Trilogy of Books

 My proudest possessions are the book series that I have read, and reread, over the years.  It all started with Shelby Foote’s trilogy on the Civil War, which was so good that I have read it three times, and then I moved onto Caro’s books on President Johnson, Atkinson’s trilogy on the battles that America fought in Europe in WWII, Toll’s trilogy on the battles that America fought in Asia in WWII, Chernow’s books on Washington, Hamilton, and Grant, Morris’ trilogy on Theodore Roosevelt, and now the John Erikson books on the Eastern Front in WWII.  These authors take an honored place on my shelves, their tomes neatly shelved, patiently waiting for me to pick them up again.  The books are sacred texts to me, allowing me to learn the secrets of the past.  They contain knowledge that no one else is interested in, or cared enough about, to take the time to learn.

I enjoy the struggle of reading a challenging book.  It is like a bulldog biting into a bone and refusing to let go.  There is joy in grappling with a new subject and it is immensely satisfying to turn the page, having the story unfold in my mind, and watching the bookmark move from the beginning to the end of the book, from the far left to the far right.  To continue with the simile, it is like watching that same bulldog whittling down that bone from something to nothing.  The point is to take it slowly, to study the book and not just breeze through it.  Sometimes, when the book becomes too dense, I will take a break from it.  Chernow’s book on Hamilton was especially tough so I put it down for a couple of months and then I coaxed myself back to it, reading just a couple of pages at a time, until my interest was reignited.  My persistence is rewarded as Alexander Hamilton’s becomes real, and I begin to understand.  The goal is to unravel the complexities of a story that has many angles.

The Erickson books on the Russian Front in WWII were challenging because I knew almost nothing about the epic clash between the Nazis and the Soviets.  My constant thought was, “why was I never taught this while I was in school?”  The answer is because the Eastern Front is almost incomprehensible.  Three million German soldiers invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and, since the front stretched for over two thousand miles, the sheer scale of the war makes it hard to understand.  Also, most Americans have no knowledge of the geography of Russia, so they have to learn history and geography at the same time.  For example, the Dneister and the Dneiper were instrumental in winning the war but Americans would have a hard time pronouncing the names of these major rivers, let alone finding them on a map.  To make it more confusing, the names of the cities are spelled differently on different maps.  Lvov was spelled three different ways depending on the source.  The names of the fronts and the names of the armies kept changing.  The Voherenzh Front became the First Ukrainian and Army Group Center became North Ukrainian.  Finally, Stalin kept shuffling his generals around to different armies and, even if you could keep them straight, trying to pronounce and spell their names is challenging.  (Chernyakhovskii and Rokossovskii)

The complex subject of the Eastern Front is worth the effort.  Stalingrad is the most important battle in world history and yet most teachers have only a rudimentary idea of what happened.  Even after the bloodletting at Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, there were still 6.7 million Soviet soldiers to face off against 3.5 million Nazis.  Compare those numbers to Normandy, where 1.2 million Allied soldiers fought against 350,000 Nazis and the Russian Front dwarfs its counterpart in France.  Another example of the scale of the fighting was that in the first few months of the war there were three separate battles where the Nazis captured over 200,000 Soviets and then sent the POWs to concentration camps.  Since 12 million people were killed in the camps, we have a pretty good idea of what happened to the POWs.  The numbers are incomprehensible and the longer that the war went on the more brutal the fighting became.  It is ceaselessly fascinating to me.  How could man do this to his fellow man?  No apology or explanation can atone for the sins of the Fascists and the Communists in WWII.  Morally, Americans could not pull for one side over the other.

I have learned not to talk about the books that I am reading because most people do not care about the finer points of history, especially if the subject matter doesn’t include the U.S.  And yet the topic is important because the Soviet win over the Nazis is the beginning of the Cold War.  Stalin wasn’t about to give up all of the land that he won in Europe and Asia when it had cost him so dearly in lives and treasure.  After Berlin was captured and Hitler shot himself, Stalin still had six million battle hardened troops in Europe and there wasn’t a lot to stop him from marching to the Atlantic.  Truman’s response to the Soviet threat was underwhelming.  He joined NATO in 1947 and instituted the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift in 1948.  Eisenhower used the threat of nuclear arms to stop the Russians, but the threat was diminished after Stalin detonated his own atomic and hydrogen bomb.  The two superpowers settled for a proxy war in Korea and Vietnam, and they almost came to blows over Castro’s Cuba.  Meanwhile, the European countries who were under the thumb of the Soviets rebelled; Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Poland in 1980.  Even though America didn’t fight on the Eastern Front, the Russian victory had long lasting consequences for the United States.

When I delve into a new and complicated subject, I like to take my studies well beyond the book that I am reading.  For example, since the geography of the Eastern Front is so difficult to understand, I look up the maps on Google Images and then redraw them on paper that I tape into the book.  Blue, red and green markers are used for troop movements, geographical features, battle sites, and cities of interest.  I like to make the book my own by taking notes in the margins and using highlighters to reference people and terms that I think are important.  Also, the History Channel has documentaries about Kursk and Stalingrad and YouTube there a series of animated maps which vividly show how the armies attacked and defended positions.  Finally, I have several boards on Pinterest and use them to keep pictures of the famous generals so that I have some idea of what Rokosovskii, for example, looks like.    

    

Caribe Hilton

     The Caribe Hilton in San Juan has a large patio area right on top of the breakers, or the rocks set up to prevent soil erosion, so not only can Tracey feel the sun on her face and the wind in her hair, she constantly gets sprinkled with the mist produced by the surf.  Because of the CDC warnings against traveling  during the COVID crisis, there were very few people at the hotel, especially before the New Year’s weekend, so Tracey had her pick of chairs.  Marisol was the main pool attendant and she greeted us with a smile and a warm towel every day.  William was the man in charge of maintaining the pool and he offered to save Tracey a chair by the breakers.  He was the first to arrive and could save Tracey’s special place before the other guests arrived.  My point in mentioning these two people is that the Caribe Hilton was the nicest hotel that I have ever stayed at because of the amenities but also, and more importantly, because of the service.                     

         “I know that I don’t deserve it, but I am going to enjoy it” was a line that I said to myself throughout the week.  After all, if we can afford it, then we might as well use the money for a luxury vacation because “that’s what the money is for.” This was the second line that I constantly whispered to myself to justify spending so much on a week in Puerto Rico.  To my way of thinking, it was worth it to get out of my routine for a while, to get the creative juices flowing, to aerate my brain, and to cultivate an attitude of gratitude for everything that I have.  Also, Tracey and I strengthen our marriage by spending quality time together because this was our best week ever!

Having a great vacation doesn’t just happen.  I was determined to be on my best behavior because I wanted us to share a good memory.  I have learned to check myself whenever I feel impatience, anger, and intolerance flooding into my brain.  When I become tired, frustrated, or feel a lack of control, I tense up and move my way into a bad mood.  “Where ever you go, you take yourself with you,” was a third line that I used and I have learned that the best way for me to combat my anxiety is through exercise.  I took a two hour walk every morning, lifted weights in the afternoon, and took a nap every day to refresh myself.  Happiness is a choice, but I have to work on it, and I know that I can be my own worst enemy on vacation.  Since I paced myself by reading a little, playing around on YouTube, and listening to some of my favorite music, our vacation was a complete success.

Being a man of a certain age can be an advantage because I can walk around unnoticed.  As an older man in a younger crowd, I become invisible, but that is fine with me because I am free to observe other people without them becoming defensive.  For example, as I crossed the pool deck to check in on Tracey, I came across a loud mouth jerk who was arguing politics with an equally opinionated Latina while their spouses sat off to the side, wishing that the debate would end.  Another time, I saw a young Asian man strutting from one end of the property to the other while his new wife had to take twice as many steps as he did just to keep up.  And then there was the couple who was having a good time by giving each other piggy back rides on the patio.  Teenage girls were taking selfies and recording Tick Tock videos in bathing suits that were barely there.  A young mother kept a watchful eye over her two sons but what made her remarkable was that she was wearing a string bikini.  She was obviously proud of the fact that she kept herself up, in spite of giving birth to two boys, and wanted to show off.

“Mojitos” was one of the restaurants attached to the hotel and Tracey and I liked the place so much that we had breakfast there every morning and took most of our dinners there in the evening.  The food was good but the real reason why we kept going back was the staff; they warmed up to us from the first day of our stay and by the end of the week they treated us like family.  Kathy is the owner and, since we were at her restaurant on New Year’s Eve, she introduced us to her mother and husband, who were there to celebrate the holiday.  “Mojitos” is a family run operation and Kathy’s daughter works there as the hostess while her husband visited the restaurant every day just to help keep an eye on things.  Peter and Pedro were the brothers who bussed the tables and they was a little confusing because not only did they share the same looks and demeanor, they shared the same name.  The real gem of the place was Veronica.  She was our waitress on most days and she was a little Puerto Rican ball of fire.  At one point, Veronica had colored her air silver, but it grown out a while ago, so about a quarter of her hair was jet black and the rest of it was silver.  Not everyone could get away with this look but Veronica had the personality to pull it off.  Because she had so much energy and an attractive personality, I began to look forward to seeing Veronica every day just so that I could spend a few moments talking to her.  However, it was hard to see her bright eyes turn sad as she talked about the devastation that Hurricane Maria brought to the island two years ago and the poverty that came as a result of the calamity.

If I had to pick one moment that was the highlight of our trip to the Caribe Hilton, it has to be when they brought out our New Year’s Day dinner at “Rustica.”  Tracey picked this Italian restaurant to bring in 2021 and she preordered the meal as a surprise to me.  To add even more class to the event, Tracey paid with cash so that I couldn’t find out how much the meal cost.  We shared carpaccio for an appetizer, a tomahawk steak for two as the main course, and tiramisu for dessert.  The meal was paired with a bottle of Chardonnay.  It was the best dinner that I have ever had and it meant more to me because Tracey went out of her way to make it an event.

There were so many small moments, so many memories that made our vacation special.  If there was anything that was negative during our week in Puerto Rico, it was that so many businesses had shuttered their doors.  The hurricanes and the pandemic had left the restaurants and hotels wanting for customers.  We never left the tourist area so Tracey and I didn’t see the devastation on the rural areas of the island but Veronica said that she lives in the city and her electricity was off for eleven months.  It is my hope that this pandemic will be over soon and people will feel comfortable travelling again.  And if there is anything that I can do to encourage you to visit Puerto Rico then please let me know.  It is a wonderful place and I want to see the small businesses flourish again.