Cut off from the world, connnected?

I am at the motel, and because I stepped into the virtual world of the internet, bloggers and Facebook - I have been connected to the past few minutes, days and hours. And my contact with all the present people that are here to meet is totally gone as I find when I return to a locked door. It is lunch time, there are other places to be - in the end much of this is a moving conversation about our lives in otherwheres and othertimes - and when a few of us step out of the moving voice and herd - and don't stay linked by cellphone nor texting.... why we have just disappeared.

Oh, I could go take care of the stuff I have to do in preparation of departing tomorrow, or start early preparation for this evenings activities which are just a dressier-up moving conversation at another location with food and beverages - skipping lunch to have room for the dinner is like stepping out of the conversation so my mind will have room for listening and speaking intently in the brief time I will have... flavor of food and drink improves with the rarity? Does the coversation and contact of limited but engaged presense make it more memoriable? Certainly, combat to the death will always be remembered long after the critical moment - so should love shared be that rare and deep that a few minutes out of the year are thirst quenching?

Read a short journal note about a soldier marching with his unit towards Gettysburg, and a Northern woman offering him a drink of milk. Having been on long marches, I know I would have written about that drink as he did. It would be that rare and still that wonderful - memoriable.

Col. David Ireland's 137th NY on the Road to Gettysburg - his bugler appreciates their reception in Frederick - "sweet milk" and "pretty girls":
James Hyde diary entry:
June 29: We started this morning very early before we got our breakfast. We marched through Frederick just after daylight. This is a very pleasant pla...ce not quite as large as Binghamton. Flags were hung out all through the village and lots of pretty girls were at the windows. Our march today was very hard as the road was full of wagons and the reserve artillery. We passed some Union families and one woman gave to the soldiers all she had to eat. I got some sweet milk. A great deal was given away in this way. We marched 20 miles.

 

From Cleutz on Facebook, this is a great time to re-enact the battle.