Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Let's Opening The Bidding...

Let's Opening The Bidding...

It has been confirmed that the first ever Doughty 500 Auction will take place after dinner on Thursday, August 2nd. All proceeds will go toward upkeep and maintenance of this site. Bring something decent to auction off and be ready to bid.

Over There

Over There

They say that you can find just about anything you want on the internet (and a lot of things that you don't want).

Proving that there's more out there to surf than you can possibly image, I came across Royal Herbert Doughty's draft registration card from World War I at Ancestry.com's Military section:



You can click to enlarge the image. It's still a little hard to read, but everything appears to be in order. What a world.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Memorial Day

Memorial Day

Peter Collier recalls some true profiles in courage at OpinionJournal:

The POWs of Vietnam configured a mini-America in prison that upheld the values beginning to wilt at home as a result of protest and dissension. John McCain tells of Lance Sijan, an airman who ejected over North Vietnam and survived for six weeks crawling (because of his wounds) through the jungle before being captured.

Close to death when he reached Hanoi, Sijan told his captors that he would give them no information because it was against the code of conduct. When not delirious, he quizzed his cellmates about camp security and made plans to escape. The North Vietnamese were obsessed with breaking him, but never did. When he died after long sessions of torture Sijan was, in Sen. McCain's words, "a free man from a free country."

Leo Thorsness was also at the Hanoi Hilton. The Air Force pilot had taken on four MiGs trying to strafe his wingman who had parachuted out of his damaged aircraft; Mr. Thorsness destroyed two and drove off the other two. He was shot down himself soon after this engagement and found out by tap code that his name had been submitted for the Medal.

One of Mr. Thorsness's most vivid memories from seven years of imprisonment involved a fellow prisoner named Mike Christian, who one day found a grimy piece of cloth, perhaps a former handkerchief, during a visit to the nasty concrete tank where the POWs were occasionally allowed a quick sponge bath. Christian picked up the scrap of fabric and hid it.

Back in his cell he convinced prisoners to give him precious crumbs of soap so he could clean the cloth. He stole a small piece of roof tile which he laboriously ground into a powder, mixed with a bit of water and used to make horizontal stripes. He used one of the blue pills of unknown provenance the prisoners were given for all ailments to color a square in the upper left of the cloth. With a needle made from bamboo wood and thread unraveled from the cell's one blanket, Christian stitched little stars on the blue field.

"It took Mike a couple weeks to finish, working at night under his mosquito net so the guards couldn't see him," Mr. Thorsness told me. "Early one morning, he got up before the guards were active and held up the little flag, waving it as if in a breeze. We turned to him and saw it coming to attention and automatically saluted, some of us with tears running down our cheeks. Of course, the Vietnamese found it during a strip search, took Mike to the torture cell and beat him unmercifully. Sometime after midnight they pushed him into our cell, so bad off that even his voice was gone. But when he recovered in a couple weeks he immediately started looking for another piece of cloth."

Thursday, May 24, 2007

1 dollar bid, now 2,now 2, will ya give me 2?

1 dollar bid, now 2,now 2, will ya give me 2?

Brendan e-mail with an excellent idea from his better half:

Karen had an idea. Why don't we ask people to bring something to the 500 that can be auctioned off one night...an "at the auction" night? All proceeds would go to upkeep of the web site.

Items could include a bottle of something good to drink, jewelry, clothing, travel items, bar accoutrements, picnic items, anything relating to Model T's or travel or anything just for fun. Not real expensive... maybe limit of $35 or something like that.


That is a heck of an idea, especially since I was considering shelling out some dough to get a Doughty 500 logo professionally designed. And to think, she's not even a Doughty by birth.

I'm thinking that Thursday night would be good. Unless anyone has good reasons to object, the event will take place on Thursday August 2nd. I'll send out an e-mail to everyone that I have an address for advising them of the plan. If everyone just brings one decent item, it should be quite successful.

Another possibility is embarrassing pictures of your immediate family. Some people would want to get their hands on the goods for purposes of mockery, while the person in question would want to secure the photos to ensure they never saw the light of day. Quite a bidding battle could ensue.

Brendan and Karen have also graciously volunteered to host one of the cocktail hours. That means there only two slots open. Get your name in now and start planning your concoction. And no Sean, Kerosene is not a cocktail.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Rooms To Let Fifty Cent...

Lodging info for this year Five Hundo from Bernie:

Motel information. We will be at the America Inn on Collage Ave. Ladysmith. check in on July 30th. check out on August 3rd. Phone 715-532-6650. Room rates, 61.90 single, 6.00 ea. additonal person. Call before July 8th. and mention Doughty 500. I have 20 rooms blocked.

Baby On Board

Baby On Board



Isaiah Chad Doughty
Born May 3rd at noon
7 lbs 3 oz
20 1/2 inches

Mom, dad, and baby are all at home doing fine.