NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/05/31/obit.martin.ap/index.html
Alberta Martin, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died on Memorial Day, ending an unlikely ascent from sharecropper's daughter to the belle of 21st century Confederate history buffs who paraded her across the South. She was 97.
After living in obscurity and poverty for most of her life, in her final years the Sons of Confederate Veterans took her to conventions and rallies, often with a small Confederate battle flag waving in her hand and her clothes the colors of the rebel banner.

"I don't see nothing wrong with the flag flying," she said frequently.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/05/31/oldest.person.ap/index.html
Ramona Trinidad Iglesias Jordan, who at age 114 was recognized as the world's oldest person, has died after a bout with pneumonia, her family said Monday.

kay fine....don't care!

Stories of note, but no real debate here.

huh, i met a WWI veteran once. :D

Lemme guess. She was 14. He was 80?

She looked like someone dressed up to be a scary old woman in a D horror flick. :shock:

*rummages around for his 'Extremly Negative Person Mask'*
There it is!
OMG!!! SHE WAVED A CONFEDERATE FLAG! SHES A NAZI!!!
BURN HER! BUUUURRRRNNNNN HER!
*removes mask*
Meh, I really dont care. I should use paint to print a bunch of Confed. flags and tape them to a bunch of lockers at school.

Lemme guess. She was 14. He was 80?

Ooh, close - 21 and 82, as I recall. I read the story a couple hours ago, though.

I never understood the concept of celibrating the side that lost...

I never understood the concept of celibrating the side that lost...

you dont have to

Blah...blah...blah... So, some widow dies. Life moves on.

Dang 97 I wonder if I'll live that long.

Dang 97 I wonder if I'll live that long.If you marry a soldier in the Confederate Army... you just might.

You know, the last recognised survivor of the Gallipoli Campaign of the ANZAC forces died a couple of years ago at the age of 102. Alec Campbell was his name. True story...

You know, the last recognised survivor of the Gallipoli Campaign of the ANZAC forces died a couple of years ago at the age of 102. Alec Campbell was his name. True story...

and how is that supposed to be a wacky fact? :?

You know, the last recognised survivor of the Gallipoli Campaign of the ANZAC forces died a couple of years ago at the age of 102. Alec Campbell was his name. True story...

and how is that supposed to be a wacky fact? :?

AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA
Eric Bogle


When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?

From the same songwriter, and which retains its message and poignancy today.

Green Fields Of France
Eric Bogle

Well, how do you do, Private William McBride,
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside?
And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done.
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916,
Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fir o'er you as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sound The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And, though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you forever 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

The sun's shining down on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plow;
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that's still No Man's Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man.
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

And I can't help but wonder, no Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?"
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

Lemme guess. She was 14. He was 80?

Ooh, close - 21 and 82, as I recall. I read the story a couple hours ago, though.

I wasn't so bothered by her pre-Anna Nicole thing, but the thing that disturbed me is that she married a late husband's GRANDSON after he died.

How can you possibly justify marrying your late husband's GRANDSON? Ewwww!

You know, the last recognised survivor of the Gallipoli Campaign of the ANZAC forces died a couple of years ago at the age of 102. Alec Campbell was his name. True story...

and how is that supposed to be a wacky fact? :?
It wasn't so much as it was supposed to be a subtle way of pointing out that my fact, which you denounce, is about as topically relevent, though overall, seemingly more interesting in the long run, judging by the responses.

And McCountry, very nice on realising the Alec Campbell/And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda link.

Am I the only person who thinks it strange that this Alberta is being called a widow from the Civil War when she wasn't born until 40 years after the war ended? The only way this could make sense is if she married someone very old when she was very young, since the difference in their ages could be not significantly less than 60 years.