 | Published by Theresa Ripley 104,100+ Downloads 311 Vella Episodes Read |  |
 | After the Great Escape: 1945, Forced March to Liberation The P.O.W.s who were in Stalag Luft III, known as The Great Escape camp, had more to endure after the escape attempt in 1944. The Germans started the Forced March to evade the oncoming Russia troops. They left the camp on January 27, 1945, under brutal weather conditions and endured a long foot march, an even more horrendous train ride, to end up in a miserable place, Stalag VIIA, living under appalling conditions, where they stayed until Liberation Day on April 29, 1945. This is their story. |
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 | Scottish Roots: Finding the Munros is a part fact, part fiction story of one family. The narrative describes Highland clan living in the 1770’s to Lowland life which included owning an iron foundry in the 1800’s in Arbroath. Emigration to the state of Illinois in America came in 1853. The author traveled to Scotland in 1993 to find a family iron marker in a graveyard of all stone markers. This event inspired her to write a novel about her family. This is the third in a series of ebooks on finding her roots. |
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 | German Roots: Finding the Moschels In the 1850’s one branch of the Moschel family emigrated from Webenheim, Germany, to America. In 2001 a Webenheim resident found the website of a distant American cousin and emailed, “We are family.” That email introduction led to American and German cousins working together to uncover the family history through five centuries, two continents, and two world wars. This is the story of that history and of the newfound relationships which culminated in a reunion in Germany after 150 years of separation between the families. |
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 | Irish Roots: Finding the O’Sullivans is the author’s story of connecting with the heritage of her great grandparents who emigrated from Ireland in 1863, using the surname of Sullivan in America. The connection to Ireland had broken over the decades. Even though research yielded no known relatives, she went to Ireland in 1995. There, not only did she find O’Sullivans, but found them on the land her great grandparents left. The author presents her story in dual format: her first person story and a fictionalized narrative in her ancestors’ voices. |
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 | Growing Up on Rt. 66 is the memoir of two farm siblings, Ray born 1935 and Theresa 1944. They lived on a 200-acre tenant farm on the 100-milepost from downtown Chicago with their gravel driveway leading out to the legendary Rt. 66. Early life for them was no running water, electricity, or central heating but lots of interdependence with the land, weather, neighbors, and each other as a family of four. Rt. 66 travelers brought them a different kind of exposure to the outside world, but rarely changed the character of what rural life was like. |
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 | Don’s Great Escape is one man’s story of being in two German POW camps in WWII. Don’s plane went down over occupied France in 1943. He was captured and sent to Stalag Luft III made famous by the 1963 movie The Great Escape which chronicled the tunneling and escape efforts of the prisoners. Equally dramatic to the tunneling story is the story of evacuation of this camp later in the war. On January 28, 1945, Stalag Luft III was evacuated so the camp would not be captured by the Russians. After several days of walking in severe winter conditions and being transported by boxcars, the prisoners eventually ended up in Stalag VIIA at Moosburg where circumstances at war’s end were challenging on all levels of daily life. Don was liberated on April 29, 1945, by General Patton and his troops. His story is told through letters written home to his parents in rural Illinois. |
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 | Uncle Jack Among the English was written in 1984 chronicling the author's sabbatical experience in London and then continuing on his Around-the-World Pan Am ticket back to Eugene, Oregon, where he taught at the University of Oregon. It was a humorous look at a time spent alone with his then new Osborne so-called portable computer (27 pounds) and Epson printer. This was before many people traveled with such technology, but it allowed him to record his travels and then self-publish a book afterward. |
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 | "Words, second to experience, are very nice. Words enrich anticipation, heighten the present, and engrave memories," said Jack Loughary. As a university professor he authored 14 books and published in professional journals. This collection is his more whimsey side including his love affair with automobiles and selected Tuesday Letters written to friends. The weekly emails started in October 1993 on a trip to the UK and ended the week he died in April 2010. Any topic was fair game, and whatever word game he chose was dealt with exceedingly well. |
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![Travels With J&T](https://thinkpint2.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Travel-with-J-1.jpg") | Traveling satisfaction varies among travelers. For us, traveling had three dimensions: anticipating, doing, and recall. We discovered our traveling satisfaction was enhanced by putting memories to cyberspace or paper.
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![Ripley Roots](https://thinkpint2.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/growing-up.jpg") | Growing Up on Rt. 66 Farm Life Outside Ocoya, Illinois: The Pictures |
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 | Ah, Yorkshire is based primarily on the authors' trip to Harrogate in Yorkshire in 1995. Jack Loughary and Theresa Ripley rented a small house and bounced up and down over the small towns, abbey ruins and isolated country pubs, and wrote friends about their adventures. At the time email was still relatively new. |
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![One Man's Wheels](https://thinkpint2.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/one_mans_wheels_s.jpg") | One Man's Wheels tells Jack's story of his love affairs with cars with humor and style. It started with 1936 4-door Dodge and ended with a 2000 BMW 328i with many twists and turns along the way. Enjoy the ride. |
![Caterpillar Club](https://thinkpint2.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/don_phillips_caterpillar_card_s.jpg") | On September 6, 1943, Don Phillips and the rest of his 10-man crew had to bail out of their B-17 Bomber over occupied France. This is their story in their own words from evasion reports. |
