Below is in memory of a fellow caster, friend, and personal hero. We lost him when the first tower fell.
New addition to my loading room
Tue Dec 4 08:26:52 2001
My loading room (see it on sixgunner.org) is a special place to me. I spend many hours there. I not only load there but do "some" bullet work. There's a deer and boar head there along with some skulls and a few horns. I have a shelf with a some shooting trophies and my US Army dress green hat.
I also have pictures there. The 8X10 of Mr. Keith that's on my web page is one of my favorites. There's a couple of Elmer in Africa and one of him fishing for steelhead. These are in a place of honor.
I talked to Alice Martin friday just to see how things were going and she wanted to send me something. It came yesterday, a picture of Peter C. Martin, "PCM". He's all decked out in his work uniform complete with his fireman hat. There's big number 2 on that hat and under it the word Lieutenant.
This picture will be placed in the same place of honor as my other heros. Funny how grown men have those (heros). I look at Elmer's pictures often and remember the times I spoke with him on the phone and visited him and his wife. These were high points of my life made all the more vivid by these pictures.
My newest picture will bring back memories also. A quite night, campfires, a big smile, and the smell of burning black powder that his rifles and handguns used.
Theses are the good ones. The other things brought to mind will be planes and buildings; screaming people and the silent ones; those needing help and those helping.
The man in this picture is a helper. You look into his eyes and you see someone you would trust your life to, or your children's. There's a quite, friendly look to his face even though it's dirty along with his neckerchief from no doubt doing what rescue workers do.
I will also look at this picture often, as I do Elmers, but it'll be a long time before Pete's picture doesn't put that "lump", we all know about, in my throat.
"GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS. John 15:13 KJV.
May he rest in peace,
LA Halstead
