{"id":60516,"date":"2018-08-20T16:48:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T22:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/parker-saying-goodbye-to-a-soldier-and-soul-singer\/"},"modified":"2018-08-20T22:48:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T22:48:55","slug":"parker-saying-goodbye-to-a-soldier-and-soul-singer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/parker-saying-goodbye-to-a-soldier-and-soul-singer\/","title":{"rendered":"Parker: Saying goodbye to a soldier and soul singer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kathleen
Kathleen Parker<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These thoughts came tumbling down Thursday after the heart-wrenching news that Aretha Franklin had died. I spent the day re-listening to all my favorite recordings of the Queen of Soul singing her heart out. When, I wondered, had I stopped listening to the one-and-only Aretha?<\/p>\n

I have loved that woman since I was in high school and spent summers here. \u201cBeach Week\u201d on this storied island, where the marsh marks time with the moon and spirits roam the beach, was set to the music of Motown \u2013 and still is. Aretha\u2019s version of Otis Redding\u2019s \u201cRespect\u201d was released as a single in April 1967, the spring of my sophomore year, when my brother was deployed in Vietnam. Those were times of upheaval, marked by the civil rights movement, women\u2019s lib and a war only a few professed to understand.<\/p>\n

Through it all, Aretha was there, suggesting that we were all soul brothers and sisters \u2013 and that each of us deserved a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T. You couldn\u2019t then \u2013 and you can\u2019t now \u2013 watch her perform that song and not feel like jumping to your feet, setting yours arms squarely on your hips and testing your body\u2019s resistance to gravity. She was magnetic, magical and spiritual all at once and you could feel her soul just rolling out to greet and carry you wherever you needed to go.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, as eulogies poured in from presidents, entertainers, friends and fans, I kept an ear to the TV while unpacking the last few boxes from a recent move. From a pile of mail, I pulled out a small postcard that I instantly recognized. It was one of dozens of such cards that I had received through the years from a regular reader and loyal correspondent. Each card always began with \u201cDear Kilo Papa\u201d (for \u201cKP\u201d). This one, like all the rest, was signed, \u201cWhiskey Delta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Short and pithy was the way Col. Wm. Dougald MacMillan IV kept things. Maybe military training and his several combat deployments contributed to this quality. Or, maybe, he knew he stood a better chance of being read by making it easy. All I had to do was flip it over.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou sure do keep smacking the nail on the head,\u201d he wrote in response to a piece I\u2019d written about an upcoming election. \u201cThis is not yet my favorite campaign of the last 60 years ([Harry S. Truman] was by FAR the best Demo. Pres.), but I try to stay optimistic (recalling [Winston Churchill]). I need your help. Remember, if you pass by, come for p.m. \u2026 best & w\/love \u2013 Whiskey Delta.\u201d<\/p>\n

No wonder I liked the guy. I don\u2019t remember what \u201cp.m.\u201d meant in this context, but given that he lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina \u2013 and knew that I was an I-95 road demon who commuted between South Carolina and Washington \u2013 he probably figured I might break for a chat on the southbound leg.<\/p>\n

The card was dated June 10, 2008 \u2013 two months before that year\u2019s Democratic and Republican conventions. Had it really been a decade? Then it hit me. I hadn\u2019t heard from Whiskey Delta in a while.<\/p>\n

With my mind virtually attached to the 24\/7 news cycle, it\u2019s easy to lose track of time. But 10 years? How could it be?<\/p>\n

Curious, I searched his name on the internet and found what I\u2019d hoped I wouldn\u2019t \u2013 Whiskey Delta\u2019s obituary. My pen pal had died five years ago. Somewhat oddly, the news sank me low. This man had written me for years and I\u2019d only begun to learn about him five summers after his passing. He was 87 when he took his final leave.<\/p>\n

So it goes in the world we inhabit. All I know about Whiskey Delta, alas, is what I read in his obituary. Maybe one of his grandchildren will find this small meditation of interest \u2013 and be reminded that the colonel served his country with valor and briefly shared his thoughts with a humble newspaper writer he called Kilo Papa.<\/p>\n

I never did get by for that chat, Whiskey Delta, but I\u2019ll catch you on the next round. If you bump into Aretha in the meantime, just give her a little respect \u2013 and an H-U-G \u2013 from all of us down here.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Parker writes a twice-weekly column on politics and culture for The Washington Post. Reach her at kathleenparker@washpost.com<\/a>. \u00a9 2018 The Washington Post Writers Group<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathleen Parkerdu1-i-syn These thoughts came tumbling down Thursday after the heart-wrenching news that Aretha Franklin had died. I spent the day re-listening to all my favorite recordings of the Queen of Soul singing her heart out. When, I wondered, had I stopped listening to the one-and-only Aretha? I have loved that woman since I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-60516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60516"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=60516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}