Star Wars Marathon in Flight

Posted on May 2, 2022 by vanbraman

Today I am thinking back to a Star Wars Marathon that I watched back in 2016. I am thinking about Star Wars as this week has two important days; May the Fourth be with you and the Revenge of the Fifth :-).

Back in April 2016 I took a trip to Milan to help with a new product we were releasing.

That week I flew enough to complete a Star Wars marathon. Of course, not all nine films had been released at that time.

I was looking through the movies that were available when I boarded my first flight on a Tuesday. I noticed that all of the current Star Wars movies were available.

I had not watched the movies in the original trilogy for such a long time so decided to start watching them.

On my flight to Newark and on to Milan I watched Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

Those three movies helped me better understand the latest movie (The Force Awakens) that I had watched for the first time when I flew to Canada the previous month.

Movies on Plane, Business First Class, International FlightWhen I flew back from Milan I continued watching the series. I was given a free upgrade to Business First for my flight from Milan to Newark, so it was nice to watch on a larger screen.

On the flight I watched The Phantom Menace and started to watch Attack of the Clones. However, I was falling asleep too much and had to keep rewinding so I finally decided to just go to sleep. It was nice to have a lay flat seat for the flight.

Movie Marathon in Flight, Star Wars Movie Marathon, Long FlightsOn the flight from Newark to San Francisco the screen was not as big. However, still a nice size screen to watch the movies on.

I finished watching Attack of the Clones and then watched Revenge of the Sith.

As I finished watching Revenge of the Sith I looked at the time remaining in the flight and found that I had just enough time to also watch The Force Awakens.

The movie finished just minutes before we touched down.

Have you ever watched a complete series of movies during a long week of flying?

Steven

p.s. I am thinking about whether I watched the ninth film (The Rise of Skywalker). It came out in December 2019 and I am trying to remember if I went and watched it before the shutdown started in March 2020.

Posted in Culture, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hays, Kansas Grave

Posted on May 1, 2022 by vanbraman

Yesterday I shared some pictures of graves in Colorado Springs and decided I would follow them up with a picture of another grave.

Cochran, Hays, Kansas, Tomb StoneThis grave is in Hays, Kansas is the grave of my Great, Great Grandfather Lorenzo Dow Cochran. The picture was taken by a relative who was on his way back to Missouri after attending the funeral and burial of Leah Garner in Colorado Springs back in 1929.

Lorenzo Dow CochranL.D. was working the wheat harvest while his pregnant wife and eleven children were living with relatives back in Missouri. According to the newspaper article he died of heat exhaustion on July 11, 1901 while working in the field.

Death Notice, Lorenzo Dow Cochran, Hays Kansas, HarvesterHere is a transcription of the short article in the Hays newspaper:

J. D. Cochran of Missouri, who was working with a threshing gang for Israel Grenell was prostrated by the heat last Thursday, and died within thirty minuets after he was stricken. Mr. Cochran was a good workman and well liked. He leaves a wife and 11 children to mourn the loss of husband and father. This is the first death from the intense heat that has continued the past three weeks.

The article has J.D. Cochran instead of L.D. but the rest of the facts about him are correct.

There is a family story that he was murdered instead of dying of heat exhaustion, but I have heard several versions of the story and the newspaper article is pretty clear in the details.

L.D. was only 43 years old at the time he died. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Leah did re-marry. In fact, she re-married twice and ended up outliving three husbands.

There are many interesting stories in the Cochran branch of the family. Many of the children lived long lives, with only a few dying at a young age.

Find a Grave, Shattered Tomb Stone, Lorenzo Dow CochranUnfortunately the grave stone has not been taken care of and the latest picture I found on findagrave.com shows it broken into pieces.

Hays Kansas, L.D. CochranHowever, we at least have the picture taken back in 1929.

Steven

Posted in Culture, Family History, Genealogy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment