Barney’s Bridgesii Backstory🪖🎖️🌹📰🪺⬇️

Here is more info on Barney, the WWII veteran in case anyone is interested. I wrote this based on notes I took while talking to the existing homeowner / cactus owner, Ed, who is also a historian, who had a unique father/son-like relationship with Barney.

Barnard Gardner (September 16, 1917 to Thanksgiving day 2008) was a scholared, shy and quiet, reclusive, badass dude. He was a poet, a musician, a naturalist, and a fighter, physically and politically. His legacy and his cactus stride in step🌵🎖️

He graduated high school in 1935. There was a girl he almost let himself fall in love with. She said he was such a gentleman, opening doors for her and the like. After their one and only date, instead of giving a kiss to end the night, he shook her hand.

Barney knew he would be drafted because, he was told by his brother Clyde who had already been drafted, "Get ready to fight. The Japanese are gonna attack us at Pearl Harbor" Then in 1939, Clyde was blown up in a jeep “accident”, carrying explosives.🪦Barney was drafted in 1941, after the attack at Pearl Harbor, and sent to boot camp at Fort Mammoth NJ.🪖

Barney became a Master Sergeant for the 20-Port Mobile Signal Corps (Army communications and information) during WWII. He was part of the Gi's who liberated prisoners from Dachau concentration camp (one of the first concentration camps built in Germany). There had been a train of bodies about to be cremated, and the Army came in and wiped out all the Nazis, shooting at their backs even as they retreated in fear. Barney was also tasked with photographing 🎥whatever he could. There was a picture in his house of one of the kids at the camp. He had great sorrow talking about this event.

Some time afterward he was sent to North Africa, just south of the war location. As a communications/information personnel, he spent most of his time at HQ, not on the front lines.
One day all the officers were gone on a mission, and Barney got word that the Nazis were coming in Tiger Tanks to attack the base. Barney readied 1000 men, each with 1000 rounds of ammo to hold the town. He called in an air strike against the coming enemy, but the planes were too busy at the time. Barney announced to his men, "We can either surrender or die fighting", and the soldiers all agreed that they would fight to their death. Fifty German tanks approached, just a mile away. Barney and his men hid behind walls, vehicles and anything they could, holding their rifles with fixed bayonets. A German officer in the distance got out of his tank, observed the town through his binoculars, and ordered the 50 tanks to retreat. Let that sink in.

Barney was afterward sent to Italy to finish up his contract, and was issued a Thompson sub machine gun and a 45. He loved his Tommy gun.

He loved the landscapes of Italy, so he surrounded his home with a unique labyrinth of plants and trees following Italian inspiration. Rare birds from throughout the Americas were attracted to the site, so it became a registered bird sanctuary🪺Barney was a rose breeder. He worked with painted hybrid tea roses. He bred one called Tantarra rose, which I just looked up and verified it was bred by "B.C.Gardner"🌹

He also had some political combat with the city. He self-published a free newspaper named "Voices To Be Heard"📰 in which he dissed on the City for their shenanigans. Officials of the city would steal it off people's driveways. The city also retaliated by using legal action to steal his cars and trying to steal his land. More to this story I’m sure. He also ran for mayor in 1978. His childhood friend did end up becoming mayor later on.

Years and years later, Ed, the historian, was watching the history channel, of course. The show described an unknown American Sergeant in Morocco, North Africa who held the base against 50 German tanks. They said this individual has has been granted multiple awards. Ed recognized this story and asked Barney if he was the Sergeant, and that awards were ready for him🎖️ Barney couldn't give less of a crap about the medals. He said "We did what we had to, and that's all that matters”