Fourth Lake, Chapter 15

Shortly after Judy woke up on Wednesday morning, August 7, 1974 (somebody’s 29th birthday), she turned on the radio and heard the following quote from Senator Barry Goldwater, “Whatever decision he (Nixon) makes, it will be in the best interest of our country.  There has been no decision made.  I have no way of knowing, and we have no way of making nose counts.  I myself have not made up my mind.  And I think I can speak for most of the Senators that they haven’t made up their minds.”

A minute later, there was a knock on the door of her cottage.  She slowly rose from her bed, fully clothed from the day before.  Her hair was a mess.  She was a little hung over from too little eating and too much drinking.  The knock was repeated.

“I’m coming.  I’m coming.”

 She reached the door and opened it without thinking.  It was Phil.  Then the events of the previous day came roaring back with a frenzy. 

“Well, I’ve been waiting for you to get here and ...”

“Let me in.  I don’t want to talk out here.”

Judy thought for a second and then shook her head in the afirmative.  She stepped aside and let her husband enter.  Then she closed the door.

“Where the fuck have you been since I found you with whoever?”

“I stayed in a motel in town last night, all alone.  I was thinking how I could explain things to you.”

“OK!  Explain!”

“I am ashamed and embarrassed.  I never wanted you to find out.  I tried to be discreet.  I finally fucked up.”

“Are you telling me you’re queer, that you prefer men?”

 “It’s not so simple.  I love you.  I want you, but I guess I want more.”

“Well, maybe I want more, too.  Do I get to choose as well?”

“Can you be discreet?”

“This is not what I wanted when we married and this is not what I want now.  Who is this person you’re involved with?”

“He and I spoke afterwards and agreed the three of us should meet tomorrow night to discuss how we can deal with this and go forward with our lives.”

“Why not now?”

“It’s not possible.  He had to be somewhere else today.  Tomorrow night for sure.  We’ll talk it all out.  I want you to be happy.  Can’t you wait a little while longer?”

“OK!  Where?”

“Dollar Island.”

“Dollar Island?  Finally!” 

Come back in four weeks, Sunday, April 24, for Chapter 16, the conclusion of Fourth Lake.

JES

In March of 1968, 48 years ago, I moved to New York City and started looking for an entry-level accounting job.  I had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School as an accounting major in May of 1967.  (One year later, Donald Trump graduated from the Wharton School as well.)  I went to an employment agency I found in the classified section of The New York Times.  They were quickly able to arrange several job interviews for me.

In short order I received two job offers:  $7,500 per year from Reynolds Metals Company and $8,000 per year from CBS’s News Division.  I had one more scheduled interview, with Joseph E. Seagram & Company, Inc. (JES), the US subsidiary of The Seagram Company, Ltd., the Canadian liquor conglomerate.  Around 5 PM the day before the interview, I started thinking how tired I was of the whole interview process and how unnecessary the next and last one was.  I already had two job offers.  A third one would be superfluous...I thought.  So I called the contact number I had for the interview to cancel it.  The person that was to interview me had just left for the day.  I missed cancelling the interview by a minute.  In a blink of an eye, life can change.

Not wanting to be discourteous, I showed up at the interview the next morning.  It was supposed to be with the Controller, Tony Paalz, but he was out with a bad cold.  His second in command, Tom Hawe, interviewed me instead.  It was a very different interview from others I had.  He asked me several very technical questions.  I was relaxed since I already had two jobs offers.  If I didn’t know the answer, I told him I didn’t.  Good advice!

More good luck:  Seagram offered me a job as well, at $8,500 per year.  Since the three jobs were similar, I took the highest offer, Seagram’s.  I stayed there for thirty-one years and three months, until June 30, 1999 when I retired at age fifty-three.

In 1968, Seagram’s was a closely-held company controlled by the Bronfman family.  The head of Seagram’s was Sam Bronfman, the seventy-eight year-old Canadian businessman who had built a liquor empire in Canada, and after Prohibition ended, in the United States.  He died three years later while I was on vacation in Yugoslavia.  I remember reading of his demise in the International Herald Tribune while sitting on a beach near Dubrovnik.  He was succeeded by his son, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., at that time forty-two years of age.  Twenty-three years later, in 1994, Edgar, Sr. turned the company over to his son, Edgar, Jr. who was then thirty-nine years of age.     

I started in the Accounting Department as a Fixed Asset Accountant, an assignment which lasted for about fourteen months until May 15, 1969.  I was responsible for maintaining the  records for Seagram’s furniture , fixtures, and equipment in the New York metropolitan area.  It was a good first job.  I remember sitting in a large room with row after row of desks, sort of like Jack Lemmon did in the film, The Apartment.  My desk was at the end of a row, right behind a older man just short of retirement by the name of Harry Miller.  In those days, retirement was mandatory at 65 years-of-age.  He and his wife were looking forward to retiring and moving to Florida.  Unfortunately, during that short span of time I knew Harry, his wife was diagnosed with cancer and died.  Best laid plans of mice and men.

Shortly after joining the company, I was directed to fly to Louisville, Kentucky to visit one of their distilleries.  It was the only time in my life I flew first class.  I saw how corn was mashed, cooked, distilled into alcohol (bourbon), placed in charred barrels, left to age for at least four years, removed from the barrels, and then bottled.  I’ve simplified a fascinating process.

Three months after joining JES, I was scheduled to be married in Detroit, Michigan on a Sunday afternoon before immediately returning to New York.  At the time, I did not qualify for any vacation time.  I asked my boss, who worked for Tony Paalz, if I could take Monday off (a very short honeymoon).  When I gave the reason, Tony authorized me to receive a week’s vacation with pay.  I never forgot his kindness.   

As I discussed in a post last May, Marty Kolins found me and I got promoted to be his Assistant Federal Tax Manager in the Tax Department on May 15, 1969 and where I stayed for the next 30 years, 1 ½ months.  My Accounting Department colleagues teased me that I was moving to the “graveyard” as they called it since the other nine in the Tax Department at that time were in their 50s and 60s.  I was all of 23.  A baby! 

In the Tax Department, I got to know a lot more about Seagram’s.  My main task was to assist Marty in preparing the annual Consolidated Federal Corporate Income Tax Return, an IRS Form 1120.  I say consolidated because there were many different US corporations under the Seagram umbrella whose accounting data could be combined into one big number.  Before the days of Excel and computers, we had to do all the combining by hand on very large spead sheets with the help of adding machines.

Besides reporting Seagram’s federal taxable income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and paying its estimated federal income tax (on a quarterly basis), our next big job was to defend our calculations with the same IRS.  Almost constantly, we would play host in the Tax Department to representatives of this feared government agency.  A team of them would stay for months and years asking lots of questions.  They were from the highest level of the IRS.  I once dealt with an IRS agent regarding my personal taxes and I noticed a significant difference in skill and ability between her and the group at Seagram’s.

The head of the Tax Department in 1969 was Chris Bakos.  I remember him calling out for “Marty” whenever he wanted my boss to come to his office.  Marty would jump out of his chair and fly into the office of the man he called Mr. Bakos.  From where I sat, if I looked over my right shoulder, I could peer into Chris’s office.  Most times, he had his feet up on his desk, apparently in a thinking mode.  After lunch, he would take a nap.  For me he was a very intimidating figure.  However, he once gave me good advice.  “Don’t bullshit me.  Just tell me the truth.”  I always remember.  Chris was of Greek ancestry and was very sensitive about it.  When someone once made a joke about it, he never forgave them.  A year before his retirement, the powers that be in JES moved Tony Paalz and his tax advisor, Howard Miller, into the Tax Department, in order to prepare for the eventual transfer of power on the day of Chris’s retirement.  Chris wasn’t happy, but he tolerated this intrusion into his private domain for a year.

As my boss was still Marty Kolins, the addition of Tony and “Howie” didn’t affect me until Marty retired in 1984.  Tony was from Kentucky originally and had a very different accent than I was used to.  I learned he served in WWII on a battleship in the Pacific theater, like the actor, Richard Boone.  After the war, also like Richard Boone, he used the GI Bill to get an education.  However, he wanted to be an accountant, not an actor.  Starting with JES in his home state, he worked his way up to the headquarters in New York.  Tony, again like Richard Boone, liked to smoke cigars.  I remember being in his office many times when he lit up.  I also remember one unforgettable quote of his:   “Sex is overrated.”

In 1975, Seagram’s became part of a big news story when Edgar, Sr.’s eldest son, Samuel Bronfman, Jr., who was twenty-one years-old, was kidnapped.  The family paid a $2.3 million ransom, but it was not for several more days before he was found by the police, alive and unharmed.  Tony Paalz arranged with some banks to raise the ransom money and Edgar Bronfman, Sr. delivered it personally.  Two men were arrested and charged with kidnapping and grand larceny.  The two claimed that Samuel Bronfman, Jr. himself had engineered his own kidnapping in an attempt to get money from his father.  The jury bought their story and they only received less than four years in prison on the larceny charge.  However, the police didn’t buy it.  Neither did I.  And neither did the Bronfmans.  Samuel, Jr. subsequently spent many years as an executive with Seagram’s. 

After Chris retired, Tony and Howie thought there was a need to expand the Tax Department staff to include tax planners besides just tax preparers as was the case under Bakos, who had done all the tax planning in the past, if any.  As such, my friend, Joe Giordano, joined the staff in 1982, as Assistant Director International.

As a vestige from the dark days of the Great Depression (when having a job was life), many employees stuck around with Seagram’s for years and years, something unheard of today.  I myself was there for more than thirty-one years.  Marty was there for fifty.  The company encouraged this loyalty by forming what was known as the Twenty-Five Year Club.  Annually, there was a super party honoring those who had been with Seagram’s for twenty-five years or more.  When we made various milestones, as in my case, twenty-five years and thirty-years, we received a plaque and had our photos taken with the leadership of the company, one or more of the Bronfman family.  I had a photo of me with two millionaires.  Funny!

Some other of their very generous perks included a vacation package.  After twenty years, I started receiving six weeks paid vacation per year.  That’s a week off every other month.  That’s something hard to give up to go elsewhere and get only two weeks vacation.  In addition, every Seagram employee received a certain amount per year of company products free.  I received $600 per year which I alternated between Tropicana Orange Juice and Mumm Champagne.

In 1995, Edgar Bronfman, Jr. engineered a deal in which (a) Seagram sold its investment in DuPont for $9 Billion and then (b) used the proceeds to purchase Universal Pictures.  He wanted to get into the film and electronic media business. 

In 1999, with the help of Tony’s successor (after his retirement), Paul Buscemi, I was able to retire from Seagram’s.  But, I can't forget those I knew at JES such as Bob Labriola, Harry Kriegel and Chari Biton.  What would my future hold?

In 2000, Edgar Bronfman, Jr. sold Universal Pictures and its music divisions to Vivendi  and its beverage business to Pernod Ricard, both French companies.  Thus, the company I worked at for more than thirty-one years basically disappeared.  The empire his grandfather built, Edgar Bronfman, Jr. destroyed.  In a 2013 interview, Edgar, Jr.’s uncle, Charles Bronfman (the original owner of the Montreal Expos baseball team, now the Washington Nationals), stated that the demise of Seagram’s “was a disaster.  It is a disaster.  It will be a disaster.  It was a family tragedy.”  What a shame!  

           

Breckinridge Long

Breckinridge Long was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1881.  He graduated from Princeton University in 1904 and then studied at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.  Long practiced law from 1906 until 1917.  Shortly after President Woodrow Wilson, whom Long supported, won re-election in 1916, he joined the State Department as the Third Assistant Secretary of State.  In both 1920 and 1922, Long lost bids to become a US Senator from his home state.

While working in the State Department under Wilson, Long befriended Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), then the Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  He contributed to FDR’s successful presidential election campaign in 1932.  As a result, FDR appointed Long to be the US Ambassador to Italy from 1933 to 1936.  In 1940, FDR appointed him to be an Assistant Secretary of State.

According to Doris Kearns Goodwin in her book, No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt, The Home Front in World War II, “A deliberate policy of obstruction was under way, directed from the top of the State Department, from the man in charge of refugee matters, Breckinridge Long.”  The obstruction she was referring to related to the hope of Eleanor Roosevelt that more and more Jewish refugees from war-torn Europe could be brought to the USA.  “Long had successfully devised a series of tactics that walled out any applicant the State Department wished to exclude.  Long spelled out his plans:  We can delay and effectively stop ... the number of immigrants into the United States.  We could do this by simply advising our consuls to put every obstacle in the way and require additional evidence and to resort to various administrative advices which would postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of the visas.” 

Eleanor Roosevelt believed that Jewish refugees were particularly obstructed because of Long’s anti-Semitism.  When Long met with FDR, he carried with him “fearsome stories purporting to prove that many of the (Jewish) refugees Eleanor wanted to bring into the country were not refugees at all, but German agents trying to use America’s hospitality for their own dark purposes.  By playing on the president’s fears that spies had infiltrated the refugee stream, Long managed to persuade (FDR) that the State Department’s cautious policy was the only way to go.”  Many of the Jewish refugees prevented from entering the United States because of Beckinridge Long died needlessly in Nazi concentration camps.

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.  Just change the words Jewish and spies for Muslim and terrorists and you quickly move from cerca 1940 to 2016.  Perhaps terrorists could infiltrate the USA masquerading as refugees.  As a result of this fear, more than two dozen US governors decided to bar federally approved Syrian refugees from settling in their states.  However, recently federal Judge Tanya Walton Pratt blocked Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s attempt to cut off federal resettlement funds in his state for Syrian refugees who had passed a two-year federal vetting process.  Too bad there wasn’t a Judge Pratt to help Jewish refugees long ago.      

 

Two Westerns

I love western movies.  I grew up at a time when they were very popular and Hollywood churned them out on a regular basis.  I not only got to see many while I was a child, but now, on my computer, I can watch those same films again plus the ones I missed. 

When you see a lot of westerns, you notice similar themes being replayed again and again.  For instance, there is the struggle between the homesteaders (farmers or sodbusters) and the cattle ranchers who are fighting over land.  Farmers need to fence off their cultivated land to protect their crops from wandering cattle.  Cattle ranchers don’t want anything, like a fence, especially a barbed-wire fence, to interfere with their cattle’s constant search for food. 

One classic example of this theme is the 1953 movie, Shane (nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture, but lost to From Here to Eternity), directed by George Stevens (nominated for Best Director, but lost to Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity), and which starred Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde (nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Frank Sinatra, From Here to Eternity), Ben Johnson, and Jack Palance (nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Frank Sinatra, From Here to Eternity).  It won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color. 

Shane (Ladd), a man with one name like Have Gun Will Travel’s Paladin, is a drifting gunfighter, who accidentally finds himself in the middle of such a land dispute, while stopping for a drink of water on the Starrett farm.  One reason for his decision to throw in his lot in with the Starrett family against the Ryker brothers, cattle ranchers, is his attraction to Marian Starrett (Arthur).  Shane gives up his gun to help Marian’s husband, Joe (Heflin), with his farming chores.  It’s a step down for him, but at least he can be near Marian. 

Later, Shane refuses Rufus Ryker’s attempt to recruit him to his side.  When Ryker then correctly guesses the true reason for Shane’s decision to work for Joe Starrett, Shane flies into a rage.  However, as long as Joe is alive, Shane can never fulfill his desire for Marian. 

In the clímax of the movie, the Ryker brothers convince Joe to come to them for a final decisive parlay over their land conflict.  Shane knows that Joe will have to face Wilson (Palance), the Ryker’s hired gunfighter, whom Joe is no match for.  If Shane lets Joe go to the Rykers, he will be killed and Shane will be free to have Marian.  However, Shane knows Marian is in love with Joe.  For his love of Marian, Shane is willing to sacrifice himself to save Joe. 

Shane physically prevents Joe from leaving the farm and goes in his stead to face Wilson, whom he is a match for.  Shane kills Wilson and the Rykers, ending all the Starrett’s problems.  However, Shane knows there is now no place for him on their farm and leaves forever.

There is a similar theme (sacrifice for love) in the 1962 John Ford film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which starred John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, and Lee Marvin.  It received one Academy Award nomination (Best Costume Design, Black-and-White), but did not win.  Tom (Wayne), a rancher, is in love with Hallie (Miles), a restaurant employee, and wants to marry her.  Unfortunately for Tom, she is not in love with him.  Ransom (Stewart), a lawyer, has just arrived from the east.  He was severely beaten by Valance (Marvin) while a passenger on a stagecoach during a robbery committed by Valance and his gang.  Tom finds Ransom along the road and bring him to Hallie for mending.  She falls in love with Ransom. 

After he recovers, Ransom encourages the townspeople to fight for law and justice.  This puts him at odds with Valance who intimidates everyone in town with his skill with a gun except for Tom.  Valance challenges Ransom to a gunfight, knowing he is no match for him.  Believing he must stand up to Valance, Ransom accepts the challenge.  Hallie is very worried her boyfriend will be killed. 

At the gunfight, Valance begins by toying with Ransom, first shooting a pottery vase near his head and then his arm knocking his gun out of his hand.  Valance then condescendingly encourages Ransom to pick his gun up again.  After he does, Valence tells him that his next bullet will be “right between the eyes.” 

Unknown to Ransom and Valance, Tom is standing nearby out of sight with a rifle.  If Valance kills Ransom, Tom will have another chance with Hallie.  However, knowing that Hallie is in love with Ransom, Tom sacrifices his own interests by killing Valance, thus saving the life of his rival.  He times his shot for exactly when Ransom fires his gun.  Nobody realized that it was Tom, and not Ransom, who killed Valance.  As a result of having seemingly killed a notorious gunfighter, Ransom becomes a successful politician and marries Hallie.  Tom, forlorn, burns down the ranch house he had built for Hallie.

Thus, both Shane and Tom saved the lives of their rivals, Joe and Ransom respectively.  They did it out of their love for Marian and Hallie.  After all, as Paladin said, “Love is giving, not taking.”           

Fourth Lake, Chapter 14

On Tuesday  morning, August 6, 1974, Judy and Phil were sharing a breakfast of cold cereal and hot coffee.  The cottage was very still as Phil was intently listening to the news on the radio, while Judy was deep in thought about her plans for visiting Dollar Island.  A CBS journalist reported that after a morning Cabinet meeting at the White House, Undersecretary of the Treasury, William Simon, was quoted as saying, “The President sincerely believes he has not committed any impeachable offense.  He intends to stay.” 

“After yesterday’s admission (the smoking gun), I’m not sure Nixon has enough political support in Congress to stick it out,” said Phil.

Judy said nothing, just staring at the other side of the cottage, what ever was directly in front of her.

“Judy, the fate of the nation is at stake and you are not paying attention.”

“Oh, the fate of the nation will take care of itself.  Later, I want us to get into our canoe and go for a ride.  Ok?”

“Ok.  We’ll go.  Whatever you want.”

So, some hours later, they shoved off and headed directly for Dollar Island.  It was Judy’s idea to circle the island to check it out, to see it as up close as possible before the actual landing she planned for the following day.  After their first time around, Judy said they should do it again.  She especially noted the area just by the mansion, but also the rest of the island as well.  Judy was looking for the best landing area, preferably on the far side, away from prying eyes.  She thought she found what she was looking for.

Finally, Judy consented to heading back to dry land.  Phil suggested going to the Laughing Loon for a well-earned drink and Judy agreed.  After tying up the canoe by a nearby dock, they entered the bar.  It was quiet inside.  Only one other couple was there, sitting at the far end of the bar.  Once again, Mitch Riley was on duty.  Before sitting down on the stools by the bar, Phil headed to the men’s room (in the opposite direction from the bar) and asked Judy to order him an ice cold Genesee beer.     

“Welcome back, Judy.  What would you like to drink?”  Mitch was still thinking of what he saw of Judy late Saturday night.  He hadn’t been disappointed.

Again, Judy was deep in thought and this time not about Dollar Island nor about their drink order.  She felt an irresistable impulse and had to react to it.  She looked at Mitch.

“Can you see the door to the men’s room from here?”  (Judy couldn’t.)

“Sure!  Why?”

“Has anybody entered since my husband did?”

“No!”

Looking at the other couple to her left, she replied, “Tell me when either my husband or someone else comes in or out of the men’s room.  In the mean time, a Genesee for my husband and a cosmopolitan for me.”

An eerie feeling had came over Judy, a kind of a premonition which she didn’t quite understand.  When Mitch delivered the drinks, he mentioned that a man he didn’t know had just entered the Laughing Loon from the same door as Judy had and had gone directly into the men’s room.  Judy got off her stool and also headed for the men’s room.  She wasn’t sure why, but she had to find something out that was nagging at her.  After a moment’s hesitation, she entered the men’s room.  There were six urinals and two stalls.  The door to one of the stalls was ajar indicating it was empty.  Judy saw nobody.  This was not good.  According to Mitch, there were two men in there and it seemed as if they were both in the same stall. 

After waiting for some seconds, Judy called out her husband’s name, but got no response.  She called out again.

“Judy, what are you doing?” came Phil’s voice from behind the closed door of the toilet.  “Get out of here!”

“Who’s in there with you, Phil?”

“Nobody!  Now, get out of here.”

“I know there’s somebody else in there with you.  Who’s with you and what are you doing?”

Phil screamed, “Get out of here...now!”

Judy finally walked out of the men’s room and headed straight for the bar.  The other couple in the bar and Mitch had obviously heard Phil screaming and were starring at her.  Judy stepped up on the stool as far as she could and leaned over towards Mitch.  She grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards her.  Judy gave him a hard kiss on the mouth before walking out of the bar.  Mitch was stunned, but very pleased. 

Judy walked all the way back to the cottage.  She was in shock at her discovery and was trying to make sense of it.  She was angry and was looking for a way to deal with her anger.  Instead of entering her cottage, she went to Joe’s.  When Judy entered the cottage, Joe was sitting on the sofa watching television and drinking beer.

“Judy, what do you...”

Before he could get the words out of his mouth, Judy grabbed him and pushed him down.  She got on top of him and they started having sex in an almost violent way.  Joe responded with no any questions asked.  Some minutes later, after they were finished, Judy left and went to her cottage, entered and locked the door.  Phil was nowhere to be seen.   

Judy sat there stunned.  She was trying to make sense of her discovery.  She felt almost numb, almost as if someone had died.  Had her marriage died?  Was it a sham?  How long had he been unfaithful?  Who was this other man?  She was waiting for Phil.  She knew he would come there eventually.  What would he say?  What could he say?  How should she react?  She was full of anger.  She had gotten some revenge, but was it enough?

Judy looked in the refrigerator and grabbed a couple of cans of beer.  She chugged them down quickly hoping they would bring her some relief from the pain she was feeling.  They didn’t.  Finally, sleep consumed her.  Maybe it was all a bad dream that she would wake up from.  Could her trip to Fourth Lake, which started so hopefully, end like this?  She thought of the words of her heroine, “Tomorrow is another day.”     

   

Abraham Lincoln

First, Happy Valentine's Day.
Second, I will be on vacation next Sunday.  See you in two weeks.
Third, I give you Abraham Lincoln.

I have always been fascinated with the image and story of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States of America.  When I was seven years-old, my family was passing through Washington, D.C. on our way to visit my grandparents in Miami Beach, Florida.  I was looking forward to walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to pay my respects.  Unfortunately, as a result of an infection in my right knee, I could not climb the steps of the Memorial on this particular trip.  Since then, I have made several trips to Washington and I remain in awe of the Lincoln Memorial and what it stands for, the man who preserved the United States of America.

Abraham Lincoln was born 207 years ago this month, in 1809.  As a direct result of his election as president (Republican candidate) in November 1860, seven southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) seceded from the Union and formed a separate country, the Confederate States of America.  Lincoln was opposed to slavery, an integral part of the economy and culture of the above seven states.  However, he clearly stated that if elected president he could do nothing to end slavery since it was an issue of state law, not federal law.  Many southern slave-owners distrusted Lincoln and feared his position opposing slavery's expansion westward into the new territories.  The sitting president, James Buchanon, while waiting for Lincoln to be inaugurated in March 1861, declared that, while the so-called secession was illegal, there was nothing he could do to force the seven states to return to the fold.

When Lincoln was finally inaugurated, he faced the worst crisis in the history of the USA, an existential threat to its very existence.  I believe that, had he followed the advice of his predecessor and allowed the secession to proceed unabated, we would today be, like Europe, fifty independent nations in North America.  After all, if these seven states could leave whenever they chose, what was to prevent the remaining states from doing the same thing at some future date when so disposed.  Try to imagine Twentieth Century history with no USA, only a large number of mostly small, independent nations in its place.

However, Lincoln decided to initiate an armed struggle to bring an end to the rebellion, as he referred to it.  In the four years that followed, over 600,000 Americans were killed as a result of his decision and the decision of those to sever the southern states from the Union.  Hundreds of thousands more were injured.  Plus, there was a great amount of property devastation.

In the summer of 1864, when the number of casualties was rising and the war seemed to be at a stalemate, there was significant pressure on Lincoln from peace advocates within the Democratic Party (called Copperheads), including its presidential candidate, former Union General George McClellan, to end the bloodshed by ending the war at any price.  Lincoln resisted, won re-election in November, and the following April the rebellion collapsed, preserving the Union.  Unfortunately, he was assassinated by a southern sympathizer shortly thereafter.

I'm glad Lincoln did what he did and, with the support of millions of Americans who agreed with his desire to keep the Union together, was able to achieve such a noble goal.  As he stated in his remarks at the commemoration of the military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863, "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead (victims of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863) we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."   

I

The Best Years of Our Lives

World War II is over and three US servicemen are returning to their hometown, Boone City (really Cincinnati, Ohio).  They meet for the first time on the military aircraft that will take them there.  Instead of feeling joy at the prospect of seeing their wives, girlfriends, and families for the first time in years, the three are filled with trepidation.  They fear that readapting to civilian life won’t be so easy.  Such is the theme of the acclaimed 1946 film, The Best Years of Our Lives, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, directed by William Wyler, and which starred Frederick March, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, and Virginia Mayo.

The film won the following seven Academy Awards:  Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (March), Best Writing (Screenplay), Best Supporting Actor (Russell), Best Film Editing, and Best Music (Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture). 

Al Stephenson (March) was an infantry platoon sergeant in the Pacific.  A banker before the war, he is returning to his wife, Milly (Loy), of twenty years, a daughter, Peggy (Wright), and a son in high school.  His boss at the bank can’t wait for him to get back to work.  Al would prefer resting and getting reacquainted with his wife and children.  However, when he does eventually return to the bank, he runs into conflicts with his boss over loans he has approved to returning servicemen like himself.

Fred Derry (Andrews) was a bombardier in the Army Air Corp in Europe.  Before the war, he worked In a drug store, including time spent as a soda jerk.  During basic training, he met and married his wife, Marie (Mayo), less than twenty days before shipping out.  Fred doesn’t want to return to the drug store, but there is not much call for a bombardier in civilian life.  He just wants a good job.  There is a powerful scene when, while looking for such a job, Fred climbs into one of the thousands of Army Air Corps bombers about to be turned into junk.  He sits in the nose of the plane where he used to work during the war.  However, he then begins to relive the horror he experienced in this position while droping bombs and being a target for anti-aircraft fire.    

Homer Parrish (Russell) was a seaman on an aircraft carrier also in the Pacific, who lost his hands in a fire when his ship was sunk.  He basically joined the Navy right out of high school.  He left behind his sweetheart, Wilma, the girl who lives next door.  The US government will provide a disability income to Homer for the rest of his life.  Wyler chose Russell, a non-actor, for the part after he had seen him in a US Army film about rehabilitating war veterans.  Russell, a US Army Instructor, lost his hands in an accident while making a training film for the Army.

After first going there separate ways upon arriving in their hometown, the three ex-GIs accidentally reunite that same evening at the bar of Homer’s Uncle Butch.  Al is with his wife, Milly, and daughter, Peggy, for a night on the town.  Fred has gotten drunk after being unable to find his wife who works at an unknown nightclub.  Homer is simply visiting his uncle.  A new factor is introduced: Fred meets Peggy, and the two eventually fall in love.

After he and his relatively unknown wife get reacquainted, Fred and Marie both realize they are not a good match.  As a matter of fact, they don’t like each other.  In the mean time, Peggy, who is falling for the married Fred, also realizes that Fred and his wife are not a happy couple.  Peggy tells her parents that she will try and break Fred and Marie up.  Al, a protective father, tells the former bombadier to stop seeing his daughter.  Fred, who is having a great deal of difficulty finding work, agrees to stop seeing Peggy. 

However, after Fred and Marie divorce, Fred and Peggy reunite.  Fred then tells Peggy his dim view of their future, “You know what it’ll be, don’t you, Peggy?  It may take us years to get anywhere.  We’ll have no money, no decent place to live.  We’ll have to work, get kicked around.”  Peggy greets this unhappy news with a big smile, for she has all that she wants, her man.

Homer suffers from being super sensitive about how his family and his girlfriend treat him.  He gets upset when they look at his hooks (hands) and when they look away from them as well.  They can’t win. 

Homer tries to frighten Wilma away as he fears she only pities him because of his disability.  He wants her to see that living with him as his wife will be too difficult for her to deal with.  However, one night after helping him prepare for bed without his hooks/hands, Wilma proves to herself and to Homer that what she feels for him is love, not pity. 

One of the many reasons I adore this movie is that it ends happily, with the marriage of Homer and Wilma and the reuniting of Fred and Peggy.  I hope you will enjoy it, too.