Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Veterans Day from the eyes of Rockwell



This Norman Rockwell oil painting graced the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1944. 'The Fighting Gillises' has always been associated with Veteran's Day, as well it should. However, it is a favorite of mine after reading a biography of Samuel Clemens ("Mark Twain") some years ago. One of the ancesters pictured above is Steve Gillis. Steve and Sam were, apparently, good friends.

“Steve weighed only ninety-five pounds,” Mark Twain once wrote of him, “but it was well known throughout the Territory that with his fists he could whip anybody that walked on two legs, let his weight and science be what they might.”
Veterans...THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE THEN, NOW AND ALWAYS...You can whip anybody that walks on two legs...if you have to.