NEEDED – ONE LARGE BUCKET OF WATER

 It seems as though the world is on fire!  From wars raging in Europe and the Middle East to shoot-outs in the local city park, it is evident we have not learned from our past mistakes.  As the song asks, “Why can’t we all be friends?” 

  It is obvious some countries and people do not have friendship in mind.  Either they are too young to remember or they don’t care about all the pain and suffering conflict brings.

  I have memories of family cars with the top half of the headlights painted black, beach houses with ocean-facing windows covered with heavy curtains, and armed citizens patrolling the island at night on the lookout for agents who may have come ashore from an enemy submarine.  Ships that had been torpedoed could be seen burning on the horizon.

  By day, women watched from a tower on the beach for enemy planes. Then there was the mounted beach patrol – sailors on horseback who patrolled the beach from dawn to dusk.

  We wore “dog tags” to school so that if our school was bombed and we were killed, our bodies could be identified.  No, I wasn’t in Europe.  I was on Amelia Island just off the coast of Florida. 

  Today the only fire you will see on the horizon comes from the morning sun.  Let’s keep it that way.

  Until we meet again,

   Mary Nolan Brown