Joe Matlock's Blog
July 15, 2018
THE DANCE
Some people are upset about THE DANCE [title is misleading and it is not a romance].
I do not write formulaic genres - romance, war, mystery, techno-thriller or legal-thriller & etcetera. My novels are LIFE STORIES.
THE DANCE is about a relationship, but not a love story. It take two to dance, and each person dancing has their own story....
So, https://youtu.be/bpwdwbO1uvM
I do not write formulaic genres - romance, war, mystery, techno-thriller or legal-thriller & etcetera. My novels are LIFE STORIES.
THE DANCE is about a relationship, but not a love story. It take two to dance, and each person dancing has their own story....
So, https://youtu.be/bpwdwbO1uvM
November 10, 2017
The Veteran and the Poppy
Around Veterans Day, you will see the VFW (veterans of foreign wars) handing out Poppies to everyone - no compensation required. WHY?
Thankfully, most people have no real references to war other than books or film. As much as governments want to think they can, war will never be regulated.
War is mankind's capability for dispensing evil at his very worst. Envisioning (sights, sounds, smell) the carnage of a battlefield is something you do not want branded into your memory.
All laws, rules and any sense of civility are discarded because failure in a war is not accepted until all avenues for success are exhausted.
In the spring of 1915, shortly after losing a friend in Ypres Belgium, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies growing in battle-scarred fields to write a now famous poem called 'In Flanders Fields'. After the First World War, the poppy was adopted as a symbol of remembrance.
https://www.joematlock.net/homecoming
Thankfully, most people have no real references to war other than books or film. As much as governments want to think they can, war will never be regulated.
War is mankind's capability for dispensing evil at his very worst. Envisioning (sights, sounds, smell) the carnage of a battlefield is something you do not want branded into your memory.
All laws, rules and any sense of civility are discarded because failure in a war is not accepted until all avenues for success are exhausted.
In the spring of 1915, shortly after losing a friend in Ypres Belgium, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies growing in battle-scarred fields to write a now famous poem called 'In Flanders Fields'. After the First World War, the poppy was adopted as a symbol of remembrance.
https://www.joematlock.net/homecoming
October 25, 2017
The importance of family tradition.
Today, I waited in the check-out line at the grocery store when the lady behind me sniffed, “My children will not help me make tamales this year. My daughter is a nurse and said it is too much trouble to come make tamales with the family so she ordered hers from a tamaleras.”
I understood her sadness. It’s a very special time to gather family together. They unite for dinner, everyone shares conversation and it’s really special, even kind of a beautiful time.
During Christmas in Texas among Hispanics is the family tradition of making tamales for family and friends. If you are the lucky recipient of one of these bundles of six treats, you are treasured friend indeed. The immediate family and sometimes a lucky friend get together for a simple supper and then an assemble line begins of making tamales.
I grew up without a family and lost my first immediate family to a drunk driver while deployed in the Marines to carrier duty, so family is especially important to me.
In December of 1979, Lenny, a civil service employee invited me to join his family for dinner. We had a homemade meal of carne asada, then Lenny’s wife Izzy, sister-in-law Nana, his son Paco and his daughter Bella prepared the assembly line for an evening of making tamales.
My job – the easiest - was to spread a layer of masa, a corn dough, onto a moist corn husk laying flat on my opposite hand. I handed off to Bella who placed a filling of shredded pork drenched in red chile sauce and then handed off to Paco, who quickly rolled the husk and tucked in from the bottom.
Then the process is repeated as Nana and Izzy made up bundles and then last, Lenny handled the final process of cooking them. We made eighteen dozen that evening. Bundles of twelve would go to family and bundles of six to close friends. One dozen was for me!
Now it seems the old tradition has given way to a new one — buying tamales just to serve at holiday dinners. None made with love for family and special friends. My grocery store acquaintance was clearly hurt by this. It made me think back to some interviews for The Other Side Of Courage for the American home front (https://www.joematlock.net/homefront ) and how much we (and the world) has changed…and not for the better.
I understood her sadness. It’s a very special time to gather family together. They unite for dinner, everyone shares conversation and it’s really special, even kind of a beautiful time.
During Christmas in Texas among Hispanics is the family tradition of making tamales for family and friends. If you are the lucky recipient of one of these bundles of six treats, you are treasured friend indeed. The immediate family and sometimes a lucky friend get together for a simple supper and then an assemble line begins of making tamales.
I grew up without a family and lost my first immediate family to a drunk driver while deployed in the Marines to carrier duty, so family is especially important to me.
In December of 1979, Lenny, a civil service employee invited me to join his family for dinner. We had a homemade meal of carne asada, then Lenny’s wife Izzy, sister-in-law Nana, his son Paco and his daughter Bella prepared the assembly line for an evening of making tamales.
My job – the easiest - was to spread a layer of masa, a corn dough, onto a moist corn husk laying flat on my opposite hand. I handed off to Bella who placed a filling of shredded pork drenched in red chile sauce and then handed off to Paco, who quickly rolled the husk and tucked in from the bottom.
Then the process is repeated as Nana and Izzy made up bundles and then last, Lenny handled the final process of cooking them. We made eighteen dozen that evening. Bundles of twelve would go to family and bundles of six to close friends. One dozen was for me!
Now it seems the old tradition has given way to a new one — buying tamales just to serve at holiday dinners. None made with love for family and special friends. My grocery store acquaintance was clearly hurt by this. It made me think back to some interviews for The Other Side Of Courage for the American home front (https://www.joematlock.net/homefront ) and how much we (and the world) has changed…and not for the better.
