If you drank Hemingway’s whiskey would you be breaking the law?  A thought I had while visiting the writer’s grave in Ketchum.  People leave coins (I once left a dime) and a variety of adult beverages.  The man was known to imbibe from time to time.

Hemingway has been resting now for six decades.  It’s not like he needs a belt.  I’m not a whiskey drinker and won’t be testing for an answer.  Betting money (and not the kind on the headstone) would say once a bottle is abandoned at the site, it becomes property of the cemetery or the author’s estate.  Taking a gulp is likely then going to get you a fine. 

The result may have contributed to the writer’s sever post-war depression.  Which eventually drove him to take his own life.

The flags were a nice touch this Memorial Day.  Hemingway was a volunteer ambulance driver in World War One and he almost died before finally coming home.  In World War Two he spent several months reporting about combat in Europe.  Apparently, he even picked up a gun and joined in a firefight.  Modern news media would recoil at the thought of joining in battle.  Joe Galloway picked up a gun in Vietnam but times have changed for journalists.  Hemingway and Galloway wanted to get out alive.

The recent Ken Burns work on Hemingway detailed his multiple concussions while in Europe, including being thrown from a motorcycle during a German mortar attack.  The result may have contributed to the writer’s sever post-war depression.  Which eventually drove him to take his own life.

Sadly, his last wife’s grave is almost ignored by the public.  She put up with the man’s foulest moods.  I offered prayers for both husband and wife.

 

NEVER FORGET: Images from 9/11 and the days after

 

More From 98.3 The Snake