Those who study history are condemned to remember it?

Those who study history are condemned to remember it; the good news is in these modern millennium times, people respond to historical reference by saying, “I wouldn’t know; I wasn’t even born then.” Last weekend the sea of “don’t know much about history” freedom celebrators were all over the place surrounded by red, white and blue and those were just spent cans of Budweiser and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Before the Firecracker 5K I heard a World War II veteran go on about “Japs” and “A-bombs” and I thought, “Can ‘Krauts’ be far behind, and would I have to stand up for my relatives,” since my maternal grandfather’s last name was Krupp, as in munitions, arms, armaments, Panzer tanks, rockets, U-boats and the guy who started it all in 1810 was Friedrich Krupp and it’s starting to get weird. I told my friend Alberto Castillo, born in Argentina, that I would have to root for Germany against Argentina in the World Cup and I didn’t know why German war criminals went to hide in Argentina, and you just wonder how much seed was laid down through the spinner spreader of history?

SKY PILOTS - My Uncle Donnie was a pilot for Allegheny Airlines, and that was my career path until I was derailed by sports. I once flew a twin prop from Mercersburg County Airport to Newark, N.J., when I was 14 simply by following Route 1 but at least it was dark and I was totally not allowed in the cockpit so don’t tell anyone. Last Saturday I was talking to road runner Brian Johnston who told me that he and his wife Karen fly around all over the place, so I cleverly asked, “Are you a pilot with your own plane?” Then on Sunday at the biathlon, Wayne Thomas, who is the father of Jen Reynolds and graduated three years behind me at Bishop Egan in Levittown, Pa., told me he comes over to Rehoboth in his own red biplane and somewhere was a poodle beach joke to be exploited but instead I asked “You’re a pilot with your own plane?” Some years back local Ron Smith, yet another pilot, told me he flew over Delmarva counting birds and stuff and offered to take me up, but when he asked, “How much do you weigh?” I told him, “Forget it, I’m not going.” Jeff Corman also invited me on a crop-dusting flight saying I would never forget it but I offered an excuse, “I’m a straight-up chicken,” an animal with wings that can’t fly to save its own neck. Jen Reynolds, trained by Paul Timmons of The Firm, did the run portion of the biathlon while Timmons did the swim. Remember Paul Timmons is the only documented swimmer that I know of to swim from Cape May to Lewes Beach.

BOCKIUS BABIES - Troy Bockius is 33, graduated from Dover and Delaware, was a high school quarterback, an accomplished distance runner, a longtime on-and-off member of the Rehoboth Beach Patrol and is in the Delaware Air National Guard. Troy flies C130 aircraft in and out of hostile war zones – several tours in Iraq - but anyone whoknows Troy knows there is nothing hostile about him. Troy did the biathlon on Sunday, but on Saturday, he got the fun job of entertaining twins Anna and Kate while mom Ellen got to break 30 minutes in the Firecracker 5K.

GETTING WORN OUT! - Kevin Danahy is one of the nicest guys on the planet along with his wife Brittany.

Kevin placed third overall in the Dave Reynolds Biathlon, and I overheard him fending off questions as to why he didn’t win it. The former national duathlon champion snapped at no baits and offered no excuses. “Just getting old, I guess,” Kevin said with a smile.

SNIPPETS - Larry McLaughlin, 58, of Lewes, was a good and helpful friend to a boatload of us locals for a long time. Larry was killed Sunday evening, July 4, in a motorcycle accident on Route 1.

He was a mile from home. When you hear the Lewes town whistle blow, think of Larry.