Sunday, March 21, 2010

Memorial for Sergeant Dennis Kenneth O'Connor

I got an email today that set me to remembering a special day so long ago.

Dear Mr O'Connor,

My name is Logan Leedham and I am a junior at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. All the AP English 3 classes are doing a project in remembrance of soldiers who died in the Vietnam war. I am making a memorial for Dennis Kenneth O'Connor. The project is to make a slideshow or movie in honor of their life and service. The school has been doing this project for about 4 years and there's been quite a database collected. You can see it at http://www4.eanesisd.net/~vietnam/. I read what you posted on www.virtualwall.org and if you knew him or his family I was wondering if you would mind sharing with me any pictures or information about  Sergeant Dennis O'Connor. I would really appreciate it. Please know that I want to respect and honor this brave man, and I'm going to do the best I can for his tribute.

Sincerely, Logan Leedham

Here's what I wrote back to Logan:

Logan,

You are doing a fine thing.  I didn't know Sergeant O'Connor, but I remember when he died.  I was a young college kid, about 20 or 21.  I got a call from my mom.  She was crying.  She'd heard a radio report about Dennis O'Connor dying in Viet Nam.  She couldn't help but feel, for a moment, what a mother feels a son had been killed.  

Mom and I had a good talk that day.

Later after the wall had been constructed,  I found his spot on the memorial.  I remember running my fingertips over my name... his name, and being  thankful for the life I had and so sad for the life lost to the war.

Now, every time I go to Washington DC I visit the wall and remember my namesake. 

I hope this little story helps you.  I hope your slide show is done with Powerpoint!  If so, I'd love to see a copy.  I'll post it on one of my blogs.  Regardless, I'll link to your project online!
Good luck with your work!

Dennis

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Dogs in the backyard @ Stardust

The big backyard of our new home in the country is a great place for dogs. Recently the our terrific young landscape architect, Mark Southern, came by with his Boston Terrier puppy, Clive.

Clive and Brindle played nip and chase for several hours. Then they just relaxed and got weird with some very odd humpy dog games. It's great that they can wear each other out. 

I posted this on YouTube:  Keywords "dufus bulldog".  At the moment we own the top spot for that term on Google. 8-)

Here's the video: