Take a journey back in time to 1944 as Toppie reads — in honor of Veterans Day — from his Grandfather Walt’s war-time journal. Send e-mail to Toppie at Smellcast@aol.com. Leave comments right here on Toppie’s blog. Friend Toppie Smellie on Facebook.
Click on link below to listen to the Smellcast, episode 128.
Tags: 1944, army life, family, family history, gay podcast, mental illness, smellcast, toppie smellie, veterans day, war journal, war-time, world war II, world war two
The Smellcast 
November 14, 2010 at 3:25 pm |
Reading between the lines, I can sense the make-do efforts of the war years. The movies and food sounds good but the soldiers had to use their helmets as buckets when they cleaned their barracks. It’s sad that your grandfather lost three teeth at such a young age. Thanks for sharing this, Toppie. Makes me wish my relatives had kept journals.
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November 16, 2010 at 10:09 am |
You’re welcome Mark. In a way we, as podcasters, are keeping a journal of sorts. My grandfather Walter and my dad are the only two family members that I know of who kept journals. My great uncle Harold kept a journal too, but it recorded only the temperature and weather conditions every day. Recording this information just somehow became part of his daily ritual. I’ve tried to keep a journal several times in my life but made the mistake of reading it years later and destroying it because I felt embarrassed by it. Probably the way I will feel about my podcast in a couple of years! Sheesh!
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February 28, 2011 at 6:07 am |
An awesome show as usual and I was so moved by the end of the show – touching reminders of the brave men and women who serve our country and the costs they had to deal with
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