Trailer Park Casanova
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2009
- Posts
- 38
To those of you who don't know what a gunny sack is,, it a 30 gallon bag made outta a twine or cheap rope kinda like material.
Usually it's what ya see on charter fishing boats to carry your catch, or if ya buy tire chains in bulk from an old school kinda hardware store the are packaged within.
I imagine some don't even know what twine is BTW., but I'll move on.
The sack arrived with a 2'X2' safe and we got a letter from an aunt with the combo to the safe too.
Opening the safe it was filled with old $2 silver certs, some jewelry, and some odds and ends.
We give the $2 to appreciative kids we know.
The interesting thing was the Gunny Sack.
It had 14 olive green, and some brown dashboard kinda clocks in it with thumbscrews.
Some of the clocks burnt and cracked, some in good condition, some covered with encrusted debris.
All really nice build quality with German writing and several excellent re-set features.
So I got on the phone to the elderly aunt that sent them to me to find out the story behind the clocks.
Aunt Laura told me:
Her husband, my wife's great uncle, had manned a Hell Cat Tank Destroyer with Pattons troops in WW2.
When they would destroy a German tank,, then after the dust settled, they'd later return and climb into the tank and take the dashboard clocks as souvenirs and as proof they nailed one.
Interesting.
So recently, while my wife and I were at the National WW2 museum in New Orleans, we asked if they'd like the clocks and story and some other items as a donation.
They were quite interested.
I told the clock story to my old dear friend Chick (remember that name?). He was in the first Airborne drop over St. Lo and has some fantastic items he wants to give to the museum too.
I'm keeping one of the clocks for my workbench.
I took my dad, Chick, and an old English Aunt to Normandy for the 49th aniv. of D day.
We wanted to miss the 50th crowds.
My dad rented a WW2 jeep and drove us all around, and among other fantastic sites, we found graves of our relatives at the American and British cemeteries.
We also made it to Bellow Wood WW one cemetery.
My dads Uncle, my great Uncle is buried there.
A little chapel was nearby, and every morning 365 days a year, 3 French school girls walk into the chapel and each reads the name of an American killed in France.
Three names a day until they go through the list,, then the repeat the list once again.
Back in the UK, my aunt took us to a pub where American bombers crews wrote their names on the ceiling.
My dad and his crews names were still very readable.
And a few of the locals from the 1940's were still at the bar raising a glass.
It's a big, fantastic, fascinating world out there folks.
Usually it's what ya see on charter fishing boats to carry your catch, or if ya buy tire chains in bulk from an old school kinda hardware store the are packaged within.
I imagine some don't even know what twine is BTW., but I'll move on.
The sack arrived with a 2'X2' safe and we got a letter from an aunt with the combo to the safe too.
Opening the safe it was filled with old $2 silver certs, some jewelry, and some odds and ends.
We give the $2 to appreciative kids we know.
The interesting thing was the Gunny Sack.
It had 14 olive green, and some brown dashboard kinda clocks in it with thumbscrews.
Some of the clocks burnt and cracked, some in good condition, some covered with encrusted debris.
All really nice build quality with German writing and several excellent re-set features.
So I got on the phone to the elderly aunt that sent them to me to find out the story behind the clocks.
Aunt Laura told me:
Her husband, my wife's great uncle, had manned a Hell Cat Tank Destroyer with Pattons troops in WW2.
When they would destroy a German tank,, then after the dust settled, they'd later return and climb into the tank and take the dashboard clocks as souvenirs and as proof they nailed one.
Interesting.
So recently, while my wife and I were at the National WW2 museum in New Orleans, we asked if they'd like the clocks and story and some other items as a donation.
They were quite interested.
I told the clock story to my old dear friend Chick (remember that name?). He was in the first Airborne drop over St. Lo and has some fantastic items he wants to give to the museum too.
I'm keeping one of the clocks for my workbench.
I took my dad, Chick, and an old English Aunt to Normandy for the 49th aniv. of D day.
We wanted to miss the 50th crowds.
My dad rented a WW2 jeep and drove us all around, and among other fantastic sites, we found graves of our relatives at the American and British cemeteries.
We also made it to Bellow Wood WW one cemetery.
My dads Uncle, my great Uncle is buried there.
A little chapel was nearby, and every morning 365 days a year, 3 French school girls walk into the chapel and each reads the name of an American killed in France.
Three names a day until they go through the list,, then the repeat the list once again.
Back in the UK, my aunt took us to a pub where American bombers crews wrote their names on the ceiling.
My dad and his crews names were still very readable.
And a few of the locals from the 1940's were still at the bar raising a glass.
It's a big, fantastic, fascinating world out there folks.
