Dan Dauw column: Son Monarcos delivers with upbeat performance
The Latin Folk Fusion ensemble Son Monarcas performed recently at the Geneseo Public Library. Their performance lasted one hour and it was really, really entertaining.
The four individuals − Irekani Ferreyra, Mercedes Inez Martinez, Samuel Torres and RobertoFerreyra − included dancing, singing and the playing of some unique musical instruments in their performance.
Mercedes Inez Martinez, a talented and pretty young lady, led us all in some singing and hand-clapping. Kind of ironic, but two days later Lorna had to do some tutoring at the Moline Public Library after which we got to see the same ensemble performing there. They perform 2-3 times a week around the country.
For more information you can go on-line at www.sonmonarcas.com
Thanks to Claire Crawford, Geneseo Library director, for obtaining a grant which brought them to Geneseo.
Ag Safety
Reminder! You know we’re in Ag country and it’s harvest time so be patient if you come upon farm equipment on road. There is a good size road sign in Franklin County, that reads, “CAUTION Farmers will be sharing this roadway to grow food for you and your family. Watch for this slow moving vehicle emblem (Orange &red triangle emblem).”
U-boats & Prisoners
I just finished two excellent non-fiction library books about WW2. They were: (Grey Wolves by Philip Kaplan) and (We Were Each Other’s Prisoners by Lewis Carlson). Both are excellent reading if you’re a history buff.
Grey Wolves tells about what many officers and crews of German U-boats endured from 1939 – 1945. There were 39,000 U-boat sailors and 30,000 found a watery grave in their “Iron Coffin.” The years 1939 to about 1942 were considered by the U-boat fleets as the “Good Years.”
In those early years the boats sunk many hundreds of merchant ships headed to England in convoys. That changed for the allies with better radar, sonar and allied aircraft that could range farther out in the oceans. In the ‘Prisoners book, the author gives an oral history of interviews taken in ‘80s and ‘90s of WW2 American and German prisoners. What both sides endured in most all cases had to be pure hell. More so against the Americans. Even when captured, in many places it was considered an act of cowardess. The German army and air force, in many cases, but not all, treated prisoners better than the SS soldiers. Food and water were always on the men’s mind. Disease took a heavy toll.
Most American prisoners when returning home could not talk about their horrible experiences. Lorna’s relation, who was in the Battle of the Bulge, was captured. After the war, several times he would wake up and try to strangle his wife. Back then they called it “Shell shock.” Years ago I interviewed him at our house. Talking about it caused him lots of tears having seen so much death and destruction.
Animal Humor
Why did the bird sit on the fish? The fish was a perch.
What do you get when you cross a duck with a large reptile? A quack-odile.
How do baby birds know how to fly?They just wing it.
Humor
I was asked the other day why George Washington cut down the cherry tree?I was stumped.
Husband: “What’s the matter – did I misplace the car keys?Wife: “No, where’s the car?
Pharmacist: “Sir, take this pill at bedtime and this pill after I tell you how much these pills cost.”
This article originally appeared on Geneseo Republic: Dan Dauw column: Son Monarcos delivers with upbeat performance
