Exactly what I hoped for

So the ideas on this blog and the common threads are doing exactly what I hoped they would do... inform a design that is unique to this community of my dear friends and family.

Dave picked up on my mantra "What goes around comes around" with a comment  about my Japanese ship / van <snip> All ships are meant to return to their home port after the voyage- to complete the circle. Ships that go around and arrive safely. Maru= 丸  So Honda Maru becomes= ホンダ丸 </snip>

This inspired Sally to remind me that my father-in-law Joe was a signal flag corpsman on the Intrepid in WWII. He used flags to spell out messages and to communicate with other ships in the fleet. The graphical alphabet could be another language we use to communicate my message on the car.

Here is a video I made in November of 2008 when we took Joe to New York to visit the Intrepid - now a museum in the Hudson River. He climbed over the railing into HIS flag rack and showed us how he used the flags to signal and communicate.


Intrepid Joe from Joan Freedman on Vimeo.

One year later our family gathered on the deck to raise and then lower a flag in his honor and to fulfill his wish of having his ashes strewn from the ship. Incorporating the language of signal flags on my car would be a very loving reminder of a wonderful man.

Another mysterious language I grew up with was Gregg shorthand. My dad Jerry was a stenographer and court reporter. He recorded testimony in court on a stenograph machine and often made notes in shorthand.  I remember going to the supermarket with his shopping list and trying to decipher a mix of English and Gregg shorthand.  My dad died on December 6th 2009 so I hope that there is someone out there who still knows this language and can write out my message in his honor.