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Old August 17th, 2008 #25
Donnie in Ohio
Switching to glide
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Morrison Hotel
Posts: 9,396
Blog Entries: 11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rottenfuhrer View Post
I'm truly surprised a blood relative of yours' would die in captivity. I figured he would just cooperate with his captors and rat out all his comrades in exchange for his freedom.

Have you met 'Strich?

I was born in Kentucky, about 10 miles north of Tennessee. The family story is that my father worked one day in a coal mine (entire family on both sides were coal-miners, and many still are to this day) and swore never to return underground.

He never did. Moved North to work at the GM plant.

I grew up in a working-class neighborhood, 100% White, mostly Irish and German.

Within walking distance of our house was Camp Chase cemetery, where a couple of thousand Confederate soldiers who died in Union captivity at Camp Chase are interred.

During the Summer, a couple times every year my father would take us to the cemetery and my brothers and I would be tasked to clean up any litter that had blown in from the street. We were far from the only White people who did so, either.

I was mesmerized by the headstones, which gave a great deal of information about the men below them. Names, ages, units, which states they were from, etc. As a boy, I wondered what battles they had seen, and if their families ever knew what had happened to them.

My mom grew roses.

Early every fall on a perfect cloudless day she would clip all her roses and we would once again walk to Camp Chase and mom would put a rose on the grave of every soldier from Kentucky. (there were many)

I have not been to Camp Chase in almost 30 years. The area now is full of illegal Mexicans, Somalis, Hmong, you name it.

I bet nobody picks up the trash in Camp Chase anymore.
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Last edited by Donnie in Ohio; August 17th, 2008 at 09:47 AM.