It’s a new year. Our routine will continue, spiced up by special events and memories of past big events that occur during the next 12 months.
War, remembrance
The entire year will play out to an increasing volume of drumbeats reminding us that in 2026, the nation will celebrate its 250th year: the semiquincentennial.
We will have plenty of these reminders. In fact, the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired 250 years ago, April 19, 1775, at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts.
Two hundred years later—50 years ago—the Vietnam War ended as Saigon fell to North Vietnam on April 30, 1975. The United States suffered 58,200 fatal military casualties during our long engagement there in support of South Vietnam. Nothing to celebrate here, but surely something to remember?
A really old boat
Locally, the buyboat Peggy, flagship of the Mathews Maritime Foundation, will celebrate her centennial. Anyone who has owned a wooden boat knows how much maintenance is required. This is a big, o...