Memeless in Madison: History Lesson

Well, I'm not quite in Madison, but it is a town in my state, so close enough.

I was hoping to find another meme as enjoyable as the Random Tuesday Thoughts, but not yet.  I am looking for a couple of days a week to keep my blog turning over more than once a week.  Actually, kind of sad that I have to go looking for an excuse to write.  This should be easier.

Instead, I'll leave you with a movie preview that may or may not be made about the World War II prisoner of war camp in Algona, Iowa.  Why do I care?  Well, as you watch the clip, you will see a nativity scene.  This was made by the German prisoners of war residing at that camp for the people of Algona.  They left it there, after they all returned to Germany.  That nativity scene has been restored, not once, but twice, by Mr. Wild.  He's done a nice job, I think, cleaning them and in-filling the paint so that they look almost new again.  So, who will play the part of the recent college grad who restored them back in the 1990s?  He has to be tall, red haired and maybe have a goatee.  Go to the movie Algona.

In an interesting, but strange twist of fate, my parents were raised in the other town in Iowa that had a German prisoner of war camp, Clarinda.  My paternal grandmother, a farm wife, told me how she and Grandpa used to have one of the prisoners come to the farm to work.  Women were not allowed to ride in the same car as the German prisoner.  However, gas was rationed (of course), and if Grandma wanted to get to town, she wasn't going to sit at home, no sir.  She rode in that car with Grandpa and the prisoner and then got out at the outskirts of town, walking into town while Grandpa dropped the prisoner of war back at camp.  Grandma is such a stitch!  More on the camps here.

And to add another strange twist of fate, my maternal grandfather was a WWII prisoner of war in German hands, but on Polish soil in Oflag64.  I cannot even begin to imagine that for him.  He was in the North Africa campaign, shot and wounded in the arm, taken to Italy for treatment and then shipped to Oflag64 for the rest of the war.  Apparently there is already a documentary on that POW experience.  Ten years too late for my grandfather to comment.

That's your history lesson for the day.  Thank you for attending.
(Hmm...this could be my very own meme)