Between the ages of 7 and 15, I spent most of that time living in and around Washington DC. As a small punk, I first rode my bike from Chevy Chase to the Smithsonian when I was in second grade. From then on my friends and I spent many hours using the federal triangle as our own personal playground. There not many rules we wouldn't break.
I was such a fixture around the reflecting pool one summer, some of the park police knew my name, having chased and sometimes caught me and friends who were out and about adding our bit of madness to the mania that is DC in the summer.
We knew the federal triangle well and the reflecting pool area even better. We used to race up the stairs of the Washington Monument. Whoever won both directions was a stud until the next time we came.
To this day, the one monument that makes me cry every time is the Vietnam Memorial. I have always felt if there is one site that needs to be seen when visiting as a tourist, it is the Vietnam Memorial. It is one of the top five most visited memorials down there. I know of no one who has walked the length of that memorial and come out unaffected.
No matter what might be going on around it, the mood is always somber and respectful as people and families search for a loved one or friend whose name has been chiseled into the black granite walls. It is a place for quiet consideration and introspection.
The impact of over 58,000 names carved in marble is often overwhelming. Some folks cry their eyes out, while others stand mute,head down. Families cluster here and there while Grandpa or Uncle Hank rub the name of a loved one or fellow soldier who did not make it home.
So, it is odd that I did not know the wall has also been on the road since 1996. Yes, a 3/4 size version of the wall is traveling around the USA for folks who may not have seen it. It is here in Sanford, Maine. It will be here til Sunday, September 10th.
I will be sure to visit it.
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There is only one song that is my "Vietnam" song. Here is "Fortunate Son", by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
4 comments:
I have seen both the real wall and the smaller traveling wall. Both are extremely important and emotional experiences to view/experience. Touching a name on the wall feels so….. hard to describe well….. horrific, real, impactful, sad, harsh, but also beautifully important as well.
PipeTobacco
PipeTobacco - As opposed to impact of the grandeur of the Lincoln Memorial, for me, the Vienam Wall has a deeper impact on me. Maybe it is because I know someone on the wall or maybe I lived through that time.
Both walls do evok emotions for sure, but be far, the original one hits me the hardest.
Someday I would like to visit the wall in DC. I know people who came back and people who dodged the draft. Ukraine is going to need a hell of a wall to list the dead from the Russian genocidal war
The Blog Fodder - Of the times I have been to the Vietnam Memorial in DC, I did not leave there without shedding a tear.
I find serious irony in Putin's recent remarks on the USSR's invasion of Czechoslovakia and Hungary back in 1956 and then in 1968(?). He said they were mistakes, yet nowhere in his remarks did he mention his own egregious and immoral invasion of Ukraine.
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