King Tiger

I started this month mentioning something relating to the World War II-era German military (Wehrmacht) and in particular, the Germany Army (Heer). I'm finishing this month on a similar note. For reasons I cannot fathom, I have been obsessed with the World War II German-era Tiger II or Königstiger (King Tiger in Anglo-American English). In idle moments I find myself regularly imaging myself commanding one such tank in a final futile battle somewhere in western Europe towards war's end destroying a lot of American (esp. M4 Shermans) and British tanks (esp. Cromwells) and tank destroyers (such as M10 Wolverines) before being forced to surrender after running out of ammo. I have a strong feeling this is a metaphor for something. I sure hope I'm not engaged in a lost cause at present and don't realize it. Below is a sample of the tank to which I refer. It was the best tank in the world up into the 1950s and some are still being used in the Syrian Civil War right now as a measure of how great they were and still are.

Evolution Of American Army Uniforms

I came across this on Twitter a short time ago and was touched by it... way cool, but kind of melancholy in an existentialist sort of way as one is reminded of how ephemeral everything is as change is the only constant. The Roman uniform changed over the course of human history as did the uniform of soldiers of every great civilization throughout history. Someday we will be gone and people will remember our warriors in like fashion.

2014 San Miguel Sagebrush Days

This morning I volunteered to do traffic control for this year's San Miguel Sagebrush Days at the request of my friend Anthony Kalvans who is a young and up and coming local politician in that tiny berg. Despite how busy I am right now I did it anyway to help Anthony pull off a successful event. I did it simply for the experience of doing it. I did it for the purpose of volunteering in the local community. Last and least but worth noting I also did it because Anthony promised to feed me. I realize more urbane people often look down upon these events as hokey and provincial (my mom being a Pasadenan by birth and culture will in the course of discussing such matters mention that her home town throws a "little parade and football game every New Year's Day". However, I find these small-town America events charming in their own inimitable way. What follows is my photographic record of today's small-town festival in San Miguel, CA.

The Estrella Warbirds sent several aircraft over the parade route.

These Model A's were at the Model A event in Paso Robles recently which I covered in this blog HERE.

The driver of this vintage fire engine drove it back in the day when both he and it were newer models.

Overheard at the firestation spoken amongst the traffic control volunteers in reference to this display: "There's some redneck engineering for ya."

The panel of judges weighs their choices in the voting for the parade entries.

As with all small town in America the fire station is an integral part of the community and even functions as a community meeting room.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).