Joy Neal Kidney's Blog, page 8

Dad flew the B-17 “Hell’s Angels” in Training

In early 1945, because the USAAF didn’t need many more pilots, several instructors began Transition Training in four-engine planes. Dad (1st Lt. Warren Neal) had been an Advanced Instructor at Marfa AAF Base since earning his wings there two years earlier.

He was first ordered to Williams Field, AZ, in February, where he flew B-17 Fortresses while the AAF waited for enough B-29 Superforts to come off the production line. He flew the famous “Hell’s Angels” B-17 on April 7, 1945.

Dad sent a letter, dated April 8, 1945, to his sister, Nadine (Neal) Shepherd, whose husband was in the Coast Guard but she was in Iowa, expecting a baby during the summer.  Toward the bottom of this section he wrote, “I flew ‘Hells Angels’ yesterday, still a pretty good airplane. In her first 8 missions over Germany, she had 26 different engines. Guess they burnt them up on some pretty fast trips back to England.”

On May 13th, 1942, the B-17F Hell’s Angels (#41-24577) became the first heavy bomber to complete 25 combat missions in the European Theater.  This Flying Fortress was assigned to the 358th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bombardment Group (H) and flew from RAF Molesworth. After completing her 25th mission, “Hell’s Angels” remained in theater until 1944 and flew a total of 48 mission without any crewman injured or being forced to turn back.  “Hell’s Angels” returned to the United States in January 1944, covered with written inscriptions by men of the 303rd BG. The bomber was featured on a war bond tour, then was used to train pilots in flying multiple engines.  It’s too bad that after the war, “Hell’s Angels” was sold for scrap in August 1945.

The B-17 “Hell’s Angels,” with written inscriptions. USAAF photo

Dad eventually became the commander of a B-29. When the war ended, his crew had orders for Saipan that September. That fall, he had enough “points” to be discharged from the AAF.

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B-17 Fortress at War by Roger A. Freeman, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1977

Meeting Robin, finally!

Robin Grunder, who lives in eastern Iowa has been involved in all five of my books, but I’d never met her until today. We both deal with debilitating health issues, but one of her daughters recently moved to central Iowa, where I live.

I was a member of an online writers group, Write That Book, for a couple of years. We unpublished writers enjoyed regular speakers who shared an aspect of writing and publishing. One of them was Robin Grunder. As she got acquainted with us, I could tell that she really connected with my grandmother’s WWII story. I asked if she’d help me with it.

She became my coauthor on Leora’s Letters. Since then, she’s formed her own Legacy Press Books to help people with self-publishing, shepherding my next four books through publication. She’s been such a godsend.

We had lunch at the Machine Shed, and lots of catching up.

First Blog Post 10 years ago

My first blog post was published ten years ago this week, through Weebly. I used Weebly a couple of years but it was so hard to manipulate so when the local school system offered a couple of classes for WordPress, I signed up.

WordPress is much easier to use and I enjoy getting feedback on posts. I’ve met such delightful people, which is a godsend for someone mostly homebound.

I also WordPress’s analytics, which tell how many people visited each one, which countries they’re from, even what device they use to read a post. I was surprised to learn that most (72 percent) of my followers read blog posts on a mobile unit–their cellphones!

That first blog post is a favorite, Needle in Her Hand. I still remember where I was sitting when Mom revealed the story behind the old photo. The story became Chapter 28 (The Imbedded Needle) in Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.

Isn’t this surprising?

Song of Guthrie County by Chad Elliott, Iowa’s Renaissance Man

Guthrie Center native, Chad Elliott, not only designed and painted a large mural for Guthrie County, he entertained the crowd at the dedication last October. He is a singer and songwriter who performs them with guitar and harmonica. The first public presentation of his “Song of Guthrie County” was at the dedication. 

The Guthrie County Arts Council commissioned Chad, a well-known artist with his own studio in Jefferson, to create a mural that would capture the essence of the county.

The mural, on the side of the fire station, is visible to those heading west down State Street in downtown Guthrie Center, Iowa.

Chad graciously allowed me to include a stanza and chorus of “Song of Guthrie County” in Meadowlark Songs: A Motherline Legacy. Of the seven generations in my motherline, five of them had deep roots in Guthrie County, including two who arrived in 1855 as pioneers, mother and daughter. Chad Elliott’s mural reminds me of those days.

Here is a snippet of the song:

No matter where I roam the sweetest peace I've known
In the Guthrie County I call home.

Chad Elliott is a singer, songwriter, painter, sculptor, illustrator, and author. He does solo concerts, and has teamed up with Kathryn Severing Fox on fiddle, viola, and mandolin as Weary Ramblers. Here is a link to their tour schedule. This is his studio.

Called Iowa’s Renaissance Man by John Busbee of The Culture Buzz, Chad is a 2025 Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Music Association Inductee.

Items related to the new mural are available at Art On State, which hosted the dedication. The gallery at 320 State Street in Guthrie Center also carries autographed copies of the “Leora books,” and this month copies of Meadowlark Songs will join them.

Graham Gems

Leora Goff Wilson with great grandson Daniel Neal Kidney, March 1975, Aurora, Colorado

Grandma Leora came to Colorado with my folks to meet our son, her great grandson, who was fourteen weeks old. When Mom arrived, she had a cold so was afraid to interact with baby Dan, so Grandma kept him busy while I cooked. I was amazed that this 84-year-old could heft him! (The pediatrician had just called him “mighty mite.”)

I made whole wheat muffins for one meal. “Graham Gems,” she remarked. What a delightful name for them.

Among her keepsakes was probably her first “cookbook,” a tiny memorandum book where she jotted recipes and pasted in others from newspapers. Just seven pages in is her recipe for Graham Gems.

 

Grandma would have had a wood or cob burning stove so the temperature isn’t listed, but often in other recipes, “moderate oven.” Faint note at the end: “1 doz. Georgia,” so she got the recipe from her sister, Georgia Goff, who was a few years younger, still living at home.

Graham flour is ground more coarse than wheat flour. Something I didn’t know: It was named after Sylvester Graham (1794–1851), who was disgruntled when nutrients such as germ and bran were lost when making white flour for white flour. He believed that using all of the grain in the milling of flour and baking of bread was a remedy for the poor health brought on by changes in diet during the Industrial Revolution.

I don’t make them anymore since I’m gluten intolerant, but if I did, I’d call them Graham Gems.

Whole Wheat Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix milk, eggs, and melted butter. Fold into to dry ingredients just until combined, then fill an oiled dozen-cup muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees 20 minutes.

Synchronicity of social media and interstates lead to meeting a favorite indy author in person

He was tapping trees to make maple syrup, sharing videos on LinkedIn of the process, with a sense of humor. Who is this guy? I wondered, so I checked his profile: Craig Matthews, author/speaker/mentor, Port Huron, MI.

Author? I had to check that out and was promptly reeled in by the title of one of his books, Immigrant Patriot. Yes, I was hooked, not only by the title, but also the story and by the man behind the story. That was two years ago.

Craig is such a gifted storyteller, writing about fascinating settings and characters with messy lives that eventually intersect with God’s redeeming grace. I’ve enjoyed all four of his compelling books, all standalones at this point, and I’ve been a beta reader for a couple of them. In the process we became online friends.

Craig’s next book was about to come out last November when his wife, Connie (age 60), died suddenly. It’s been four months of grieving and processing, much of it by reading (Jerry Sittser for one) and writing (he’s shared poignant free verses with us on Facebook). Last week was his first outing for something other than to visit family–a trip to the National World War I Museum in Kansas City to research for a sequel to Immigrant Patriot. (He and his brothers researched there for the first book.) Immigrant Patriot is so compelling and eye-opening. I look forward to the sequel.

Joy and Craig at the Urbandale Machine Shed Restaurant. (My “Harry Potter” scar is healing well three weeks after surgery.)

Well, you can get to KC from MI via I-80, which does a do-si-do right with I-35 right by the Urbandale Machine Shed Restaurant. Driving a grey Chevy pickup and wearing a new Detroit Tigers cap, Craig blessed my Favorite Guy and me with a visit here at home, where he made sure I had autographed copies of all four of his books. He also brought a printout of the text of the next one, just like he’d given his mom.

We continued conversation with supper at our favorite Machine Shed. All three of us were encouraged by the too-short visit, but we’ll hold fond memories of a meeting that was only possible because of the synchronicity of social media and two interstates. 

Dale Ross Wilson, recently honored and remembered

Second Lieutenant Dale R. Wilson was honored and remembered recently by EdD Kris Cotariu Harper when she visited the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.

Kris is an educator, trainer, and a student of military history. I “met” her on LinkedIn, where she noticed something I posted about Dale’s brother Danny Wilson who is buried in the Lorraine American Cemetery in France. Kris asked for information and said that she would honor Dale and Dan Wilson when she’d visit an overseas cemetery, which she does regularly.

Each year, to honor their parents, the family of Kris Cotariu Harper offers The Cotariu Memorial Scholarship for active duty service members of the Marines or Navy, or veterans of those groups. April 5 is the due date for applications for this year’s scholarship.

I am so blessed that Kris would take the time to point out Dale Wilson’s name. All six members of his B-25 crew are among the nearly 36,300 names on the Walls of the Missing in this far-away American cemetery.

 

Audiobook! What Leora Never Knew

What Leora Never Knew just became an audiobook, narrated by Virtual Voice, on Saturday. You may listen to a sample on its Amazon page. It’s available on its own or as an add-on to the hard copy or ebook version.

The one drawback to listening to this one without the book with the photos, the captions to the photos are included.

You might remember that I was ambivalent about having anything to do with computer narration, but I liked what I heard was offered through Virtual Voice. This one was a little more challenging to work through because of so many military numbers and phrases. For S/Sgt., the voice said “S slash” and a mushy sound. I had to stop the audio, choose the word or phrase which brought up a box where I could ask the “woman” to say “staff sergeant.” It also told me how many times S/Sgt. was used in the text and let me choose to have every one of them changed with one click.

This electronic stuff is just amazing, isn’t it!

I sure appreciate the review of this book by Steve Blake, who is the editor of Lightning Strikes!, the newsletter of the P-38 National Association, especially his comment, “This reviewer, a World War II aviation historian, was very impressed with the author’s determined and exhaustive research.”

Meadowlark Songs – coming soon

Seven Generations

According to Native American tradition,
the consequences of choices
made by ancestors in one generation
reverberate for seven generations.

Make those decisions with utmost care,
they say, to guarantee good lives
for those who come after.

Seven generations of a motherline,
all seven lived on farms,
six lived in Iowa,
five in Guthrie County, five widowed,
four were oldest daughters, had ten or more children,
three lived into their nineties,
two earned high school diplomas,
only one was born in a hospital
and she became the keeper
of the stories of her motherline.

 

Smorgasbord Coffee Morning – Author William R. Ablan invites Author Joy Neal Kidney for Coffee

What a delightful way to start the week! Thank you to Richard Muniz (AKA William R. Ablan) for the invitation, and to Sally Cronin for her generosity and creativity in coming up with ways to encourage authors, especially indie authors.

He wrote on his website: Virtual Coffee with Author Joy Kidney. Check it out.

Smorgasbord Coffee Morning – Author William R. Ablan invites Author Joy Neal Kidney for Coffee.

I’d like coffee with both Rich and his wife, Julie. I know her character in his lawman stories (she’s Jewell), which are based on his own days as in policework, and even from his military days. His lawman stories are really compelling!