Veteran Lothar D. Lewis came into The Neat Little Bookshop the day we opened and expressed his love of reading. He offered to staff the store to keep it open an additional day of the week. "Lew" is gone now, died alone at his residence in Cayuga at the age of sixty-four in 2009. Lew, as everyone knew him, purchased many of only one type of book: Non-fiction ~ Vietnam war. No historical fiction for Lew.
Frankly, we did not know quite what to think about this immaculately dressed man -- walked poker-straight, smoked and drank too much, took a lot of pain-killers. It was not until Du Guid's book came out that everything fell into place. It all made sense.

Lew got to read his chapter in Soldiers' Stories before he died because author Kirk Du Guid provided each soldier with a copy of their story prior to publication.
Lew served in the U.S. Marine Corp in Vietnam. His story is told with humour, heart-breaking honesty and with lurid detail. Rest in peace, our friend Lothar D. Lewis. Thank you for your life -- your service -- and thank you Kirk for telling it.

Soldiers' Stories, Kirk Du Guid, 2009 First Choice Books. Available at The Neat Little Bookshop

A Poppy Is to Remember ~Heather Patterson & Ron Lightburn

North Winds Press, 2004, A Division of Scholastic Canada Ltd.

"War and Remembrance" A Special exhibit commemorating Haldimand's military history from the War of 1812 through WWII.

Join Haldimand County Museum & Archives for a week of talks on Haldimand's military past.

Mon., November 7 ~ War of 1812, 1 pm
Tues., November 8 ~ Fenian Raids, 1 pm
Wed., November 9 ~ 114th Battalion, 7 pm
Thur., November 10 ~ WWII, 1 pm

Haldimand County Museum is located in the park beside the County Court House on Munsee St. (Hwy #54) For more information please contact the museum at 905-772-5880.

"Lest We Forget" ~

Veteran R. Clark MacDonald was born and raised in Cayuga, Ontario. He left his job as butcher at Harold Reece's grocery store to join the Royal Canadian Air Force in April, 1941 as a radar technician. He was shipped to numerous locations by various means of transportation, enduring conditions and risks that many of us would consider extremely uncomfortable. In India he was shocked to witness the poverty; in Ceylon he was isolated from any news from home.
"I was then posted back to Bombay to a place called Juha Beach and assigned to a Combined Operations Unit. This consisted of army, naval and air force personnel. There was intensive training with various small arms including submachine guns, anti tank rifles, mortars and anti tank grenades."

In central India, he removed radar equipment and FFI equipment from Liberator bombers in temperatures reaching 150 degrees Fahrenheit inside the planes ~ 120 Fahrenheit at night.
MacDonald welcomed VE Day*, May 8 1945, while in England on a two week leave. Back in Cayuga in July 1945, after four and a half years in the RCAF, he married Ruby Hedley and traveled Haldimand County lecturing and moderating discussions with the National Film Board and the Federation of Agriculture.
Clark MacDonald's brother-in-law, Lloyd Hedley, a Spitfire pilot, was shot down and killed over Verden, Germany, on an air reconnaissance mission on April 26, 1945. He is buried in Soltau, Germany.
* Victory in Europe Day
~ Soldiers' Stories, 2009 Local Author, Kirk Du Guid

The Winner of Saturday's Draw is ~ Barbara Nelson. Thank you Barbara and everyone who visited The Neat Little Bookshop booth at the Trade Show. Thank you to the Cayuga and District Chamber of Commerce for organizing another successful event.

A copy of Kirk Du Guid's Soldiers' Stories will be going out to Barbara

Soldiers' Stories ~

For the next few days we will be posting exerpts from Soldiers' Stories* by Kirk Du Guid. Du Guid interviewed over twenty-five veterans in our area. He dedicated his book to "Those Who Served in Times of War and Peace."

A veteran himself, Du Guid states, "There is something I do each Remembrance Week. When I meet veterans, I walk up to them and shake their hand and thank them for their service. The reality is that, just by putting that uniform on, someday during their service they might have been asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. 'Lest we forget, lest we forget!' "
*Soldiers' Stories, 2009. Kirk Du Guid. Printed & Bound by First Choice Books
Available at The Neat Little Bookshop

Veteran Arthur Simmons was born in 1920 in Collingwood, Ontario. It was in June of 1940 that Art began basic infantry training at Camp Borden, Ontario. After completing a sniper's course, he was made range artificer with the Grey & Simcoes. The regiment was selected to parade through communities stimulating recruiting in the regiment.
When the regiment was switched from infantry to armour, it was renamed the 21st Armoured Regiment. Art was in the 4th Division; his brother, Howard, in the 1st. in an infantry regiment ~ the 48th Highlanders from Toronto. Art embarked for Great Britain in June, 1943 after working as Lance Corporal on tanks. For the duration of the war, he served throughout France, Belgium, Holland and Germany working on all kinds of tanks, getting them back into action ~ making the rank of Sergeant. Brother Howard was shot and killed when his platoon was attacking up a hill in Sicily.
After the war, Art returned to his past time of repairing watches and clocks. He now resides in Cayuga, Ontario and often visits The Neat Little Bookshop. We shake your hand, Art, and as Kirk would say, "Thank you for your service."

Thought for Today ~

"Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds."
~ George Eliot
George Eliot is the pen name for Mary Anne Evans, English author (Silas Marner & The Mill on The Floss)
b. Nov.22, 1819, d. Dec. 22 1880

Note: Mary Anne used a man's pen name to ensure that her work be taken seriously during Victorian times.

Photo: Wikipedia