USO Canteen FReeper Style....Monday Mail Call ....... July 22,2002

FRiends of the USO Canteen FReeper Style and Snow Bunny

[Valin]

The Battle of Falkirk
July 22, 1298


Falkirk, Fife

English troops under Edward I vs. Scots under William Wallace

The roots of the conflict lie many years before. King Alexander of Scotland died mysteriously in 1286, leaving the child Margaret of Norway as his heir. Edward I extracted a promise of marriage between Margaret and his own son, but when Margaret died on her way back to Scotland there was no obvious heir.

The Scots asked Edward to mediate between the various claimants to the throne. Edward was scrupulously fair in his arbitration, but he extracted oaths of fealty from all the claimants. The two men with the best claims were John Balliol and Robert Bruce. Edward chose Balliol, and immediately began to show that he intended to manipulate his choice at every opportunity.

Balliol rebelled, and allied with France. Furious, Edward marched north, took Balliol prisoner, and occupied Scotland. William Wallace raised the Scots in revolt again, and routed the English under the Earl of Surrey at Stirling Bridge. Edward marched north and met Wallace's men at Falkirk.

The Battle
Wallace had his pikemen adopt a new formation, later called a "schiltron". This was a square (or circle) formation, with the front line kneeling, so that the English cavalry would meet a bristling wall of pikes. The English quickly dispersed the Scot cavalry and bowmen, but the schiltron turned them back.

Now Edward unleashed his own new tactic, the longbow. His bowmen poured a rain of arrows upon the Scots, and opened huge gaps in the schiltron. The damage done, the English cavalry crushed the Scottish force. Wallace and his barons escaped, but the carnage among the pikemen was terrible.

The Result
Scotland was Edward's to hold - at least until a new Scottish champion arose, in the form of Robert Bruce, son of the failed candidate for king (see above). William Wallace carried on his fight until he was eventually betrayed and executed at Smithfields, London.

The longbow dominated European warfare for the next two centuries, and its devastating power helped the English to later triumphs at Crecy and Agincourt.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Good morning, all! Thanks for the letters, Bunny. I'll be back later to respond.

Have a wonderful day, everyone.

[tomkow6]

Three vampires walk into a bar and sit down at a table. The waitress comes over and asks the first vampire what he would like. The first vampire responds, "I vould like some blood."

The waitress turns to the second vampire and asks what he would like. The vampire responds, "I vould like some blood."

The waitress turns to the third vampire and asks what he would like. The vampire responds, "I vould like some plasma."

The waitress looks up and says, "Let me see if I have this order correct. You want two bloods and a blood light?"

[SassyMom]

GOOD MORNING, MY CANTEEN FRIENDS!!!!! What a great Mail Call today. Thank you so much to ALL of our military troops. Y'ALL are the best!!!!

[SassyMom]

Hey, tom...... How are ya today???? I see that they have the kissing booth all set up for ya. Just a suggestion, maybe you should have Misty get her super duper perfume gun out and shoot ya with it before you head over to the booth. Just a suggestion! *giggle* (((HUG)))

[SassyMom]

Good Morning, Jen! I hope you are feeling better.

[Soaring Feather]

Good Morning Snow Bunny, Troops, all supporters of Free Republic!

A special howdy to Smitty USMC, go guys and gals, we love you!

[tomkow6]

NO GIRLY PERFUME!

I want to be "manly"!

[SassyMom]

It WILL be manly perfume. Ok????

Hey, I have a song for you....

[tomkow6]

NO PERFUME!

NO AFTERSHAVE LOTION!

NO SOAP!

Only "natural" smells!

[SassyMom]

Ok, WHAT EVER!!! Just don't say that I didn't warn you..... :)

[tomkow6]

Gurlz LIKE "natural" smells, yes?

[lodwick]

Mail call bump - outstanding - thank you so much. JL

[tomkow6]

A friend just sent this to me. <"http://www.saintsandheroes.com/GodBlessAmerica/">

[SassyMom]

Ummmmm.....NO!!!!

[SpookBrat]

Awwwww.....Monday Mail Call. You could rip my heart out, jump up and down on it and it wouldn't feel any different. I love these guys and ladies so much. I wish I could hooch and smug every single one of them...squeeze them till I cut the circulation off. LOL ('scuse me while I grab a tissue and swallow a sip of coffee to get this lump out of my throat).

Hey y'all, I have not been feeling well the past two weeks. I have a painful muscle condition which has actually been doing great for awhile now. But for some sad reason it has flared up again and I can hardly sit here for 5 minutes without feeling like I want to jump off a bridge from the pain. Sitting here is very bad for it. I'm not saying good bye, because I will NEVER leave our troops or my friends in here. I'm just going to have to slow down until I get better. Sitting here literally makes me sick.

I'm going to pop in here as the day goes by to write my letters to the troops when I get a break or two. But if you see me sitting here for too long, please tell me to make like a tree and leave. I've got to get better, because a mother in pain is not a good mother and my kids need me.

Have a beautiful Monday.

PS: I think I've found a secret to losing weight. I spent two days at a homeschooling convention and I lost 10 Lbs. I kid you not. I weighed myself yesterday and the scale said I lost 10 pounds. I kicked it and checked it, etc. DH said, "Don't fight it honey". ROFL! So I guess getting off the computer, walking around, lugging a 20 Lb back pack seems to be the trick to weight loss. Woohoo!

[SpookBrat]

[Bahbah]

I am so sorry to hear that. You take care of yourself. Your family needs you, including this one.

[DontMessWithMyCountry]

ClaraSuzanne, i think you're a pretty wonderful and kind person. Even though you weren't feeling well yourself, you put your pain aside, and took time to send such nice words of inspiration and good wishes to me. That sounds like a pretty fair example of a random act of kindness, imho. ;-)

Hope you are feeling much better today. ((( h u g s for ClaraSuzanne ))) Will add you to my prayers (so i know you will be in a bit if not just yet ;-)

[SassyMom]

Good Morning Spookie! I'm sorry that you are in so much pain. I hope that you can get better soon so that you can play with us. I MISS you when you are not here.

I'm glad that the homeschooling conference was sooooo successful. ((((HUG))))

Well, I have to go do some real world stuff. I hope you have a super great day!!!