Amanda Loren

@realrayporter.bsky.social thought of you on a trip to the local antique store. Bunches of awesome space-themed Life mags, all reminding me fondly of you. ❤️

A black and white photo of a defeated German Tiger Tank atop rubble. The tank belonged to Kamfrgruppe Peiper and the Sixth Panzer Army. It was destroyed by American soldiers using an anti-tank weapon during the Battle of the Bulge. Photo taken in Stavelot, Belgium, December 1944.

Saint Remaclus and your wolf, join the American soldiers to help them drive evil from Stavelot as you have done before.

And please bring all the lost husbands home.

amandaloren.substack.com/p/the-tip-of...

#WWII #BattleOfTheBulge

Watercolor painting of a grey stone bridge. The sky is blue with pink edges and slight purple gradients, the sun is directly overhead and glows orange. The bridge has four arches supporting its flat platform, with the leftmost arch shaded to show depth. The river is muddy and dark, underpainted rust red and overpainted deep navy. The two colors blend in places to create a blue-grey with hints of rust peaking through. A river bottom shining from the cold water. In the middle of the bridge stands a US Army soldier in olive drab with a helmet. Based on a the stone bridge in Stavelot, Belgium over the Ambleve River.

A stone bridge stands in Stavelot, Belgium.

This bridge I've not yet seen with my own eyes has been my stronghold, my anchor, for two years.

It was this bridge that gave me hope I could find my grandfather through the fog of World War II.

Watercolor by my 8yo son.

The Badasses of Lanzerath.

amandaloren.substack.com/p/battle-of-...

Definitely check out my earlier entries on Substack! I've added some more specifics about his service.

And with this being the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, I'm planning 3 entries this week.

He sure saw some shit.

202nd Engineer Bn. They were first with Patton's 3rd, then assigned to Hodge's 1st. During the Battle of the Bulge they were temporarily joined to the Ninth Army, and rejoined the 1st in (if I recall correctly) late February '45.

My grandpa died when I was young - I'm researching all this myself.

Oh, ok. Well, when you've given it some thought, let me know!

And for the lepers? Did they diminish Christ, or did Christ lift them up from the literal edges of society and re-member them with their families, their friends, their community?

That's Good News. It's for the outcast, those society has turned away, left to die alone.

Christ says think again.

American soldiers fire their tank from a dug-in ramp toward advancing German troops. A black and white photo dated December 16, 1944. From the first day of the Battle of the Bulge.

It's the Night Before the Watch on The Rhine.

Grandpa is somewhere around Stavelot, Belgium.

#WWII #BattleOfTheBulge

amandaloren.substack.com/p/the-night-...

Finally did the bridge thingy.

So glad to know I am not the only one that does this.

A black and white photo of a few US Army soldiers from a parachute regiment marching down a narrow road into a dense forest. The ground and trees are blanketed with several inches of untouched snow. Winter 1944/1945.

"Orchards are veterans, scarred and shocked;
But American hills are unmarred by wars:
Peace is a plausible green illusion
And bayonets a steel intrusion."

- Ephim G. Fogel

amandaloren.substack.com/p/the-forest...

#WWII #writing

Happy Thanksgiving, America.

amandaloren.substack.com/p/grandpa-ma...

Also: the best easy Halloween charcuterie display, RIGHT?????

I really had a *lot* of big feelings to process after getting medicated.

So much self-hatred had to be unlearned.

A black and white photo taken in November 1944. A US Army Corporal takes a big bite out of a roasted turkey leg, one eye open at the camera, one eye closed to savor his meal. Other GIs sit next to him in the background, out of focus.

Twenty years old and an ocean away from his family.

Entry two: The Great Turkey-Lift
amandaloren.substack.com/p/the-great-...

#WWII #Thanksgiving #Army

A sepia photo from March 1945, US Army Engineers drive cargo trucks over a floating pontoon bridge across the Rhine River in Germany at Spellen. A white sign painted with dark block letters reads, "You are now crossing the Rhine River through courtesy of E Company (CO) 17th Armored Engineers Batallion (BN) and C Company 202nd Engineer C Batallion"

Some bridges are built to last.

Bridging The Gap: Entry 1

bit.ly/4fYIqqy

#substack #writing #history

a woman is sitting in a hammock and eating an apple . Alt: a woman is sitting in a hammock and eating an apple while staring intensely at the viewer.

If you like:
- storytelling
- history
- geology
- human innovations
- ancestral research
- geomorphology
- intergenerational healing
- multi-genre writing
and/or
- maps

You'll love what I'm launching this weekend.

TIL: Jules Verne's nephew shot him (in the leg), apparently because he wanted his uncle to "achieve immortality".

HUH.

The nephew was committed to an asylum after the shooting.

Tbf, Jules Verne is kind of immortalized as a Father of Science Fiction. So. Maybe it worked? #literature

A close-up of a cluster of small yellow-orange mushrooms with flat button tops sprouting from a decomposing log. In the background, green grass is out of focus.

A close-up of a cluster of small yellow-orange mushrooms with flat button tops, four total. They are sprouting from a decomposing log on a forest floor, the greyish-brown bark of the log fills the photo. One mushroom cap has been removed from its stem and turned over to reveal its gills, the upside-down cap placed about an inch from its stem. The gills are cream-colored, fanning from the center of the cap to its edges, and the place where the stem was connected to the cap is a small indentation in the center.

Went on a walk last week and found some beautiful mushrooms.

May you taste a good thing and share it.

May you find warm shelter and invite someone into it.

May you drink fresh water and carry enough to those who cannot reach it.

May your enough be enough for more than you alone.

321/366

This.

Do they call it bluesky because it feels so much less doomy and gloomy than That Other Place?