...... but ready to see the Elephant.
News when available.
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Hastily Trained......
Born and raised in the suburbs of Montreal 7 decades ago. Began playing with toy soldiers at 5 years. Started painting & converting at about 12 yrs and wargaming about 15 yrs. Never really stopped.
5 years in the Black Watch of Canada Cadets, 5 years at the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean followed by 4 in the navy. 25 years with CPC in IT simultaneous with 23 years running a boarding kennel. Inherited my love of toy soldiers from my mother's father. Married with a pack of litle Italian Greyhounds and a cat. Prematurely retired and enjoying leisure to game, maintaining our 170 yr old farmhouse and just living.
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Nice looking unit, looking forward to seeing them in action…
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Won't be long!
DeleteGreat to see new figures for your ACW collection.
ReplyDelete"See the elephant" really is a strange expression...
I wonder what a modern equivalent would be?
DeleteI've now got visions of Confederate elephants going tusk to tusk against Union elephants...
ReplyDeleteor Union Donkeys....
DeleteI’m not sure if the politcal parties used the same symbols, but the Union government were the ancestors of the Republicans and the CSA the Democrats, so Union elephants and Confederate donkeys …
DeleteApparently the expression was not political in anyway when it first appeared. I'm not even going to look up the origin of US political elephants and donkeys.
Delete"Modern" I don't know, but there's an old Bill Mauldin in which some troops, facing a tough enemy defending, say "send in 3rd Battalion: they ain't been kissed yet."
ReplyDeleteI always assumed "Seeing the elephant" related to circuses or carnivals in a thinly-populated country, but Grandfather posted bills for Habegger-Wallace and I'm distantly related to Jeanie Tomaini, the "half-girl" (no legs and 2' 6") so I could be biased. I don't think it can be party politics, though. The Republican elephant is Thomas Nast and he was still mostly drawing battlefields well into the ACW.
I finally broke down and looked. Wiki. Says ”an Americanism which refers to gaining experience of the world at a significant cost. It was a popular expression of the mid to late 19th century throughout the United States in"
DeleteNot sure about "modern" but there's an old Bill Mauldin WWII cartoon refering to a unit "what ain't been kissed yet."
ReplyDeleteAs for as seeing the elephant, I always thought of it in terms of circuses coming to small towns, but I've got circus blood on both sides and could be biased. I don't think it can be politics, though. Everyone seems to agree that Robert Nast invented the Republican elephant and greatly popularized the Democratic donkey, and Nast was mostly still drawing battlefields in the ACW. His political cartoons are post-war.