Christmas 1994

Roman leaders ingeniously utilized their knowledge of human characteristics and innate qualities - both strengths and weaknesses - by skillfully administrating and governing in ways that harnessed the unity of believer `flocks' or `herds' as supportive assets rather than burdensome detriments to the functions of government, religion, commerce, professions, military.

The vast majority of population had to commit most of their energy and time to hard labor to produce the needed: food, shelter, infrastructure of a civilized society, material base which supported the extravagances of the wealthy and powerful, the arts and entertainment, troops who fought the wars, etc.. The producing masses also needed time for: physical recuperation from work exhaustion, recreation & entertainment for emotional and mental relief, solace to soothe spiritual tribulation due to human characteristics of greed, inequity, hypocrisy - which conflict with the human potential to conceptualize and desire opposites.

So, Roman leadership generously provided public baths, gymnasiums and athletic programs for physical recuperation and conditioning. For recreation and entertainment: "spectaculars" were produced of the performing arts; gladiators fought one another and beasts; convicts and religious "fanatics" & "heretics", were condemned to be eaten alive by wild animals in public arenas; elaborate circuses and "Triumph" parades of victorious military commanders were conducted with grand-scale displays of captured animals and enslaved captives.

The people's spiritual needs were abundantly "served" by a religious system that offered glorious ritual, splendorous costumes & relics & pageantry, mystic tales & ceremonies galore, numerous holidays - all designed and conducted to awe, persuade, affect, pacify, guide & control the people's feelings, hopes and conduct. And the GIORGIUS - GIORGI families experienced it all.

History shows that Ancient Roman leaders, better and for much longer than any other Western leaders - of politics, commerce, all professions including education and religion - understood the exploitable characteristics & needs of the masses. For a thousand continuous years those Roman leaders succeeded in both (a) inspiring their followers to exert and sacrifice for development of the greatest, most enlightened civilization known to Mankind, and (b) persuading as well as tyrannizing the people to endure cruel subjugation, inequities, hypocrisy, indignities, savagery, probably as extreme as any recorded in History. Such is the cultural heritage of the GIORGIUS - GIORGI family.

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### *** ### Interestingly, experts speculate on if the geologically rapid disappearance of Neanderthal and simultaneous appearance of Cro-Magnon correlate. The last great glacial period is estimated to have ended less than 18,000 years ago. This was during the geologically short period of time when the homo genus form of Neanderthal was still being wiped out and replaced by, or evolving to, (no scholar seems to be certain of which) the Homo Sapiens form of modern Cro-Magnon Man. Expert studies show that by circa 10,000 years ago, our Homo Sapiens ancestors further evolved to our present stage - which is immodestly named Homo Sapiens Sapiens, meaning Man not merely wise ... but doubly so!

sapienza = wisdom, knowledge

sapiente = scholar, learned person

sapere = knowledge, learning, know-how

*** Thucydides, Greek historian (471? - 400 BC) *** Aristotle, Gr. philosopher (384 - 322 BC) ***

The following information was gleaned, during several extended visits to Italy between 1972 and 1988, from: (a) long discussions with elder relatives in Roma, Latina and Sezze (called Setia in ancient times) of Italy, (b) scanning written records and archaeologic finds of l'Universita` di Roma, Community, Church, National Archives, History books, construction features of the Church and of the Giorgi paternal house. This information is of special interest to family members who believe that: Although each of us naturally remains uniquely individual, we all unavoidably share in common the historic legacy and particular personal characteristics genetically passed on by our predecessors. Therefore, the better we understand what were their qualities, circumstances and performances, the better understood becomes our personal background - that important genetic-historic context which offers opportunity to better know ourself. For any interested American descendant of Cesareo and Giulia Giorgi, then, the following is offered:

The hilltop two-story GIORGI paternal house totals about 2000 square feet of living space that was long ago incorporated into base structure of an ancient stone fortification. Archaeologists estimate that the existing foundation and solid core of lower walls were first constructed - between 800 and 700 BC - by a late Bronze Age Latin Pagus (group of `familias' federated for religious and/or warfare purposes), in the heartland of territory that later became ancient Rome's Latium. Between 800 and 750 BC, the foundations, cisterns and rough-stone lower portions of the fortress were cut into bedrock and stone blocks were interlocked along the military crest of that hilltop on which that ancient Latin Pagus of farmers, shepherds, horse-raisers and cattlemen took refuge and defended themselves against attacks and sieges of enemy Sabines, ???, ??? during the ??? wars fought for control of the fertile plains of Latium. Archaeologists deduce that the higher levels of dressed stone probably were put up not earlier than 725 BC or so - i.e., shortly after the Greeks, in 750 BC, founded their first seaport colony on the Italian Peninsula, called Cumae, about 120 km. southeast from Sezze, less than 100 km SE from the SE border of Latium. Tools and know-how needed to do the dressed stone work at Sezze way back then, say the specialists, probably were obtained from the Cumae Greeks. (Ref: M. Cary, Durant, Cristofani)

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Regarding CUMAE (Cyme), presently CUMA Archaeological Site: Earliest Greek Colony in Italy, founded circa 750 BC. Located near south end of Golfo di Gaeta, opposite to Pozzuoli (on Golfo di Napoli) on peninsula pointing to Isola d'Ischia. In c. 524, 505, and 474 BC Greeks repelled the Etruscans' furthest advances south at CUMAE and CAPUA, further inland. Greeks from CUMAE founded NEAPOLIS (NAPOLI) in c. 600 BC. Archaeologists think that the Latinis at SETIA (SEZZE ROMANO) began to dress the stone (used to build up the lower courses of their rough stone fortress) by improving tools and adopting stone-cutting techniques learned from the CUMAE GREEKS - between c. 750 and 725 BC. The change from rough-cut to dressed stone is seen in the upper levels of the wall core of the GIORGIUS- GIORGI house. Also evident is the introduction of mortar in the construction seams - archaeologically estimated to have occurred in the late First Century or very early Second Century AD, a few decades after the Romans learned the making of mortar (by burning lime) from pre-historics in present Scotland ... to whom the Romans passed on the bagpipes, which Romans adopted from Eurasians!

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When scrutinized with archaeologic guidance, the house illustrates progressive stages of human stone construction, from Mankind's Bronze-Copper-Iron Ages to the Modern. A cross-section of the northwest rear corner is exposed where loose ground eroded away from the top two to three feet of foundation, down the slope that leads upward to the stables at basement level of the house. According to Archaeologist explanation, this cross-section reveals how the bedrock was cut to (a) form, as the oval interior of a giant-sized amphora, a water cistern (probably for emergencies during war-time sieges), (b) the basement floor slightly pitched toward the wide entry for horses to their stalls, and (c) the base upon which were fitted undressed stone blocks, some 18" to 24" thick, for walls that rose about six feet above ground level. This work of cutting into bedrock for a cistern, gaining levels for a pitched floor and footings for walls, making blocks of rough stone and fitting them for fortress walls, experts say, must have been done before those primal Latins had access to the more efficient tools and techniques of dressing stone that were first demonstrated on the Italian Peninsula by Greeks who founded the colony of Cumae on the Tyrrhanean Sea in about 750 BC. (Romans gave the name "Graici", Anglicized GREEKS, to people of the Ancient World who had been known as "Hellenes" before the rise of Rome.) Therefore, it is deduced that the dressed stone construction used to face the pre-750 BC walls, thus thickening them to about three feet at base and heightening them to roughly twenty feet above front ground level, between 750 and 600 BC.

*** MORTAR after campaign for Britain -

Such construction of dressed stone probably had been learned from location of the world during a period of territorial conflict among: prehistoric Apennine Aborigines; Ligurians (name given to a race of people who were prevalent throughout Italy during Neolithic times and persisted into the Copper & Bronze Age); and Sicels, whose region of origin is not yet known but who settled also in Sicily across the Tyrrhenian Sea. ( Refer Chapt. II, M. Cary's A HISTORY OF ROME)

Historians and Archaeologists explain that, until roughly 1000 BC, volcanic activity of Mounts Alban and Lepinus kept uninhabitable most of the territory that almost 500 years later became called Latium of Ancient Roma. *** %% ## *** Subsequently, the conglomerate of early settlers, thought to have been mountain Aborigines, Ligurians and Sicels, evolved into clan-like societies that formed into village-like organizations called "pagi", in size comparable to small English counties. For purposes of common strength in warfare before the rise of Roma, groups of "pagi" would confederate into larger units which ancient Romans called *** %%% &&& $$$ &&& %%% ***

Past developments explain the coming of the present. The better one understands his/her biological, historical and environmental background, the more improved his/her perspective on understanding today's self and circumstances. At very least, one's interest in self will be enriched by knowledge of blood-line predecessors and events which caused or directly led to her/his present existence. Of course, many learn very little, and care even less, of their family background; but how much more colorful and interesting to know from whom and what you were produced! The Giorgi paternal house is a tangible family resource, stone-hard evidence, with human habitation continuity of between 2694 and 2794 years - most, possibly all, of which by the GIORGIUS-GIORGI family line. How interesting, fascinating, exciting for a living descendant to learn of direct family involvement in many of Western Civilization's greatest events - from the founding of Ancient Roma to thee last decade of our 20th Century! Such learning possibly may even help inspire some young GIORGI, even in America, to strive for greatness ... because, in learning of family continuity, one cannot help but reflect upon the high order of human qualities and characteristics that must account for the survival of family lineage that is traceable, by virtue of evidence centered at the paternal house setting, directly as far back as 637 AD and deductively to the prehistorics who constructed the fortification and house therein at least two Centuries before Roma was founded! %%% *** ### %%%

Historians conclude that the descendants of these early human inhabitants who contested this region became called Latins, and the region Latium. - volcanically formed half way down the south slope of Italy tribes called ..... ..... ...... .... . is located on a hilltop overlooking Via Appia Antica and the Latina flatland about 60 kilometers southeast of the Eternal City. Home turf of the GIORGI horse-raising family is that alluvial "pianura", or plain, that stretches from "la catenata dei Monti Albano, M. Lepinus & M. Semprevisa", (i.e. chain of the Alban Hills & Mounts Lepinus & Semprevisa) to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Family work done on horse-back familiarize them with every hill and dale of the territory that stretches down the Italian boot, from Anzio, past the historic promontory of Circeo, to lovely Terracina by the sea. (Circeo is where the hero Odysseus, in Homer's ODYSSEY, stopped at the "grotto dei capri", roughly 1200 years before Christ. GIORGIs frequently treat house guests to a taste of history more ancient than Roman, by escorting them to that exciting "cave of the goats" of Homeric fame.)

The family functioned on that land area of Roma's southeast environs - between Anzio and Terracina, the Alban Hills and Tyrrhenian Sea - since an undeterminable date of antiquity, probably from before the yet-legible name GIORGIUS was chiseled into a stone lintel over the entrance to horse stalls that were constructed into the rear ground level of the portion of ancient structure that predates the founding of Roma!

The oldest portions of the nearby stone church has a subterranean crypt inscribed with GIORGIUS, and is staunchly believed to be the family ancestral sepulchre. Neither bones nor records exist to either prove or disprove this belief; but fragments of parchment manuscript, presently protected as antiquity treasure by Italy's Direzione Generale Antichita` e Belle Arti, do list the GIORGI name as parishioners as far back as 637 AD.

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With loss of centrally controlled standards of the Roman Empire's universal language, Latin, the separate and then comparatively isolated regions and localities developed differing languages and major dialects. The greater was the distance from Roma, the greater became those changes. Since Sezze is located in the heartland of Latium, an easy day's horse ride from Roma's "Centro Antica", Latin sentence structure and idiomatic phrases remained firmly imbedded in the local dialects of the new language called Italian - in Sezze, proudly called "dialetto di Sezze Romano".

According to GIORGI elders, such is the background that accounts for the name GIORGIUS having been streamlined to GIORGI during Western Civilization's Dark Ages. Thus is rationally bridged the recordless gap of 227 years that separate modern GIORGI from ancient GIORGIUS - by power of unshakable belief in rationale of family continuity that can be neither proved nor disproved. Power of this unwavering persuasion in family lineage can be likened somewhat to the steadfastness of their credence, since at least 637 AD, in the Judeo-Christian God.

Well-informed skeptics at times validly question the factual truth of either of these beliefs, neither of which can be proved true entirely on basis of hard facts. Family elders welcome the probing questions that open discussion on their favorite topic, about which they have much to say, persuasively. The GIORGIs consider their conviction in continuity of family history to be far more pragmatic than their faith in the anthropomorphic male God of the Bible, because the GIORGIUS-to-GIORGI rationale rests completely upon hard earthbound evidence of verifiable personalities, events, dates and locations, free of mysticism.

Yet, interestingly, certain devout members of family - e.g. two sisters of Marco's father who were nuns married to and in service of Jesus Christ - piously expressed rhetoric willingness (not validated by deed) to die, if necessary, in defense of their sureness in religious rationales that levitate, without logical means of support, to lofty extremities of mystic abstraction. But the virtuous sisters openly admitted they would have risked neither limb nor life to defend the reasoning used to bridge chronicle gaps in the otherwise well-documented continuity of family.

A small minority of such heaven-minded GIORGIs often favor mysticism over reason that is verifiable by hard facts. For example, the nuns Peppinella and Quindalina firmly believed that:

(1) Apparitions of La Santa Madonna become visible at propitious times - seen in formations of clouds, foliage, effects of refracted "heavenly" light streaming through wavy-surfaced crystal panes and reflected in candle smoke above the Church altar during early morning and evening hours. Both Peppinella and Quindalina claimed to have been blessed by such mystic appearances at least every sunny Easter morning and at crisis times when members of family confronted mortality. The Madonna, they said, appeared to reconfirm the efficacy of their faith and to reassure the TRUTH of eternal peace for family devotees who keep that faith. When others could not see the apparition, claimed to have been clearly visible by Peppinella and Quindalina, the nuns calmly explained that such visions were revealed only to those of sufficiently strong faith.

(2) Real dangers are inherent in the "Malocchio", the malicious glance directed toward individuals or families by envious people - those who harbor sinister spirits of envy or jealousy that carry out the earthly harms implicitly felt or explicitly expressed in the curses and spells of "Malocchio" cast by evil individuals. As protection against such dangers, Peppinella and Quindalina provided (a) priest-blessed Madonna amulets for each family member, (b) incantations ritually recited in monotone, and (c) purgations, of select herbs and castor oil, that were administered to cleanse the innards of constipation - a physiologic symptom of evil spirits having intruded the body.

(3) The blessed Saint Christopher charms, furnished by Peppinella and Quindalina to family and close friends, provided a degree of saintly guardianship that helps avert travel accidents.

(4) In the Church NAVE, an enameled wood statue of La Madonna, with beautiful facial serenity carved in tradition of Michelangelo, can be seen to weep salty tears - usually during early afternoon hours, always on sultry days of late July and August. At beginning of this sacred phenomenon, the Church's largest bell singly is made to toll a long series of three rings to the community, and a visiting Bishop conducts a special ritual:

(a) He first washes his hands in a polished silver basin and dries them with a white linen hand towel.

(b) Saltiness of the tears is confirmed by the Bishop tasting a specimen taken from a cheek of the Madonna by a delicate toothpick touch. This confirmation is manifested to the congregation by his kneeling before the Madonna and crossing himself while uttering some incantation in Latin.

(c) He then blesses the water in two large ceramic pitchers, holds the pitchers directly under the Madonna's chin to collect a drop or two of tears which very slowly drip into the holy water of each pitcher, places a pitcher on each of two tables draped with white linen and positioned on the NAVE (congregation) side of the stone balustrade that sets off the High Altar and Apse.

(d) After a brief sermon on the Holy Mother's compassionate mourning for Mankind's sins of the Earth, during which well-publicized current examples are cited, the Bishop offers a closing supplication for forgiveness and invites all individuals of the congregation to partake of a sip of that holy water containing the greatly diluted tear(s) which a priest at each table pours sparingly into tiny disposable paper cups. Nuns, seated in the front pews on both sides of the center aisle, first file past the table on their respective side of the NAVE to: individually accept a tiny serving, cross themselves, sip, discard the emptied paper container into a waste basket at end of the table and walk with well-trained humbleness out a side exit. Many of the congregation follow the pattern set by Nuns - to mood sounds of recorded classical music. The entire special service lasts less than an hour.

(5) The ten inches tall ceramic Madonna, in a niche cut out of the stone house front, approximately ten feet above street level, was placed generations ago with a "Fiamma di Vesta" at her feet. This Virgin Mother is symbolized as keeper of the sacred flame that protects life and continuity of family. The Madonna and flame are Christian versions of the ancient Roman religious functions of the Vestal Virgins who kept continually burning the flame of Goddess Vesta - for Roman life and continuity of "familia", which included its slaves and clients. This GIORGI Madonna's flame in the niche was first produced by a small glazed terra cotta oil lamp that later was converted into a candle holder, and recently has been electrified so that a tiny bulb is kept lit - behind a modern covering of glass pane. The Christian usage of symbolic statue and eternal flame are carry- overs of ancient Romans' Pagan beliefs and practices, which previously had been adopted from their pre-historic predecessors and conquered societies.

(6) The small terra cotta talisman, of the ancient God Janus' head with two faces, that is nailed to the wood front door frame of the GIORGI residence, represents the protective spiritual watching of all entries into and exits out of the house.

The "Malocchios", amulets, incantations, purgations, charms, talismans, weeping or sweating or bleeding statues and eternal flames are all carry-overs that demonstrate continuity of pagan beliefs and practices of ancient Roman, Greek and Eurasian religions that have been incorporated into Christianity of the GIORGIs.

Within the paternal household, each child is brought up to respectfully learn of this continuity and cherish its tangible symbols; because this knowledge and understanding explains most directly why, who and what they are today - individually and as family. It is reasonable to expect that some individuals of each generation did drop out of family continuum at Sezze; but evidently, not in sufficient numbers to end family line.

Understanding of causal past enriches the present lives of family individuals who are able to realize that without sufficient unity there could not have been continuity. Respectful understanding and celebration of their direct connection to the historic past makes today's life struggle more colorful, interesting, fun, caringly meaningful - for every family member who is aware, sensitive and wise enough to appreciate the richness of his/her cultural background. None of this matters much to those who fail to develop awareness and interest - for they know not what they miss; i.e. they enjoy the dubious advantage of the "only goodness of ignorance" ... the bliss of not carrying burdens of responsible concern that always, but always, accompany the human capacity to know, care, love compassionately and altruistically.

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Even though the premises employed by both beliefs, in family continuity and God, do not logically prove the conclusions to be undeniably true, all in each generation of GIORGIs at their paternal Sezze Romano house are indoctrinated to develop mind-sets that consider the inculcation to be absolutely true. Only those who leave the paternal setting, for reasons of marriage, military service, or to seek fortunes in far-away alluring places such as North Africa and the Americas, have demonstrated sufficient emancipation from both beliefs to be capable of realizing that (1) enough could have happened during the 227 year gap of documentation between 410 AD and 637 AD to invalidate the rationalized continuity of GIORGIUS to GIORGI; and (2) recent scientifically acquired knowledge provides a reliable base for awareness that the concept of God cannot be logically restricted to descriptions of a personified Being who somehow looks like a male human.

Such emancipation from traditional belief, if not exercised responsibly, becomes as retrogressive to the individual as is rebellion to the rebel or drop-out who lacks a genuinely validated worthy cause. The resulting personal losses, of poorly conceived insurrection against, or cut-out from, time-tested family tradition, always exceed the selfishly desired gains; because no person raised in a law-abiding, God-believing, history-conscious family can remain so extremely ignorant as to be able to completely free him/herself of haunting questions regarding his/her past - the past from which were inherited the biologic-spiritual characteristics in his/her make-up today.

The GIORGIs who left the ancient Sezze home setting are more capable, than are those who remain at home, of removing the `absolute' from their continuing understanding of God and the GIORGIUS-GIORGI continuity. These differences, in views and personal commitments, between family "wanderers" and those who remain at home in Sezze, cause heart-rending family arguments whenever an "avventuriere", adventurer, of family returns for reunion at the paternal house. The sister Nuns argued to save each "wanderer's soul", the elders in residence to uphold "onore e responsabilita` di famiglia" and "amore di Dio"; and the visiting returnee always falls short of persuading the others that he/she has fully kept or improved upon the Faith in family history and God.

Records of the successive Communal Governments were destroyed many times during the long sequence of marauding barbarians and city-state wars of the Dark and Middle Ages. However, horses remained, always in demand - by whoever pillaged, conquered, governed, resisted and survived such savagery in that midland region of Roma's Latium; and the "mediatori di cavalli" family GIORGIUS-GIORGI remarkably endured, at the same home base, as major producers of horses in those environs of Sezze Romano.

GIORGI elders point out that, just as their riding horses were produced in our time for wealthy families and the military, so were they produced for nobility and armies of the Renaissance (Rinascimento), Middle and Dark Ages (Medioevo), and Antiquity (Antichita`) periods. Colorful tales proudly are told of the GIORGIUS-GIORGI horses that must have been used in the long series of Western Civilization's most historic events which occurred during the thousand years that Roma Antica was epicenter of Western World affairs.

Reviews of history are made during family discussions to tie in, suasively as possible, the family's documented and largely rationalized involvement in celebrated happenings that define developments of Western Civilization. Examples usually are cited in reverse chronological order to establish, convincingly as possible, the family continuity in horse-raising.

Examples: In recent modern times, GIORGI-raised riding horses were sold to: families of industrial tycoons in northern Italia; "cavallerizza" (riding) schools; foreign horse breeders; and the military for pageantry "parata cavallata" - rides of cavalry squadrons in flashy uniforms of the Napoleonic era, clinking sabers and regalia of the Napoleonic era that, today, frequently are seen trotting through Villa Borghese city park of Roma. During the 1930s, GIORGIs produced horses for "parata cavallate" by dress cavalry squadrons of King Vittorio Emmanuele and Mussolini.

Soon after turn of the 20th Century, Marco's father Cesareo, as an eleven-year-old on school vacation, accompanied his Zio (uncle) Antonio (brother of Cesareo's father Ottavio) who delivered four stud stallions to a horse-breeding farm at Roanoke, Virginia. Accidental death of this Zio Antonio in Virginia and the stranding of young Cesareo in Roanoke led to the start of a GIORGI family in America. When US Immigration authorities asked pre-puberty Cesareo to spell his name, the intimidated lad pronounced each letter in Italian. The recording official correctly understood Cesareo's pronunciation of all the letters except the `i'; which, in Italian, sounds exactly as the English `e'. Consequently, the Roman GIORGI was recorded as GEORGE, and CESAREO was anglicized to CAESAR by a typist of US Immigration agency. CESAREO was too young, unaccompanied, uneasy, completely unfamiliar with American language and customs to have the errors corrected. Consequently, the Roman GIORGI in Italia became GEORGE in America.

GIORGI horses were ridden by: Garibaldi's Thousand Red Shirts of the Risorgimento movement for unification of Italia between 1860-70; also by French forces of Napoleon III that fought in Italia -first to support the Cavour-led reunification cause against the occupying Austrians in 1859, and later against the combined reunification battalions of Kingdom of Sardinia & Garibaldi, to protect Pope Pious IX's coercive control over Papal States which included Roma. Marco's great grandfather Julio (1860 Campaign) and grandfather Ottavio (1870 Campaign), on GIORGI horses, fought with these "Risorgimento" forces that finally were victorious in liberating Roma on 20 September 1870. That victory gained independence for all the previously Papal States, declared the Eternal City capital of modern Italia, and restricted the Pope's secular reign to Vatican City within Roma; and GIORGI men and horses participated!

In celebration of the victory's 1890 anniversary, photos were taken of elderly Julio and his son Ottavio, on horseback, wearing their old misfitting uniforms, and sporting distinctive GIORGIUS-GIORGI patrician noses.

Communal and family documents, sketches, photos and remembrance of old-timers substantiate the elders' stories of family horse-raising only as far back as the early 19th Century. To support imaginative family stories that date back to antiquity, elders point out: the fragment of Church parchment mentioning GIORGI as "mediatori di cavalli", together with another fragment considered to be of same age, dated 637 AD; the width and height dimensions of the stone entrance (with name GIORGIOUS chiseled into the lintel) to stalls that must have been constructed specifically for horses kept within ground-level rear space of the fortress structure segment that also served as family residence for at least as far back as Roman Antiquity; surrounding ground elevations that have not changed through the centuries, in contrast to most elevations of antiquity, because of bedrock upon which rests the massive stone portion of the two-level structure that has been continuously inhabited and maintained.

These still-functioning relics of antiquity provide the basis and stimulate the high imagination needed for many fascinating stories of how Giorgius-raised sons and horses must have participated in great expeditions and events that marked the millennium of glorious rise and inglorious decline of Roma Antica.

These stories and fables are told such as to present family history as having occurred within framework of the grand-scale history of Roma, the GIORGI cultural heritage. The Roman moral most often taught the children by these stories is that families, like great societies, are never fragmented or conquered from without ... unless family members first weaken and destroy their own bonding from within.

During a series of visits to the GIORGI paternal household between 1972 and 1984, Marco listened to many such stories related by GIORGI elders in their home setting of antiquities - and learned about Roman History, always entwined with "onore di famiglia" and "amore di Dio".

Marco had been raised to respect the family's historic legacy that, according to Church records, religious and secular rituals, and spoken stories passed on by each generation to the next, dates back to Roman antiquity, undoubtedly well before historic Christ.

Examples: Today's rituals of spring (Santa Pasqua) and autumn harvest celebrations (raccolta e vendemmia) continue the family usage of Pagan symbols and recited supplications to deistic powers - powers which the pre-Christian GIORGIUS must have revered as separate Gods and Spirits, and the Christian GIORGIs now worship as aspects of the singular God of the Bible. For Easter house adornment, contemporary GIORGIs prepare wood flats of soil into which are meticulously planted a variety of grain seeds. Light-proof covers, in shapes of the cross and peace doves, are carefully placed over select seeds so that they germinate and sprout yellow-white when deprived of sunlight needed for manufacture of chlorophyll. On Easter morning, the covers are removed to display the resulting compositions of yellow-white surrounded by two or more shades (according to grain seeds selected) of sprouts that developed green by process of chlorophyl in sunlight. This technique of producing decorative religious symbols is exactly the same as probably was practiced by GIORGIUS during Roman antiquity, who, instead of crosses and doves, designed figures of deities and spirits such as: Bona Dea, the good Goddess who enriched wombs and fields; Terra Mater, of divine fertility; Juno, God of power within males and females to beget; Pomona, for orchards; Fauna, for cattle and Pales for pasturage; Saturn, for sowing and Ceres, for crops; Fornax, for baking corn in the oven; Maia, spirit of the season; even Sterculus, for piles of manure!

In one significant sense, Pagan GIORGIUS were not as presumptuous as are Christian GIORGIs in conceptualization of God. Unlike ancient Greeks, the ancient Romans did not presume to be able to correctly describe any God or Spirit in terms of them actually having corporeal or human-like form. Romans believed Gods and Spirits to be abstractions - intangible powers or forces or qualities or characteristics that inhabit the certain material creatures or things which, consequently and very clearly understood by religious Romans, were utilized to represent tangibly the spiritual abstraction therein that cannot itself be accurately described. Educated Romans did not confuse their concepts of Gods and Spirits with the corporeal images used to symbolize the concepts. Knowledge and sophisticated reasoning were widely disseminated in their schools, on parchment publications, by orations and open debates in public forums. It was the extreme ignorance of Dark Ages that obscured the enlightenment of Roman Civilization, within which was utilized the best drawn from all the societies conquered and forced into the thousand years of Pax Romana.

For example, the sophisticated public religious understanding - that common understanding needed to differentiate between the representative corporeal image and the worshipped SPIRIT within -deteriorated in darkness of ignorance, such that the images (statues, animals, personages, geographic phenomenon, etc.) became objects of direct worship; instead of remaining merely the seen thing that was used to focus worship of a conceptualized invisible God or Spirit within. Great scholarly works on subjects now called Politics, Philosophy, Mathematics, Engineering, Theology, Human Rights, Slavery, Economics, Reading, Writing, Geography, Languages, and more, were destroyed or became inaccessible to the general public - who lived in the fears of lawlessness, and depended for security upon a relatively few castled landlords who fought among themselves for power control of land and serf labor.

Roman religion was loaded with divinities. Scholar Marcus Terentius Varro, who wrote between 116-26 BC, estimated the divinities to number 30,000. Aristocrat author Caius Petronius, who lived during the first six decades of AD, lamented that there were more Gods than men in some smaller towns of Italy such as Sezze. But saints as well as Gods were called "Deus" by ancient Latins, whose understanding of Gods, Spirits and Saints differed considerably from popular contemporary understanding; therefore, it would be misleading to suggest that the ancients generally were ignorant Pagans. Underlying the Roman multiplicity of God concepts were "popular beliefs in animism, fetishism, totemism, magic, miracles, spells, superstitions, and taboos, most of them going back to the prehistoric inhabitants of Italy". Carry-overs of these same beliefs and observances are in evidence throughout all Western countries today, including Italia - in churches, governmental institutions and private homes. But before passing degrading judgment on the people of any society, consider the fact that the same condition of ignorance-based, militantly held belief is found globally, in all cultures, all titled religions, their creeds and dogma.

***

In addition to the 637 AD date recorded on Church parchment and the name GIORGIUS chiseled into stone of both the Church subterranean sepulchre and the family's horse stall lintel, the GIORGI nose appears as a biologic distinction that also is traceable to Roman antiquity - traceable by: photographs of the most recent four generations, inked sketches of family patriarchs of the early 19th Century, and a classic profile sculpted as bas-relief (frieze) on an antique off-white marble panel mortared into the interior side of the exterior stone wall of a small corner bedroom facing the compact inner courtyard or ATRIUM. Archeologists have determined that the bas-relief profile had been set into the stone long after that wall was erected.

Again, no name is inscribed on the bas-relief and no documentation exists to confirm the profile being of a GIORGIUS; but the GIORGIs are inductively convinced that the bas-relief figure is of one of their patrician Roman ancestors - and boastfully point to the unmistakable likeness of their modern noses to that sculpted in the ancient marble panel set into the more ancient wall of their house, longer than 1584 years ago!

Commissioned by the national government's Direzione Generale Antichita` e Belle Arti, archeologists of l'Universita` di Roma have calculated that the marble frieze must have been mortared into the much older stone structure well before 410 AD. The profile's clearly recognizable condition is due to the protection provided by its position on an inner face of the massive stone structure never known to have been unoccupied.

Historically, this central portion of the GIORGI house was an integral segment of the ancient heavy stone fortification system that, according to specialists of antiquity, initially was constructed between 800 and 700 BC, probably before union of those tribal villages - clustered among the "Mons Capitolinus, Aventinus, Palatinus, Esquilinus, Quirilinalis, Viminalis, Caelius and Janiculum" - that founded "the most famous of man's habitations" of Western Civilization, Roma. The lower stone level of the paternal house is a remnant of that fortification, thought to have been constructed toward end of Neolithic (polished stone) and early Bronze Age, during a period of tribal wars among the Latins, Sabines and Etruscans for control over territory that later became the Roman province of Latium.

Consequently, since Mussolini's regime, the GIORGI structure has been declared part of the National Monument that includes many of the neighborhood buildings. By Italian Law, no changes may be made in those designated buildings without prior approval and regulatory supervision of governmental authorities. The GIORGIs feel, at once, outraged by the bureaucratically imposed restrictions on what may be done for house improvements and proud of the historic legacy of family and residence.

Family readily acknowledges the fact that all living humans necessarily are descendants of the ancients - whether descendancy dates back all the way to the theologically believed Adam and Eve or to the first hominids (of 3½ million years ago or earlier) from whom, according to scholarly studies, all Modern Mankind has evolved. However, special pride is taken in being able to argue, on basis of hard evidence utilized by much inductive reasoning, that the lineage of today's family name is quite reasonably traceable directly to Ancient Romans named GIORGIUS who resided in the same house longer than 1584 years ago!

When skeptics raise the valid question of documented proof of such claim, the GIORGI response lists the following:

(a) continuity of family name GIORGI as "mediatori di cavalli" (horse dealers) at the same residence is recorded in communal and Church documents as far back as 637 AD;

(b) GIORGIUS facsimile inscriptions are in stone lintel of the horse stall of the GIORGI house and on a sepulchre in the bowels of the Church;

(c) the marble bas-relief profile mortared into a stone wall of the house structure archeologically has been dated prior to 410 AD;

(d) History provides the rationale that, during the chaotic Dark Ages following the fall of Roma, records were destroyed and not maintained, and the `US' endings were dropped from many Roman names during evolvement of language from Latin to Italian dialects; and

(e) no evidence is known to exist that would discredit the claim of GIORGIUS having been shortened to GIORGI, or show that the GIORGIUS family line had perished or been dislocated - or even had stopped raising and selling horses. Then, when the subject is discussed with skeptics, the burden of proof is shifted from family to the skeptics who, to date, have not been able to produce evidence that disproves the rationalized 1584+ years of GIORGIUS-GIORGI continuity.

This compelling faith, in trueness of GIORGI reasoning, remains unshakable among only those of family who live amidst antiquities of their historic legacy. Elders describe this faith, kept by every generation and passed on to the next, as being the same that has helped keep the GIORGIs capable of enduring and surmounting uncounted trials of extinction-threatening crises for the past fifteen centuries and longer - at the same home setting!

The family is spiritually kept by the faith they keep. Family bonding is strongly reinforced by this shared understanding of their cherished legacy - the renewing spirit of which continuously sustains and strengthens self confidence of members able to directly identify themselves with the remarkable historic continuity of the paternal household. This enculturated faith, evidently held for centuries, has proved to be the enduring cement of unity over the long run of family, that has resisted the divisive tendencies inherent in tensions which naturally arise from diversity of individual make-up, life vicissitudes, differing destinies. Yes, of course, the bonding cement eroded for individuals who left the family fold; but until now, sufficient numbers of virile males were produced and remained at home to perpetuate the GIORGIUS-GIORGI lineage - continuously for at least the amazing period of 1584 years!

***

By observing attitudes and practices of living GIORGIs who are raised and remain within the paternal house setting, it appears that the enculturated common understanding of their historic legacy enhances common respect for and appreciation of the qualities and characteristics of their predecessors that best account for success of family continuity. From infancy, children are indoctrinated with fables, accounts of historic figures and events, ancestral heroes - all glorifying the notions of: (a) "onore" (honor), the guiding principle of the family terrestrial life struggle and (b) "amore di Dio", the assurance of their identification with the spiritual of existence and the eternal peace that follows human death.

Elders of each generation indoctrinate the younger with the conviction that the long-lived GIORGIUS-GIORGI continuity has been made possible by their faith in and practice of, however imperfectly, the same human virtues that accounted for Roma's thousand years of glory and enlightenment: virtues of character and morality, i.e. "onore" and "amore di Dio". Children are encouraged to avoid becoming skeptics to extremes that incur the terrible cost of losing faith in honor and love, merely because creeds of religion sooner or later become intellectually disreputable, incredibly contradictory to facts of existence. Fallacies in creeds, dogma, and of hypocrites who play false and presumptuous roles as God's representatives on Earth, argue the elders generation by generation, only demonstrate the falsity of those creeds, dogma and hypocrites. Such fallacies in no way disprove existence of the all-important spiritual dimension of human make-up and, therefore necessarily, of the World of which Mankind is part. Otherwise, how would humans have the spirit individually felt within everyone, if spirit is not in the make-up of existence?

The faith, with which children are inculcated by GIORGI elders of the patriarchal household, is far more fundamental than creed and dogma professed by fallacious hierarchy of any Church. It recognizes actuality of intangible SPIRIT that must be as immemorial as existence itself, and not definitively describable by human intellect - that wondrous capacity of intangible Mind that most distinguishes humans from all else on Earth - that marvel of the amazingly presumptuous human brain that is able to function with mathematical precision while also running wild with nonsensical metaphysical speculation that contradicts facts, yet is called religious TRUTH. The falsities in Man-crafted religious teachings that are preached to be TRUTH about the SPIRIT, GIORGIs argue in the paternal household, merely reveal the falsity in human teaching - not at all the falsity of SPIRIT! True faith in SPIRIT admits the fact that human mind just plainly cannot definitively describe what is infinite and intangible.

The gap in continuity of hard evidence to support the claim of GIORGI biological heredity of the Roman patrician nose is much greater than the 227 years of Dark Ages time lapse in records between the names GIORGIUS and GIORGI. No written or spoken stories of the nose exist to bridge the time gap between the marble bas-relief (dated prior to 410 AD) and the two ink sketches of GIORGI patriarchs on horseback of the early 19th Century - a gap of more than 1400 years! Yet, the striking likeness - of noses sculpted, sketched and recently photographed - is unmistakable!

Another 50 to 60 recordless years passed between the ink sketches and the time-stained photo of Marco's great grandfather Julio who, thirty years before having posed for the 1890 photo, had served as a forty-one year old "cavalleggiero" (light cavalryman) of Garibaldi's first "Thousand Red Shirts", who in May of 1860 "launched from Genoa [their] picturesque adventure" of field support for the Risorgimento movement eloquently articulated by the universal nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-72). The nasal form of this Julio appears as a facsimile of those previously sculpted and sketched.

A second old photo, stashed in a drawer of a wood cabinet at end of a corridor in the GIORGI house, is a faded image of Marco's heavily mustachioed grandfather Ottavio, dated 20 September 1890, shows him on horseback and in the "Garibaldino" uniform worn at age twenty when he entered Roma on 20 September 1870 with the Garibaldi unit of the Italian forces that were victorious over the French who were protecting the Pope's reign over Roma and adjacent Duchies. Although faded, grandfather Ottavio's nose appears as having come from the same mold as did the others.

A third photo, enlarged and framed in excellent condition, hangs in the dining area of second level of the house. It is of Marco's clean-shaven uncle Mario, younger brother of Cesareo, who served with distinction as a "cavallieroleggiero" against the Austro-German Army in the Great War of 1914-18. These 1890 and 1918 photos are used to substantiate colorful stories told of family "onore di famiglia", "amore di Dio", loyalty, courage and valor demonstrated in modern times, as continuity of qualities, characteristics and virtues passed on as legacy by their ancient family predecessors. ***

%% ** $$ ## ** 77 @@

These markings had been inerasably imprinted on the fateful night of 28 November 1950, when shot down over North Korea.

The A-26 he was piloting "on the deck", that stormy night with temperatures at -25° Fahrenheit, in attack of a Red Chinese Column crossing the Yalu River from Manchuria at Man-Po-Jin Port of Entry, was bracketed by skillfully directed rapid fire from a quad 40 mm AA gun battery. In standard Air Force safety fashion, Marco was nylon-strapped, in his bucket seat, to the armor steel plate designed to protect the pilot's back. When the stricken plane tumbled into the mountain-top, the armor plate tore loose with a section of the main spar to which it was welded, and crunched toward the eight 50 caliber machine guns packaged into the ship's nose that first struck the immovable mountain.

Caught in that instantaneously reduced space between the aircraft's steel masses of forward nose guns and armor plate at his back, Marco's face was slammed into gunsight and instrument panel. Residual effects of that impact now, at close range, were visible as well-annealed scars.

Overall mollifying effects of time and weathering of skin had mellowed the appearance of this facial topography - such that Marco's rugged looks provoked inquisitive interest of the discerning viewer, not at all the queasy pity usually felt toward human disfigurement.

Marco trudged several paces up the gentle incline of beach to a large block of lava stone on which he had placed his eyeglasses, a beach towel and a sporty walking cane whose rounded bronze top could be unscrewed for access to a long vial, usually filled with robust Christian Brothers brandy or dark Bacardi rum. As a sort of personal ritual, he enjoyed "cane-nipping" - but only for internal warming when chilled from exercise in sea water or by the cooling Trades during sea-side walks at eventide. Even when not nipping, he felt good knowing the bracing snort that relieved pain, by relaxing spasm, was as handily close as the valued walk stick.

The porous, black-brown outcrop of cooled lava was a natural accent feature, remindful of the beach site's volcanic origin. Its texture, coloration and unyielding mass contrasted interestingly, beautifully, with the surrounding pale-gold sands that daily were rearranged by every in-coming high tide wave of the tropic sea. The outcrop's roughly five feet of height and location, some five yards from water's edge at low tide, provided Marco a convenient place to keep personal things dry while exercising in water; also, was the support to lean and place each foot against while drying off.

Long ago he had learned to habitually use towels to wipe dry all unscarred skin surface, but gently blot the flak and crash-scarred places on abdomen, left leg's inner thigh, right shin and toe. Having dried off, he put on the glasses, reached arms skyward in a stiffly swaying stretch to straighten the spine as much as possible in warmth of the tropic sun, wrapped towel as a lavalava around waist, picked up his companion cane and made a conscientious effort to walk, erectly as possible - instead of lapsing into the trudge gait usually forced on by chronic pain - the remaining distance of gentle beach incline to the lanai.

"How'd it go?" asked Jan from the kitchen opening as Marco climbed the three steps onto the lanai and leaned his cane against the railing.

"So so, dammit. ... While walking up the beach, I caught myself again cussing out Mother Nature's cruelty. Then, damned myself for being a complainer stupid enough to automatically blame a non-existent `Mother' for the natural fact of my pain! ... Mmmm, smells like bacon! ... Anything good in the Mail?" Marco explained, exclaimed and inquired, while spreading the towel over a drying rack on the lanai's sunbathed end.

Jan answered, "Mostly junk, with two bills and a personal to you - from some doctor in Michigan. They're on the table. If you quickly get into something dry, you can read the mail with lunch. We're having BLTs, salad and papaya. D'you want tea or a beer?"

"From Michigan, huh? Beer for me. I'll be right out.", replied Marco, walking to the shower and bedroom for a quick rinse and dry clothes.

"Shall I start the BLTs?", asked Jan, loudly. From the bedroom, he yelled back, "I'll be out in ten. Toast my bread ... please?"

In light-weight cotton sweat pants, jersey and socks, Marco returned as Jan was aligning strips of fried bacon from the skillet onto a doubled paper towel covering a dinner plate beside the stove top. He walked to the refrigerator, mumbling "Sure smells good.", removed a can of Old Milwaukee, picked up from the counter top a small platter of freshly washed and sliced onions, lettuce and tomatoes, and carried them to the lanai table that Jan already had set with a dish of papaya chunks, mayonnaise, salt, paper napkins, forks and knives.

To await Jan, he sat facing makai - giving a sweeping glance to the expansive view of Mokapu Peninsula across Kanehoe Bay on the right and open ocean to its left.

This seascape often affected deeply felt mood adjustments when Marco concentrated upon the phenomenon of everchanging color variations that projected outward - from the pale gold beach sands just off the lanai to the Pacific Ocean's distant dark horizon. The water's pastel shades of transparent turquoise along shoreline transformed gradually into translucent delicate blue-greens, all the way to the thin, bright white line of waves breaking along coral reef. Beyond, the variations of purple deepened to become a distant, opaque, very rich, singular dark blue which ended abruptly as distinctly defined horizon - that fine line separating Earth-bound beauty from infinite wonderment of the Heavens.

"Be with you in a minute." Jan announced, as Marco rapidly scanned and discarded envelopes containing bills and advertising that Jan had placed on the table.

Examining the one addressed in longhand, Marco read aloud from the return address: "Cotter ... Dr. H.L.Cotter, Jr., of Grand Rapids, Michigan ... Jan, were any of your, or my, doctors from Grand Rapids?"

"Cotter? ... No, I don't remember a Cotter, or any doctor from Michigan." replied Jan, coming to the table with the bacon and hot toasted bread. "Better make your sandwich while toast and bacon are still warm."

"Yeh." said Marco as he slit the envelope with the dinner knife, removed and spread open its one sheet of paper with a smaller "post-it" note stuck on the back side; and placed it, face up, beside his plate. Then, made himself a generous bacon, lettuce, tomato and onion sandwich; opened the beer can; toasted his "Buon Appetito" by tapping the can's bottom against top of Jan's large tea cup; sipped the brew and bit into the sandwich. "Good! This taste hits right on."

While chewing, he began reading silently the hand written letter beside his plate. At end of the first paragraph, Marco swallowed what remained of his first bite, put down the sandwich and picked up the letter, seriously explaining, "Good God, Jan, these words are from a companion in Hell of fifty years ago! This Cotter is a pilot who flew in some of the same combat formations as I - over Europe! Even over Berlin! Just listen to this ... but keep eating!"

Marco slid his chair a bit back and to the right, slung left leg over right one alongside the table, washed down an anti-inflammation Flurbiprofen capsule with two gulps of beer, and began reading aloud, intently: (Exact wording of ltr follows:)

"Hi, WW II B-17 Pilot,

I doubt that you remember me, but I'm sure you well remember 3/6/44 - first successful day-lite Berlin raid, eh?!!! In case your mind needs refreshing, you were flying off Capt. Brown's (Group leader) right wing& I was off his left wing. I believe this was your last mission, correct? - an extra one by you and 25th for the rest of your crew - eh? Also, a "memory brain crevice" tells me we ran into each other, Jan.(?)/1945, in a Columbus Ohio Hotel "Pub".

In any event, I am writing to confirm or deny my recollections of that Historic day of 3/6/44. I've read some WW II books & AF Newsletters re: that mission pertaining to the 388th & I disagree with the published account, for example the book "Target Berlin" by Jeffrey L. Ethell & Alfred Prue.

As I recall we lost one crew (flak) over Berlin & lost 6 more on return to England. These 6 were downed by German fighters - 4, I believe, making head-on attacks. On their last pass, Brown was hit, feathered at least #1 & aircraft was on fire, including fuselage area - also, Navigator's or Bombardier's (was Navigator's I learned later) chute had opened & accidently caught on aircraft & he was hopelessly blown up against the bottom of the tail area (I can "see" him so plainly, even today). Brown then banked left, causing me to throttle back completely, as it was difficult to miss him. Then, just as the fighters got in position to again attack us, our own fighters covered us – coming in at 6 O'clock, as they had received our distress calls & had re-taken off from England. I doubt if any of our formation would have made it if our fighters had not responded. Remember, we were 20 or 30 minutes late getting over Target Berlin, as a B-24 Group interfered with our route? - So we had to circle around Berlin & make our bomb run from East to West over Berlin.

Now, according to books, etc., Watts of low Squadron (see formation attached) was hit/ on fire/ cockpit smoke - unable to see & his aircraft came up & rammed Brown's aircraft, (Watts claims he was unaware of the mid air' collision - But was not able to see, anyway), which immediately caught fire. etc.. Not that it really matters that much, but I would be interested in learning what your memory dictates, OK? It seems I would (& you) have seen Watts' aircraft if book(s) are correct. - "Knocking" - Causing Brown to leave formation, etc..

Hope this finds you physically well & in good spirits - I envy you living in Hawaii.

/S/ Harry L. Cotter, Jr.

P.S.I stayed away from airplanes 18 yrs.. Then I started "fun" flying. From 1963-83, I owned, solely or in partnership, a Waco UPF-7; Starduster, too, with 180 Lyc.; & EAA Biplane (90 hp Cont.). After By-Pass (Coronary) Surgery I quit - but miss open cockpit biplanes, which all above named are.

- Got your address via Assoc.

Hope to hear from you

Best regards"

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

(1/17/94 comments to Bob: The above is an exact copy of wording and structure in Harry's letter. The only changes made at this writing are: a few spelling corrections and insertion of several commas. Bob, I know it needs rewriting for its purpose of setting off the first flashback in the story; but I want to share with you Harry's initial communication, as it is.)

{{Attach photo copy of Harry's sketch of only two Squadrons (of the 388th Bomb Group, Heavy) which flew the 3/6/44 "maximum effort" mission to Berlin. Actually, there were three full Squadrons in each of three full Groups that comprised each of the three Air Combat Bomber Wings that flew that day - i.e., 189 Heavy Bombers with 10 Airmen in each. Wings flew in Groups abreast, except for bombing runs which were made by individual Groups in column.

Hundreds of German twin and single engine Fighters engaged the Bombers. Additional hundreds of USAAF (at high altitudes) and RAF Fighters (at low level to strafe airfields) flew that day. At times, European high altitude skies between the coast and Berlin were filled with maneuvering planes and scarred with their contrails. Harry's sketch encircles only seven, of the 388th's nineteen Flying Forts which reached Berlin, that were shot down between Berlin and Brunswick; but does not indicate the other nine which did not return to Mecal Control that day. "Miss Jeannie" was one of the three shot up aircraft of our Group that made it back - all the way to home base, with several wounded aboard.

So, Bob, that day's high altitude blood-letting spectacular was a very big show; and Harry's letter and sketch refer to the three or four seconds of action during a single head-on attack by only four ME 109s. His remembrance is constrained to the scope of vision of a very busy pilot, "on oxygen", flying a Heavy Bomber in wing position of the Lead Flight of tight formation under enemy attack - at the moment his Lead plane goes out of control when hit by frontal 20 mm cannon fire and rammed in underbelly by the also-stricken Lead plane of the formation's Flight tucked in below the Lead plane's tail. Naturally, Harry's remembrance (of a flashing incident, of almost 50 years ago, from restricted view of pilot in those difficult circumstances) differs from remembrance of other survivors. Therefore, I'm attempting to write the story such that it allows for the differences, in survivors' remembrance, by describing a bigger context of overall chaos of that aerial combat: the flashing speed of action, the variation in views and predicament experienced by combatants at their respective stations; and give some significance of such individual experience, in respect to manifested attitudes and conduct pertaining to believed ideals, hypocrisy, love and hate in combat.}}

Bob, how does this first draft of an opening scene strike you? It is intended to lead into the first flashback to combat, when jargon and vernacular language become dominant. Does it start quickly enough? Does it begin to reveal enough of the protagonist? Does it say enough to begin stimulating reader interest or curiosity in the character and what brought him to his present condition? At this early stage of drafts (several have been done: on 3 character development outlines, 2 on chronology of events, 3 on opening scenes that may become useful in flashbacks. And I now think the story may well end in the same setting of its beginning - perhaps dramatically.), the overall design has not yet crystallized. The several ideas that seem good, are thus far proving difficult for me to articulate with satisfactory flow. I labor much too slowly, but have not yet lost desire and determination to continue - hoping to catch fire one of these days, such that my ideas come together well enough for easy reading that makes a decent statement. Next to commitments necessary for family health and survival, I've given this project priority of time and energy - whether I will be able to complete it or not.

P.S. Whenever you feel ready to thaw out a bit, our small guest bedroom and bath will be your's to use as you wish. Just let us know, to make certain no one else is using it.

*** *** ABOVE, BACK TO LOWER p.8, 1/17/94 COMMENTS TO BOB *** ***

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Having read it, Marco put the letter down beside his lunch plate, and placed left elbow on the table to rest his chin into the cupped left hand. With furrowed brow, he studied the flight formation diagram that Harry had sketched on the "Post-it" note sheet stuck onto the back side of the letter.

Jan stared at Marco's intense facial expression, for several moments of silence that respected his privacy of concentration upon the diagram; then remarked softly, "How will you handle this one?" And even more softly, "Can you remember details of something that happened half a century ago?"

Marco, totally absorbed by the diagram, did not hear the questions.

Having finished her lunch, Jan rearranged the condiments closer to Marco's plate and took her used plate to the sink. She was still cleaning lunch impedimenta off from the kitchen counter when Marco looked up. "Oh, your done. Sorry. Guess my mind just drifted off and forgot lunch."

"No problem, Hon." responded Jan while finishing to wipe the counter. "Remember, I have a Cancer Society call to make at Queen's Hospital." She had undergone radical mastectomy of the left breast four years ago. Now, under aegis of American Cancer Society, she volunteered service as a Cancer survivor who met with mastectomy patients, two or three days after their surgery. On the basis of experiential understanding, she was able to project reassurance, counsel and answer questions of these women in the same frightening personal crisis she had survived for four years thus far. She continued to Marco, "... And you were thinking of riding into town with me - for refills at Tripler while I'm with the new patient?"

"I remember," he replied, "but the prescriptions can be picked up anytime this week, and I prefer to soak in hot water a while. Then, I'd like to begin an answer to Cotter, perhaps. OK? I'll finish this sandwich and clean up my lunch mess. So, you can get yourself ready and take off. OK?"

"OK." responded Jan as she wrung out the wash cloth and draped it over the dish rack's edge to dry.

Marco finished lunch and was washing his utensils when Jan, freshened and dressed for the hospital visit, walked from the bedroom, through the living area, for the garage. "See you in about three hours. Think of anything else to be done in town?"

"Well, if there's time, you can pick up my refills at Tripler Pharmacy? ... but only if there's time. ... By the way, d'you remember exactly where we stored those boxes of old military mementos, Jan?"

"I think they're on the highest shelf in the garage. Gotta run, or I'll be late. Take care. See you about 4:00." Jan called back while hurrying out.

Marco waved good-bye; rinsed off his plate, knife, fork and placed them in the drip-drying rack beside the sink; covered the uneaten veggies with plastic and returned them to the refrigerator. Then, switched off the Kitchen lights, walked through the door into the garage and located four dust-covered cartons of military memorabilia at far end of the highest shelf. Using a stepladder, he took down the one marked WW II, swept off the thick layer of dust with a broom and carried it to the kitchen counter where he cut the tie cord with kitchen shears and wiped the old pasteboard down with a damp soapy dish rag before removing the top cardboard cover that had been telescoped over the 18" x 24" carton filled with packets of maps, files, photos and personal Airman combat flight equipment.

Marco felt good in being alone and at home as he carried the heavy box from the kitchen counter onto one end of the broad lanai table top. Items were removed with reverent care from the box and placed, one by one, on one long side of the table. These keepsakes represented attitudes, predicaments, values, relationships, momentous happenings, understanding and commitments of very long ago; all of which contrasted sharply with those of today, yet && ** %% the yesterday needed to be understood in order to more wisely/correctly understand who & what & why we are today ** %% $$ && . Each piece was handled contemplatively . A crumpled lambskin flyer's helmet with enclosed ear phones, metal brackets on which the oxygen mask had been clipped to snug tightly against facial contours, and attached British-made goggles were first set near the table-top corner. Then, along the length of that side of the table, he laid out: a US M3 dagger of 11½" overall length, with 6_" blade sheathed into a US M6 leather/steel scabbard stamped 1943; a 50 Caliber brass casing in which, as Aircraft Commander of the Bomber Air Crew, he had carried morphine syrettes on combat missions; a long strip of off-white nylon parachute fabric that had served as flight scarf; a pair of goatskin gauntlets with distinct thumb, index finger and mitten compartment for the remaining three fingers of each hand; stuffed into each gauntlet was a five-fingered white nylon glove; several folded maps of the British Isles and Europe, on some of which mission route lines with time notations were drawn; a time-deteriorated, OD colored "Escape Kit" made of waterproofed fabric, within which was wrapped a modest amount of beautiful French Franc notes, an "asshole compass", detailed maps of European regions printed in color on high quality waterproofed fabric, a black and white passport photo of himself dressed as a European farm worker, a miniature German - French - English Phrase Booklet, several yellowed APC tablets, an officially printed page of short German and French statements asking aid for the downed American Airman and promising recognition by the US Government; a small safety razor with a rust glob that had been blades; wrapped in a sheet of Red Cross stationery, several strands of "Chaff" - aluminum foil strips that were cut to precise wave lengths of German Radar, and dropped as "Window" operation to frustrate and misguide the enemy AA Batteries which were aimed by Radar; a large accordion-type folder of records such as USAAF & 8th AF Special Orders, Pilot's Log of missions flown, citations of awards, photos, some personal letters received during his first WW II Combat tour; a few folded sheets of "flimsies" - digestible paper on which sortie data was written during mission briefings, and which could be destroyed even by being swallowed if captured by the enemy.

Removing a cardboard horizontal spacer from the box, the lower compartment of contents were revealed; and since they represented the crucially important training basis for the memorabilia thus far removed from the box, Marco extracted and arranged the following as second row on the table: Aviation Cadet Pilot Log; Class 42-? Graduation Program, photos, clippings, Commi** && %%%

[1] Refer: W.Durant's Epilogue of CAESAR AND CHRIST, pp 665-72.

[2] Refer: Cary's A HISTORY OF ROME, p 768; E.R.Boak's A HISTORY OF ROME TO 565 A.D. pp 429-30; D.R.Dudley's THE ROMANS, pp 265-6; W.Durant's CAESAR AND CHRIST, pp 654-60.

[3]Some Historians think they must have previously migrated from eastern Mediterranean lands, across North Africa, through Sardinia and Sicily to northern Italy.

[4]Donald R. Dudley's THE ROMANS.

[5]Skeleton of "Lucy" found in East African deposits at Hadar, Ethiopia; National Geographic Cultural Atlas Of The Ancient World, PEOPLES AND PLACES OF THE PAST, p.12. Stanley's EARTH AND LIFE THROUGH TIME, p.579.

[6]Refer to writings of: Lucretius, Cicero, the AENEID, Horace, Pliny, Sextus Empiricus, Lucien, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Plutarch, Panaetius, Epictetus, Philo, Galen, Poseidonius, Dion Chrysostomus, Apollonius of Tyana, Plotinus, Origen, Cristofani, Michael Grant, M. Cary, Polybius, Durant.

[7]Stanley's EARTH AND LIFE THROUGH TIME.

[8]Refer to W. Durant's THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION, CAESAR AND CHRIST.

[9]Stanley's EARTH AND LIFE THROUGH TIME, p 588.

[10] Homo's PRIMITIVE ITALY, p 32. Toutain's ECONOMIC LIFE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, p 207.

[11]Stanley's EARTH AND LIFE THROUGH TIME, pp 578-84

[12]Stanley's EARTH AND LIFE THROUGH TIME, p. 573.

[1] Refer: W.Durant's Epilogue of CAESAR AND CHRIST, pp 665-72.

[2] Refer: Cary's A HISTORY OF ROME, p 768; E.R.Boak's A HISTORY OF ROME TO 565 A.D. pp 429-30; D.R.Dudley's THE ROMANS, pp 265-6; W.Durant's CAESAR AND CHRIST, pp 654-60.

[3]Some Historians think they must have previously migrated from eastern Mediterranean lands, across North Africa, through Sardinia and Sicily to northern Italy.

[7]Stanley's EARTH AND LIFE THROUGH TIME. [7]

[8]Refer to W. Durant's THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION, CAESAR AND CHRIST. [8]

[9]Stanley's EARTH AND LIFE THROUGH TIME, p 588.

[10] Homo's PRIMITIVE ITALY, p 32. Toutain's ECONOMIC LIFE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, p 207.

[11]Stanley's EARTH AND LIFE THROUGH TIME, pp 578-84.