natural comedian. He had this funny thing he did with one eye where he’d raise it impossibly high and put on one of his accents, and I’d hold my sides laughing. Once when he said something (can’t recall the subject) I asked how he knew for sure it was correct. And he gave me that eye thing as tho, what? You dare question? You had to be there.Long before the first book was released he brought in something I think was the galley (?) it was larger then 8x10 sheets and he let me read some of it but it there wasn’t any finish to it. It’s been so long I don’t recall what he called it. Anyway, I was taken with the idea and the story and wanted to know how it would end, not realizing at the time that it was to be a series. He wouldn’t tell me and drove me nuts till the book came out.
That first photo I have here is the template for the Casca cover pix. Barry gave it to me.
EMDF: All those book are sitting in an attic? Goof grief. Check out Amazon. If you don’t want them, don’t let em collect dust and disappear and fall apart. Hell, have you seen the prices? Sell em!
Peiper,
Really, you should consider writing your own book. The things you’ve seen, the people you’ve known… such experiences should be passed on. Anything you remember about Barry Sadler, for instance.
Seriously. No one else is going to write about it.
Best seller? Probably not. But think of the gold mine future historians will consider your work.
I’m reading old LDS Church history, and do you know where most of it comes from? Personal journals, diaries, etc. Just like you would write about Barry Sadler and any others you’ve known.
