The Chronicles of Marna

I chuckled when I read this email from one of my favorite vacation planning sites–http://www.vrbo.com.

“Many battles were won and lost on the way to making the United States the great country it is today. With hundreds of vacation rentals near historic battlefields and sites, VRBO puts you on the frontlines of history. From guided tours of Gettysburg to the World War II memorial in Normandy, France–this is a trip that will go down in history.”

It amused me because as a military family, we’ve visited many battlefields over the years.  I even wrote a story about it called “Love is a Battlefield,” which was published in my first book Household Baggage: The Moving Life of a Soldier’s Wife.

VRBO lists some of the premier battlefields. How many have you visited?

Gettysburg National Military Park

Fort Jackson
Savannah, GA

Civil War Cyclorama
Atlanta, GA

Confederate Museum
Charleston, SC

Colonial Williamsburg
Williamsburg, VA

Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield
Near Branson, MO

Civil War Library & Museum
Philadelphia, PA

National Military Park
Chattanooga, TN

New Market Battlefield Historical Park
Nearby Luray, Virginia

Bunker Hill
Boston, MA

Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial
Normandy, France

Imperial War Museum

London, United Kingdom

I remember planting a tree in our yard at Altus AFB, Oklahoma on the first Earth Day in 1970. Since then I’ve tried to live and maintain an environmental consciousness by turning off lights, picking up litter, and walking or biking places instead of driving.

But in this household, it’s my 18 year old daughter who really cracks the whip on green living. She’s the one who built the compost pile in the backyard, to which we dutifully carry our kitchen scraps. She lectures me about using plastic wrap or baggies “which just go in the landfill.” She buys all her clothes at the local thrift shop. For Christmas, instead of asking for presents, she extorted promises: “I want you to quit going to Starbucks so much. I want you to remember your reusable mug. I want you to stop taking Stephen to fast food places.”

Although her lectures annoy me at times, she makes me realize that there’s a lot more I could be doing, or not doing, for Mother Earth.

Oh that’s right, they’re in my daughter’s closet.

Either they migrate there mysteriously from the folded laundry and she innocently states, “It was in my drawer!”

Or she borrows something and it looks so much better on her that I say “Just keep it.”

Something about her being 4  inches taller and having that trim teenage waist….

I remembered to take my reusable bags with me into the commissary. I was actually in the produce department when I realized I’d forgotten them, so I went back out to the car to fetch them.

Here’s the nice thing about reusable bags: they hold a lot more than plastic bags. That means fewer trips unloading groceries.