Thank you to all the Veterans, past and present, for your sacrifices to protect and serve this great nation.

I want to share my Life magazine, the December 20, 1943 issue I keep on my living room side table, at least as to a few sampled photos, mostly of the advertisements.  I remember the stories of my mother especially about those times and the sacrifices ordinary people made, the things they did without, all on the heels of The Great Depression.  This magazine features a cover article entitled U.S. Pilot’s Wife, with a woman so beautiful (at least in my opinion) she could grace the cover of any fashion magazine, anxious for her husband to come home.  She is the reason I chose this issue; she is so captivating and strangely similar in looks to my own mother (at least from the photos I’ve seen of her from the late 40s).  There are other articles, an article solely about condensation trails from our planes, an article about meetings between countries, an article about refineries.  There is even an article about the “youth” not being up to par, a point I suppose is made by every outgoing generation.  But I’m taken by the ads — car companies making aviation parts, major corporations supporting the endeavor, children’s letters to the train company saying it would be unpatriotic to travel for that Christmas season.  But never fear, Santa was there, in full swing, drinking Coca-cola, smoking Chesterfield’s, and as a soldier’s disguise getting a shave!  So not only do I thank the Veterans, but for lack of a better phrase… those people!  Happy Veterans Day.

These are messy, but still… the sampling of the photos: