RANDOM THOUGHTS - Thursday, Oct 8, 2026

 RANDOM THOUGHTS - Thursday, Oct 8, 2026

I’ve discovered that the less I do, the less I can do … AI has some promise, but so far the biggest promise is turmoil … line from song “Oh, Lord, don’t let that cold wind blow til I’m too old to die young” … We took our flu and covid shots the other day - no excuse for the measles outbreak in some parts of the country … My mantra could be “Octogenarians, unite “… You cannot think any deeper than the size of your vocabulary allows you to … C. M. Russell, the great painter of western scenes, died 100 years ago this month … When we sit around at night watching some TV, I’ll find the Dutchman Andre Rieu concerts on Youtube (I wonder if our Dutch friends watch him) … I’ve been writing a few posts I call “Stories Under a Stone” featuring people buried in my hometown cemetery. Find them sprinkled throughout my blog site - lynnbueling.blogspot.com …   On this day in 1871, a huge fire in Chicago began in O’Leary’s barn, and, by the time the blaze died out two days later, a large portion of the city had been destroyed with the death of some 300 people …

🦅    🦅   🦅   🦅   🦅 

David McCullough (1933-2022) took his place as one of my favorite historians with great written works about John Adams, Truman, The Wright Brothers, and several more. My recent purchase of one of his books - HISTORY MATTERS - has been opened and read from countless times. It was produced after his death by his daughter and another close associate who selected and compiled some of his works into one volume. First thoughts about it, what is the meaning of the title that can take on two different meanings: is the word “Matters” a verb or is it a noun. Either one would certainly be correct usage of the word; however, I choose to lean toward the verb form, since I believe that it does matter.

     Here is what McCullough says in one place, “It is sad but true that we are raising a generation of young Americans who are to a large degree historically illiterate.” He gave a disturbing illustration of an encounter with someone he’d met who told him she had no interest in history. When asked why she told him you never know what’s true and what isn’t, and when queried a bit further, went on to say she didn’t believe the Holocaust happened! For the intellectually curious person, it is easy to find and read hundreds of testimonials by survivors who certainly disagree.

Up Where the Apples Are

 Yesterday was a great day to "get a lift" into an apple tree and pick a couple bushels. Karen and I smile through the branches, Lance handles the "lift" and Mary runs the camera.

Stories Under a Stone - Walter A. Geyer

I knew Walter Geyer quite well; he was an approachable man who lived most of his life in the Sheldon area. Quiet and unassuming, you’d never guess he carried much of a story inside him, but with a little digging, a big story developed. What I did know was that he worked a little farm and milked cows for a time. He had a college education, worked as a school counselor in a northern Minnesota school system, and spent a couple of years in Africa with the Peace Corps. 

The facts of his life that developed beyond my personal knowledge did so with some research and a lot of luck. I knew he had been in the military service and had served aboard a bomber. Specifics of his military career started revealing themselves with a chance find of a biography written by the commanding pilot of the B-17 Super Fortress bomber crew of the 360th Squadron that I discovered Walter flew with as a waist gunner. He also served as a togellier (TOG) on the plane’s bomb runs, simply meaning he would be the one to open the bombay doors and drop the bombs.

The main job of a waist gunner was to fight off enemy fighter planes with twin .50 caliber Browning machine guns. To do that they stood by open windows and experienced -50 degree temperatures. In general, they suffered high casualty rates due to open exposure to enemy fire and flak directed their way.

The B-17 earned a strong reputation for its ability to absorb heavy combat damage and still return home. The pilot added that on one mission their plane got shot up pretty badly. It rattled him, but he looked around and saw the crew was calm and collected. He thought he’d better shape up and said, “Well, shit, if they can stay calm, I sure as hell can.” When landing, they scrambled out and inspected the flak damage. All the plexiglass on one side of the plane was gone, and the stabilizer and rudder contained numerous holes.

Walter became a member of that crew in Lincoln, Nebraska in the Cornhusker Hotel that was known as the local watering hole for pilots. From there the young crew trained in Des Moines, Iowa, for three months. Sent overseas in January, 1944 on a ship to a place called Molesworth, England, where they settled in to stay for the duration of the war. Captain Smith spoke with some pride when he said, “I flew with the same guys the whole time and brought all of them home.” In May, 1945, after 24 missions, they returned to the States to form a nucleus in the Air Force for the invasion of Japan.

While all of their wartime history is interesting, I found this bit particularly so. I remember my dad reminiscing about something Walter had told him. Since there had probably been a few 

beers that day, I didn’t know what to believe of the statement Walter had made about shooting at German jet fighters. Really? Jets? It became clearly defined and verified with the pilot’s statement. On one bombing run he said, “we were suddenly attacked by 15 or 20 Me-262 jet fighters. We were startled by the speed of these aircraft…” He added his gunners hit one of the jets and it exploded into two pieces. A German pilot said of the B-17’s firepower when attacking them, “all your past sins flash before your eyes.”

We’ll leave Walter’s story buried under his stone with an almost humorous anecdote. The captain reminisced, “One evening Shawnie, Walt, and I decided that we would visit the local pub for a few beers.” Then they walked over to a carnival in the area where a crew member came running up to tell them Mike was in a fight with a sailor. When they got there, they found a crowd egging them on, but they grabbed Mike and got him out of there. Walter and another went to find a jeep to haul him away. Commandeer is the term, I believe, and sure enough they found one. We don’t know how they found it parked so handily for their use, but later on someone else surely wondered where it could be.

SAMUEL W. SMITH CREW - 360th BS 

(crew assigned 360BS: 06 Feb 1945 - photo: 02 Apr 1945)

(Back L-R) 1Lt Samuel W. Smith (P), 2Lt Arthur S.C. Shanafelt, Jr. (CP),

F/O Russell A. Knudson (N), S/Sgt Earl K. Lawson (WG)

(Front L-R) S/Sgt Walter A. Geyer (TOG - holding "Tailspin"),
T/Sgt Robert A. Bridgman (R), S/Sgt Jens C. Jensen (TG),
Sgt Michael J. Kucab (BTG), T/Sgt Thomas E. Zenick (E)

National Son's Day

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS - Friday, September 25, 2026

 Shade comes free with the tree … Costco displayed a pinball machine at $4999.99, so don’t expect one from me … Today in 1965, the ageless 59 year-old Satchel Paige pitched three innings of one-hit ball … One hundred years ago in 1926 Henry Ford announced an 8-hour, 5-day workweek for workers at Ford Motor Company … A balanced diet means having a cupcake in each hand … Can’t argue facts, but we can argue the conclusions drawn from them … Cronkite as a reporter said when assigned to ride a bomber over Germany, “Scared all the time,” George McGovern, a bomber pilot over Germany, told me he was “scared all the time” … Life gets mighty precious when there’s less of it to waste … A person who won’t read is no better off than one who can’t … We plan to check out the North Dakota Book and Arts Festival tomorrow …

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Do you think the interstate highway system was always here? No? Here’s the story in a nutshell. In 1919 Lt Col Dwight Eisenhower led a convoy of 300 men and 81 vehicles cross-country fromWashington, DC to San Francisco, basically just to find out if it could be done. They found a very poor system which in some places was non-existent. Then in Europe during World War II Eisenhower noted and admired the great German auto-bahn system, and in 1956, when he became president strongly advocated to have one built here. The Federal Aid Highway Act was born in Congress that turned out to be the largest public works project ever attempted. Our economy had begun slowing after the Korean War and workers needed employment. Almost 48,000 miles was built and many people had been employed. The official name became the “Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.”

She Won Again

 AWARD WINNER, X 2

We attended the 50th Annual Family History Workshop yesterday at MSU in Moorhead and received quite a surprise. Mary received not one but two big awards judged as winners in their class. Her most recent book of Country School Education of Immigrant Children won the “Regional History Book Award” division and her Thomas Anderson and Helene Marie Vangsness book won the “Family History Book Award.” Oh, yes! She is at work on another that I don’t yet know the title of. Whatever it is, I’m certain it will be good because her inclination is to do excellent work. Since I’m her husband, I get to brag.

STORY UNDER A STONE - A. J. Manny Spiekermeier

 This “Story Under a Stone” will feature a person not buried in the Sheldon cemetery, but since he grew up and went to school in Sheldon and ran a hardware business in town, we’ll include him, A. J. “Manny” Spiekermeier. A brother to Paul and Tom, many of us knew him as the town cop who took his job seriously and made us behave whenever he drove around in his red station wagon.

     A letter he wrote to a friend in Sheldon appeared in the Sheldon Progress on December 25, 1942 that told of his activity while in Oregon titled “Life at a Munitions Dump.” On this date the U.S. military had begun stocking war materials in earnest to support our fighting forces. His obituary states he had joined the navy in January that year and been assigned there for a time. He went on to serve on submarines patrolling near the Japanese coast, including the USS Sailfin. This might have been a misprint because the Sailfin had been damaged before the war, but one called the Sailfish was in active combat receiving credit for sinking or damaging thirteen Japanese ships. Perhaps a family member can bring light to this.

     American submarines played a pivotal role in the Pacific by targeting Japanese merchant shipping and warships, dramatically crippling Japan's supply lines.  American submarine warfare proved decisive in undermining Japanese naval capacity and commerce. 

     While any service member experiencing combat doesn’t realize it at the time, he or she is living and leaving a story for us to wonder at years later. In later years Manny and his family relocated to Belle Fourche, SD, worked as a maintenance engineer in a hospital, and died in 1996. Burial took place in the Pine Slope Cemetery, Belle Fourche, SD.