(Some of the best time travel books and stories are available for purchase or at a good library. Connecticut Yankee In King Arthurs' Court(Mark Twain) and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells provide evidence that imaginative authors often dwell for a time within those strange quantrams. For this writer, I'm determined to focus within this realm for a time. Accounts within these sequels are genuine, but equaling my eighteenth century models will not be possible.Enjoy the efforts if you choose. One might learn from doing so.)

Mark I:

The story:

Fears involving possible American entry into those European and Asian wars became sources of anxiety among hill people of western Kentucky. Daily gatherings "in the kitchen" usually found the Monroes near their battery powered radio receiver and engaged in conversation. That's where they were when President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed congress and glumly, indignantly asked for a declaration of war: "A state of war has existed between The United States Of America and The Empire Of Japan." With that act, we Americans were indeed into WWII.

The Monroes all loved Cousin Harvey Hubbard. He was just the appropriate age and unmarried- a young man who could hunt rabbit, squirrel, deer, quail, water fowl, and quail- game abundant within their happy hunting grounds. Harvey would seldom miss a shot. We all wanted Cousin Harvey to be near us and visit often. He and other friends and acquaintenances were vulnerable. There was a chance that even Joe Monroe, their father, might be drafted.

Said Etta Monroe: "Harvey will be called up for sure. He's not married and just the right age. He'll pass both physical and mental tests. I hate to think that Harvey might get killed over there."

Those prospects of so many young men away fighting a war overseas made news of a World War frightening.

As one would expect, those wars in far off places were not the only thorn the Monroe family was forced to bare. Neighbors among hill people were at times quarrelsome and irritable people- more troublesome than colonies of monkies and flocks of magpies. There was something going on during most times. That phenomena is an "if one wishes to tell the truth," and this author feels that it would be appropriate to share segments of what knowledge he has.

Sometimes there were fights there in Lyon County, Kentucky over different human interactions. Men would sometimes fight over women and women over men. Someone may have said something in the wrong way or at a inopportune time, resulting in conflict of some kind. Several habitual drunks walked streets and rural roads around that area- dependent on whiskey- the moonshine variety. Chickens were poached from those fortunate enough to have them in sufficient numbers. Preachers claiming to have been called by God roamed the vicinity and tried in vain to convert non- church goers into childen of Jesus. As is now, talk often came to "heaven and hell." Yet our enemies in Germany and Japan most surely made hell right here on earth.

And unbelievably, there's more to tell. The man operating The Eddyville Ferry drowned one frigid winter day in the swift, freezing waters of The Cumberland River. Only daughter of head teacher at the one room school hanged herself before WWII ended. A few bushwhackers from Lyon County and surrounding areas preyed upon whomever, whenever, and where ever the opportunity arose; as with lions and tigers

More could be told, but come to be is an expectation to counted on. That's the way it is here on this planet. Whenever and where ever humans congregrate within reach of each other, there may be trouble. That's the way it will always be, I suppose.

Yes, humans were troublesome... troublesome.... troublesome. And whenever a state of peace and tranquility does exist, some will commence the process of imaging and try vallantly, dedicatingly to disrupt and destroy those conditions. All Men!!

From 1941-45 during those tumultuous times, many young men were called upon to fight or backup our warriors.

Uncles Hubert and Seth were Joseph Monroes' younger brothers. They were maturing to near their prime, their early twenties. Hubert was called to The United States Army early during 1942 and served in artillery but was placed on a U.S. Navy ship patrolling waters off the Pacific west coast and up around Adac. While Seth enlisted and served in the European theatre as an infantryman. That soldier returned later to Kentucky with gruesome stories of "the putrid smell of death," German concentration camps, and other harrowing experiences. Seth refused to enter into lengthy conversations about his experiences. What he knew of the war was obviously memories he wanted to erase but could not.

Fortunately, no close family members, friends, or acquaintenances were killed or captured. A few were wounded. One Cousin sustained a serious bayonette wound from a fourteen- year-old German teen soldier. Cousin Blain would have bled to death if not for surgery and blood transfusion administered willingly by a German physician. According to Blain Mitchusson, that German teen refused to surrender to him. Another soldier in Blain's squad found it necessary to kill by rifle fire that Hitler youth.(Private Blain Mitchusson was later awarded The Purple Heart and another special medal for valor in combat.)

Close relatives of Etta Monroe, Tim's Mother, were called to serve The President Of The United States as fighting men. Etta's sister was a WAC, and her brother, Jason Shay was an infantryman who participated in The Invasion Of Normandy among other exploits.

Of course, each war participant held unique stories they might have shared with family upon their return to America. Very little was said. Perhaps they were under orders not to talk, but that's the way they were.

As is now known by all, Joseph and Etta Monroe, a Kentucky Mother and Father, were raising their only son, Jack. Prayed to tell is that Jack turned up missing for three days during year 1944. That was a time when the Monroe family lived across from Dixon Cemetary, Lyon County, Kentucky.