Happy Birthday Dear Bradley! Happy Birthday to you!!

Thought this was cool. - PC

"Fort Corcoran was a wood-and-earthwork fortification constructed by the Union Army in northern Virginia as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War. Built in 1861, shortly after the occupation of Arlington, Virginia by Union forces, it protected the southern end of the Aqueduct Bridge and overlooked the Potomac River and Theodore Roosevelt Island, known as Mason's Island.

The fort was named after Colonel Michael Corcoran, commander of the U.S. Fighting 69th Infantry, Irish Brigade 69th New York Volunteer Regiment, one of the units that constructed the fort.

Fort Corcoran was home to the Union Army Balloon Corps and the headquarters of the defenses of Washington south of the Potomac River, and served throughout the war before being dismantled in 1866. Today, no trace of the fort remains, though a small historical marker has been erected by the Arlington Historical Society."

45 Years

In honor of our 45^th Anniversary month (Yes Month, It’s a new thing) I wanted to write some thoughts.

You all know that I met your Mom while she was working the day shift at Farrell’s . I’ve also related that prior to asking her out, I took another Farrell’s girl on a weekend trip and your Mom needed to cover her shifts. Nice lady your Mom was. At that time I wasn’t sure she knew I existed, but I did know someone helped by covering the shifts.

Then I did take more notice of her, and asked her out. No dice, she was busy. Ok I thought, I’ll try again later. I asked her out again. No, sorry, she was busy. I was a beginning to think that this girl just wasn’t interested in spending time with me. It happens, oh way more than once. Waited a bit and tried for one last (and I can’t say for certain, but really likely it would have been THE last) attempt, and she agreed to go with me on a full day’s car rally. Mom will need to relate why she finally agreed, and reserved the date, as I learned later, she would have been busy that day as well.

So a six hour time and distance rally is an interesting first date. Constant interaction between the two of us, but a long way from any sweet nothing talk. “Speed is 28, we’re looking for a right handed lazy T”, all day long! At least we had a table and some pizza at the end of the day. It was a trial by fire, do I like being with this person time. She was a darned good sport for jumping into this intense, and a little stressful time with me.

So other dates came about, and during this time your Mom moved from her parents’ house to a shared home near the zoo. One of her house mates didn’t like me very much. Hard to imagine, I know, but true. Seemed this lady felt the need to fill the role of critical parent to Carol.

I worked to impress your Mom by helping to un-stick a painted shut window to get more air into the house. Amazing how fragile 80 year old glass can be. So I changed tactics and impressed her by replacing the glass in an 80 year old window! I can adapt!

We spent some fun non date type stuff too. I remember taking a walk near her work to explore (trespass) through some apartments being built near the restaurant. We chatted out how the rooms were arranged and if we’d be ok in such a place. We were still pretty casual, but your Mom had slowly become my regular date.