Moderators: MichelleH, Minimalist, JPeters
Neither am I Min. But for most of the rest of her life she was a guest speaker at many functions, and many quotes from her speeches survive. As might be expected, the more years she talked about it, the more embellished the story got.One survivor was Susanna Dickinson, wife of a Captain Dickinson. She survived the battle by hiding and was released by Santa Ana. I'm not aware of any memoirs she might have written.
Well said, Digit, sincerely.Digit wrote:Till the latter part of the 20thC Min if you didn't have money life was hard for everyone I suspect. My generation was the first in 'modern' times to experience full employment and some sense of security.
This is small excert from something I am writing that shows what life could be like for my father's generation in the UK.
To my father, like many of his generation the years of the Depression were the ‘hungry twenties’. Cheap grain imports from America and Canada forced many farmers in this country into bankruptcy, so many in fact that where banks foreclosed on the farmer they were frequently unable to dispose of the property.
Dairy farmers managed to survive till the second world war gave them a guaranteed income, others survived by ‘living off the hedgerows’ till the good times came around again.
For my father the period between the wars was the time when he grew to manhood and should have been a time of carefree happiness. Instead they left bitter memories of desertion by his father and the early death of his mother, dead of a heart attack delivering sacks of coal on her back! There followed years of tramping the length and breadth of this country following the seasons north and south, working the land when he could, taking anything else that came his way when he couldn’t.
Years spent sleeping rough, time spent living with gypsies, for whom he had the greatest liking and respect, then walking on to the next village or town where the grapevine rumoured another job was on offer. Walking with his one pair of boots slung about his neck that he might look as presentable as possible in front of a prospective employer. These years of want and deprivation turned my father into a lifelong socialist.
When, in my twenties, and the proud owner of my first motorbike, I toured all over this country, and no matter where I journeyed I found that my father had been there before me. Later again, when I owned a motor car, my father often directed me down narrow winding roads that turned out to be memory lane.
We should all stand back and be thankful, even if we do feel we have cause to complain.
and defeating the gamekeeper and the land owner only added flavour to the meal I promise you!
Here's the Pennsylvania Longrifle that I spoke about months ago that was found in Mexico by a couple who found it in a storage shed of an Onyx craftsman. The rifle had been with the family when they moved to Tehuacan, Mexico in 1839. The veteran who brought it with him from Texas had served under one of the Generals under Santa Anna as an officer during the military action In Texas around Bexar, (San Antonio)Texas The families ancestors had the rifle blessed by a priest months later because "there was much sorrow on it". The rifle had been in the shed since at least the 1930's. It was certainly in a battle as the four sword slashes in the barrel indicate. Suvenier of the Alamo? Purchased along with some other antiques for $60.00 in 1962 It has a 47 " barrel and is 40 caliber. Made about 1834 by Henry leman.Beagle wrote:Terrible no doubt. I never put much stock in the tales of hidden Confederate gold, but weapons caches seem probable to me.One wonders what kind of shape they'd be in after all this time.
And Gunny is right, some things are more valuable than gold, like lost Alamo weapons.
