| | Kilroy was here | |
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+3alice Abe F. March Dick Stodghill 7 posters | Author | Message |
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Dick Stodghill Five Star Member
Number of posts : 3795 Registration date : 2008-05-04 Age : 98 Location : Akron, Ohio
| Subject: Kilroy was here Wed Sep 16, 2009 5:56 am | |
| A Stodghill Says So blog:What better way to start the 500th Stodghill Says So blog than to find that Kilroy was here? Young people may not have heard about Kilroy, the greatest of all world travelers, but should they happen to journey to the moon they will find his face and simple message scratched in the dirt. So who was Kilroy? The latest edition of The Ivy Leaves, the magazine of the 4th Infantry Division Association, tells us he was a checker at a Quincy, Massachusetts shipyard during World War II. It was his job to mark the rivets that had been completed, but the riveters were on piecework so they'd erase the marks and get paid twice. James Kilroy put an end to that by writing, "Kilroy was here" at every place he checked. Then he began adding the little man with big eyes, a long nose and a single hair peering over a fence so the riveters would know they were being watched. It wasn't long before those ships were transporting sailors, soldiers and marines to the farthest corners of the globe. They were fascinated by the whimsical little figure and his message and decided to take him along on their adventures. Soon it was all but impossible for a serviceman to go anywhere without finding that Kilroy had been there ahead of him. It sometimes reached the point of being ridiculous. An underwater demolition team sneaked ashore on a Japanese occupied island to find enemy soldiers painting over a "Kilroy was here" sign. I have been among the very first Americans to reach certain places only to discover that Kilroy had been there ahead of us. Mischievous German soldiers had to have been responsible. So it seems only fitting that on this half-century blog, Kilroy was here. He's been everywhere else so why not? |
| | | Abe F. March Five Star Member
Number of posts : 10768 Registration date : 2008-01-26 Age : 85 Location : Germany
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:37 am | |
| Yes, I remember those signs. They even appeared on the walls of toilets - eyes watching.
Perhaps there should be a new sign. "Stodghill was here." Or should it be, "Stodghill was there?"
500 blogs. Wow! Enough for a book. |
| | | alice Five Star Member
Number of posts : 15672 Registration date : 2008-10-22 Age : 76 Location : Redmond, WA
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:42 am | |
| Put them in a book, Dick. I think you'd have a best-seller. |
| | | Shelagh Admin
Number of posts : 12662 Registration date : 2008-01-11 Location : UK
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:46 am | |
| Now that's a good idea! |
| | | Dick Stodghill Five Star Member
Number of posts : 3795 Registration date : 2008-05-04 Age : 98 Location : Akron, Ohio
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Wed Sep 16, 2009 10:02 am | |
| Cranking out 500 blogs doesn't seem like much to me. I wrote over 2,500 daily general interest columns, more than a thousand sports columns, hundreds of columns about events at the courthouse, hundreds more on travel, plus countless stories on every imaginable subject. Considering the columns I wrote for four different newspapers the total is more than 5,000. No, 500 blogs in three years and five months doesn't seem very productive to me. |
| | | Betty Fasig Five Star Member
Number of posts : 4334 Registration date : 2008-06-12 Age : 81 Location : Duette, Florida
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:46 pm | |
| Dear Dick, I remember the Kilroy signs, too. It has been a mystery to me. You, a mystery man, unlocked the mystery for me. So much un-explained. Expressions. How did they come to be part of the language? Old expressions. Anyone have one? Love, Betty |
| | | alj Five Star Member
Number of posts : 9633 Registration date : 2008-12-05 Age : 80 Location : San Antonio
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:50 pm | |
| After my uncles returned from that war, the graffiti started showing up everywhere - in the garage, the laundry room, the storerooms; my brother was convinced is was really Kilroy's spirit.
Ann |
| | | dkchristi Five Star Member
Number of posts : 8594 Registration date : 2008-12-29 Location : Florida
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Sun Sep 20, 2009 5:08 pm | |
| Dick, I don't care if your compilation of blogs is a best seller since you don't. However, those of us who have enjoyed your stories and blogs over the years would like to have them in one place to catch up on those missed.......and like the rest of the old timers, I like my reading in print. If you don't want the trouble of seeking a mainline publisher, maybe Createspace or that new one I saw, so those of us interested could buy a copy. However, like everyone else, I think a book of your stories would be a grand book and sell well. But who am I to judge? |
| | | Betty Fasig Five Star Member
Number of posts : 4334 Registration date : 2008-06-12 Age : 81 Location : Duette, Florida
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Sun Sep 20, 2009 5:12 pm | |
| Dear Ann, I see grafitti everywhere. On the signs out here so far from town. Gangs of children, people tell me. You never see anyone doing these elaborate designs. It is done in the middle of the night. I worry about these kids out in the the night with the magic paint! The cult symbols. It is not the old country way for sure. So your daddy has worked his butt off and his grandfather and father for hundred years. It is nothing to you, a pip squeak who knows everything and never had to lift a finger except to text a message. I wonder if the whole world is lost in a generation of mindless........ness. Our generation was not just a lot of pretty faces. Nor was the generations before us. I fear that this one is just that, pretty faces with no souls. Love, Betty Love, Betty |
| | | Dick Stodghill Five Star Member
Number of posts : 3795 Registration date : 2008-05-04 Age : 98 Location : Akron, Ohio
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:06 am | |
| You might be right, Betty. DK, my wife kept a few thousand of the columns I wrote in the past and wanted me to pick out the best and make up a collection. I went through about a dozen of them and told her to forget it. |
| | | alice Five Star Member
Number of posts : 15672 Registration date : 2008-10-22 Age : 76 Location : Redmond, WA
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:10 am | |
| Dick,
Bad directions to Jackie. |
| | | Dick Stodghill Five Star Member
Number of posts : 3795 Registration date : 2008-05-04 Age : 98 Location : Akron, Ohio
| Subject: Re: Kilroy was here Tue Sep 22, 2009 12:36 pm | |
| Are you refering to the old song? |
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