August, 1953

Daniel Guerra had finally gotten his discharge from the Navy...He came home to San Jose, California and met a really nice girl named Sally, who had come up north with her sister to work at the cannery...Dan and Sally met at a local dance. She wasn't sure she liked him at first, he had a moustache!...but he offered to buy her a soda, which she thought was nice....
His father Louis hadn't been feeling well, but it was no big deal...in those days, you get sick, you just shake it off, and it will go away. But Louis' cough got worse and worse...he would cough up blood.
It became clear that he had Tuberculosis, a lung/bronchial disease, or more precisely an inflammation......which was treatable at the time, but Louis stayed in bed and insisted that he would be fine...
Now that his eldest son Daniel was home, all was well, especially since there were still two younger sons and two rather pugnatious teenage daughters at home, and his poor wife who could only worry...
One night, after his coughing spells seemed to stop, he seemed okay.
"Hey papa, you want me to leave this door open for ya?"
"No, can you close the door?..."
And that night, Louis Guerra died in his own bed. He was only 47.
His wife was distraught....Two months later, as she laid in a hospital bed, sick from pneumonia, or probably what can be described as Dying from a Broken Heart.
She said to her oldest son, "Your dad is coming for me on a white horse."
And that night, SHE died...
Poor young Daniel, 23 years old and left to care for the household.

April, 1951

Young Daniel Guerra had joined the United States Navy in 1948...he was just about to be discharged when the Korean War broke out in 1950. Over two hundred thousand North Korean troops invaded South Korea....it was a Cold War conflagration, the president at the time, Harry Truman, declared that all deferments were to be cancelled...so Daniel was stuck for another two years...he hated Truman for that....but, he did his duty...
One night, on board USS Severling, a destroyer...he heard the Buzzer, an "A-OOOO-GAH" sound over and over, and then, "General Quarters, General Quarters, Battle Stations, All Hands to your Stations!" Daniel manned his gunner's station....."Put these on!" his buddy told him, they were a pair of crude earplugs, they were about to bombard the port of Inchon in Korea...in a daring plan by General MacArthur, a D-Day type of operation.
The 105mm guns went off over and over, with a loud BOOM! each time, with an echoing report when the shells landed, for the rest of his life, Daniel never forgot the sound of those booms....especially during the 4th of July...
In the meantime, on the other side of the Korean penninsula, on board USS Oriskany, an aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan, there was a young, brash machinist mate named Joe. In time, he and Daniel would become friends...and brothers in law...

December, 1941

In December of '41, America was finally recovering from the Great Depression, in which thousands, if not millions of men and their families had been displaced. Thanks to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, many would find new jobs....In the meantime, during the 30's...some had not been affected by the Depression and managed to hold on to a job and thrive...One such man was Merced Mendias, he was an auto mechanic at a Ford dealership in Tulare, California.
He was a tall, lean and strong man, with a base sense of humor, he was also a very generous man....He married a simple woman who had a kind heart, they had four kids, Arthur, Robert, Carmen, and Sally....
During the Depression times in the 30's, when many had lost their jobs, Merced would take them in, many sleeping on the floor of his home...he would feed them, but would always be after them to find new jobs...any job...sometimes he would put them work himself....he was in the position to do such things.
One day, he caught his oldest son Arthur, somewhat of a bully, swinging his little sister Sally by the arm and leg, threatening to toss her into the rose bushes. "Put your sister down! NOW! or I'll throw YOU in there!" he bellowed....Arthur put her down with a grin of defiance, while Carmen looked on with a smirk....Sally and Robert just sat on the front porch, and looked at each other with bemusement. Merced was a smart man when it came to his kids...One day he put his oldest sons in charge of their youngest sister, Sally....she became lost, and wandered back to the Ford Garage where he worked. He told her to climb into the back seat of the car he was working on, so she did, and fell asleep...Later, her two older brothers, Arthur and Robert showed up at the garage, "We can't find her! we've looked all over!"
Their father bellowed at them, "Well you go out and FIND HER! And don't come back until you do!!
A few years later, little Sally was playing hopscotch on the front sidewalk when a neighbor ran up, "Turn on your radio! we're being attacked! The Japs bombed Pearl Harbor! We're at War!"...
Upon hearing this news, Merced shuddered....
Arthur signed up, he was old enough, and joined the Army Air Corps (which is now the Air Force)...but his younger brother Robert was too young to join, and his love of books and history and engineering always pre-occupied him, he always had his nose in a book...until one night when his father was so frustrated that he slapped the book away from him. "Your brother is out there fighting this war! And what do you do? just sit there and read your stupid books?"
Robert didn't say a word, he sat there with his eyes welling with tears....he later told his younger sister that he would leave home as soon as he graduated from high school.

November, 1937

Louis Guerra was a proud man. He worked for the City of San Jose, as a line/railroad worker. In those days, the rail was the main link to San Francisco and the East Bay. There were a few roads, mainly two-lane highways which have now become Interstates.
But back in those days, if anyone wanted to travel into the City, they took the train.
One extremely rainy night, Louis got a telephone call, which was a luxury at the time, they had finally gotten a telephone line!
But this call was not a friendly "hello! you have a phone too now!"...No, this was from his supervisor..."You need to come down to the site, RIGHT NOW!"
So Louis put his coat on and said, "I'll be back as soon as I can, watch the kids..."
This was in a pouring rain at 10 PM in the evening....
Louis had 4 young kids at the time...Daniel, the oldest....Mael (short for Ishmael), Elias, Dora, and Eva....
His wife was a very nice looking and good natured woman. She calmly entertained the kids by playing records and acting out the songs...she was also quite an artist, though just a hobby. In her letters, she would embellish the margins with detailed vines and illustrations, with a quill pen, she drew portraits of her children...Daniel loved her for that...her charm, and serene nature...And he also loved his father, but he also feared him, because his father was strict...and sometimes harsh.
In 1939, Louis had saved up enough money to buy a new car, a 1939 Ford....Daniel, 9 years old at the time, thought that he might please his father and wash the car, so he got a steel wool brush and literally scrubbed the paint off the door!
His father was outraged....he took Daniel to the garage and whipped him with a belt....until he felt a sense of remorse, realizing that his son was only excited and was just trying to help.
After that, Louis put his son to work, showing him all the aspects of automotive mechanics, "You must always make sure to keep your cars running, ALWAYS check the oil, and always check the tires...
and son...I know I'm hard on you, but I want you to survive in this world."

Illustration Friday: Sacrifice

BATTLE
Originally uploaded by Olias444.

I painted this a few years ago, the battle of Coral Sea, in honor of those who have served, and who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Illustration Friday: Skyline

TOWER2
Originally uploaded by Olias444.

I drew this after reading a book by Arthur C. Clarke about a tower that reached into space. It would certainly add to the city's skyline.

There are Angels among us.....

Do you remember the movie, "Lilies of the Field"? with Sidney Poitier as a drifter who helps a small group of nuns build a chapel?....The head nun, upon seeing 'Homer Smith' drive up to their small compound says, "I have prayed for a strong man...you will help us, yes?"....
But he says, "oh no no...I'm just passing through..." But, he does stay and help, and eventually he does build a chapel for them. In a bit of symbolism, I always noticed that Homer Smith was wearing White....white jeans, white t-shirt....could it symbolize that Homer Smith was an angel sent to them?....
This has led me to think of my own experiences in which there may be angels among us....In fact, I'm sure of it...
I think that our lifelong friends are angels....and we somehow know who they are, so we don't even worry if they're gonna be there or not, they will be there...
But the extra special angels are there when we don't even expect it...
Around 1983 after I got out of school, I lived in San Leandro and joined the working world, and I went through that time feeling a sense of isolation....One night I left a pub in Berkeley and sure enough...There was my old pal and college roomate Rory walking in!
We went back in and reminisced..... What are the odds of such things?
I went on a trip thru Europe....and I'll be damn if I didn't see people I knew! Like at train stations mostly, which makes sense, people converge at train stations, especially in Europe, but still! I saw them!
Maybe they were angels not caught.....
When I fell off a fire escape in 1988, I was down there with a broken leg, and broken left side....no sooner than 5 minutes later a woman came by and rushed back to call 911...she too was an angel.....I swear, angels ARE all around us....

It was Five years ago Today

Five years ago, my life was humming along quite nicely...These are my specific memories of that day, July 3, 2001....on that day, Dave came into my cubicle, "Dan, can we talk to you for a minute? just come into my office."...I thought, oh oh...was it something I did? or more importantly, I wondered if it was another company setback, and I was right.
Dave laid it on the line...."Look, in business, you gotta do tough things, and today, we gotta do Layoffs, and you're one..."
Well I just exhaled greatly with the weight of a ton of bricks landing on my head...Dave continued, "Hey, I KNOW this sucks, it really does suck for all of us..."
By that time, the 'laid off' demon had already set in and I was in that numb sort of state where you just function...."oh yeah...okay"
Soon after, Steve, Brian, and a couple other guys went in.
As in any layoff, everyone is stunned, and bummed, but we just go through the certain motions as though everything is normal.
Four of us decided to walk to lunch at Marvins, Steve asked me, "so what are you gonna do?" I said, "you mean today, or the rest of my life?" We all cracked up...
We got to Marvins and ordered lunch...Steve had a hot pastrami and he seemed to enjoy that sandwich like it was the best thing he ever had...I understood....
Now, Five years later I have empathy for everything, like Warren Zevon said before he died, "Enjoy Every Sandwich"....
Last summer we had a reunion picnic, it was great to get together with those guys, and the fact that they show up to these things speaks volumes....Back in the day, we were part of something!...we were gonna build something big, then we would sell the company and cash in!.....
We didn't cash in.