In May 1994, Bill and I sailed to Normandy for the 50th Anniversary of D-Day, the landing of the Allied Forces on 6 June 1944 on the beaches of Normandy. The trip didn’t go as planned. Here’s an account from my journal. – Sandra D-Day, A Return to Normandy 50 Years Later In 1994,…
It’s just an old tin ashtray, but the stories it could tell… When fellow Reno divorce ranch history buff, Jerry Garrity, spotted this old tin ashtray from the Del Monte Dude and Guest Ranch in an antiques bazaar in Reno, he knew if anyone would love to have it, that would be me. Indeed, just…
A little bit of news… but not too much. My Word of the Month Recently, someone in a Zoom meeting used a word new to me: “meh”. Defined as an expression of indifference or boredom, “meh” must be spoken with a shrug of the shoulders. The word can be traced back to the 1928…
British Movietone Moment – Test Able, 1 July 1946 (4:03) Operation Crossroads – Able and Baker Day Tests 1946 (26:36) Project Crossroads – Nuclear Test Film 1946 (42:33)
A little bit of news… but not too much. My Mantra of the Moment This mantra has been serving me so well, I’m repeating it for this month. In February, a friend gifted me with a little book, Empowering Mantras for Awesome Women, and the lipstick mantra spoke to me (surprise, surprise). The book is…
NBC radio reports live from Test Baker, 25 July 1946. Run time 14:30. (Courtesy of Hoover Archives) 10 Facts You May Not Know About Operation Crossroads Fact 8 Aboard the USS Fall River (CA-131), Bikini Lagoon, 25 Jul 1946, Test Baker – At 0835 on 25 July by the Bikini calendar (24 July in…
10 Facts You May Not Know About Operation Crossroads Fact 10 From 1947 to 1969, a secret group of atomic cinematographers filmed 6,500 nuclear tests in the Pacific and Nevada for the U.S. Government. In October 1997, Bill and Sandra McGee were invited to the American Film Institute in Hollywood for the 50th anniversary…
For February 2021, a little bit of news… but not too much. My Mantra of the Moment This month, a friend gifted me with a little book, Empowering Mantras for Awesome Women. The lipstick mantra spoke to me (surprise, surprise) and is just the nudge I didn’t know I needed to stay on…
A New Year… 12 New Chapters, 52 Revisions, 365 New Chances Happy New Year! We’re off and running. Fingers crossed. What was the most important lesson I learned in 2020? Gratitude. A focus on what is good in life (e.g., glass half full). Gratitude has proven to be a powerful tool in my navigation…
The heavy cruiser USS Fall River (CA-131) was the Target Vessel Control Ship at Operation Crossroads, the first post-war atomic bomb tests at Bikini in the Marshall Islands in July 1946. The Fall River was responsible for positioning the 95 target vessels in the Bikini Lagoon for the Able and Baker bomb blasts, the first from…
Here we are in December and, if you’re like me, you have a case of 2020 fatigue In spite of it all, the days, the weeks, and the months did pass. In my case, I didn’t feel like much was accomplished. But after sorting out my office and updating my to-do list for next year,…
Publishers Weekly BookLife shines its November 2020 Indie Spotlight on the contributions of veterans with a roundup of 15 books on military history, including… For all 15 books, click Publishers Weekly BookLife November 2020
Dick Wolf preps American Babylon Dick Wolf (Law & Order) is prepping a new series, American Babylon, a period drama chronicling the story of the creation of Las Vegas. The series is inspired by the book, The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America by Sally Denton & Roger Morris.…
Don your Western wear and watch a classic Western movie Owen Wister is said to have created the first romantic cowboy in 1902 with his best-selling novel The Virginian. The hero, known as “the Virginian”, was brave and honorable, tough but soft-spoken. The Virginian was portrayed on the big screen in 1929 by Gary Cooper,…
Remember the long-running soap opera As the World Turns? The series ran on CBS for 54 years from 1956 to 2010. In the 1990s, I was the publicist for a professional ballet company in Southern California. Every day came with a crisis — from getting the cover story in the paper (that was good) but…
Dear May 2020, A quick note to let you know I am no longer a writer in self-isolation. I am an artist-in-residence. – Best, Sandra For the past six or seven weeks, it’s been a challenge to fill the long days. Even with a writing and book marketing to-do list that could keep me busy for…
As Bill liked to say, “There’s only one way to write — ass in seat.” I like to soften his words to “derrière in chair.” As a writing team, we were natural self-isolationists together. We spent many days sharing a small office, not speaking to each other for hours, not wanting to interrupt the other’s…
I struggle with decision-making I over-think, over-analyze, and second-guess everything — small and large. I know I’m not alone. However, I would gladly separate myself from the rest of the over-thinking pack if only I knew how. Don’t Overthink It by Anne Bogel A new book title caught my eye, Don’t Overthink It by Anne Bogel. I…
MIDWAY screening pays tribute to World War II veterans in Napa Valley On Saturday, February 15, 2020, the The Tug McGraw Foundation – the honorary chair is country music singer/actor Tim McGraw – paid tribute to World War II veterans living at the California Veterans Home in Yountville and other areas of Napa Valley with…
Thank you, Johnny D. Boggs, Editor, for including Bill’s obituary in ROUNDUP, MAGAZINE OF WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA (February 2020) ________ Click on the link below to read… “Wrangler, writer Bill McGee was genuine cowboy” by Sandra V. McGee for Roundup, Feb 2020 More Feature Stories by Sandra V. McGee
Sunday, Sept 8 – Bill and I watched “Live at the Ryman”, a concert special celebrating the upcoming 8-part documentary by Ken Burns, Country Music, A Film by Ken Burns. The concert was two hours of one great song after another performed by a stellar line-up of country Western musicians. After the special, Bill reminisced…
August 2019 – Sandra Younts, president of Capital Co-op Consultants in Washington, D.C., is recognized in the broadcasting industry as a success story in broadcast co-op and vendor sales specialist. Sandra’s career path first crossed with Bill McGee’s in the 1970s. Bill was busy at the helm of his company, Broadcast Marketing Company, in…
“Bill, how would you like to make more money in a month selling Willys Jeeps than I bet you make in a year of cowboying?” July 2018 – Award-winning author William L. McGee opens his fifth memoir with the event in 1950 that changed the course of his life from cowboying in the West to…
Bill McGee shares a special memory… At sea, February 3-4, 2000 – As a member of the Navy League of the United States, Santa Barbara Council, I was invited to fly out to the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), the United States Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Even for an old World War II salt like me,…
“THE BROADCASTING YEARS, 1958-1989 by Bill McGee brings back great memories of co-workers and friends from a glorious past when I was in the business and when advertising and broadcasting in San Francisco were the center of my universe. . . . Considering I only got one mention in Bill’s book (the fragile ego takes yet…