3 Window Cleaning Stories For Saturday

'You would see a soldier shot in front of you and you couldn't stop to help': With his rifle slung over his shoulder and his heart thumping, 19-year-old Ken Honeybun leapt off his landing craft and on to the soft sand of the Normandy beach. Ahead of him were the rattling guns of the German defences, which were still recovering after a deafening artillery bombardment from Allied warships out at sea. Behind him, hundreds of his comrades in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry were wading through the roaring waves of the English Channel, already tinged red with the blood of fallen soldiers. And roughly two miles away, hastily repairing damaged landing crafts on a Naval ship, was Private Honeybun's brother Arthur – someone he would not see again for 18 months. As Pte Honeybun charged up Gold Beach – one of five key targets on the Normandy coastline – he leapt over coils of barbed wire and ducked as enemy bullets zipped past. Together with his comrades, he stormed the depleted and panicking German troops, tossing grenades into the blockhouses that were crucial to the Nazi stranglehold in France. It was these actions, mirrored by thousands of other brave soldiers across the five beaches, that will be remembered today – the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Ken, who lives with his wife, Jean, in St Mark's Road, Derby, said it is crucial the horrors and heroics of the Normandy invasion are not forgotten.
After the war ended in September 1945, Ken moved back to the city and proposed to Jean. The pair married in 1949 and celebrated their diamond wedding last week. But life was not easy for Ken following the Normandy invasion and he often had terrifying visions of the day he stormed Gold Beach. It was his fiancee who helped him pull through the trauma of war in the absence of therapists. He said: "Some of the other soldiers would scream in the night. They would roll in their beds and shout out but you had to put up with it because there were nights when you were doing it as well. "When I got back to Derby, I had nasty, terrible nightmares – I could see myself fighting in the night even though I was in bed. "But nobody wanted to know. Jean was a real pillar of support for me during that time and so were my parents. They were very understanding." Ken, who set up Honeybun Window Cleaning when he came back to the city, is now chairman of the Derbyshire Normandy Veterans Association. He said: "The number of veterans we have are depleting very quickly so it is important to commemorate D-Day every year because we won't be here forever.

The faces of hardship: The lonely traveler. Since his 1997 divorce from his wife of 20 years, Don Bridges, 68, has lived in an RV, a bus and a motorhome. He makes his living washing windows at each of the stops on his circular trip throughout the Valley. When vehicle repairs deplete his savings, he comes to the food giveaways to try and work for his portion. “I don’t have any problem working. It’s living in a motorhome that causes problems. Mine just broke down in the parking lot,” said Bridges as he stood next to his bicycle loaded down with cleaning supplies. As a hot wind caused his eyes to water, Bridges recounted the story of his wife and daughter’s battle with manic depressive psychosis. He has not seen them or his grandson in the six years since they left for Mexico.
“I met a girl on the streets last night who was crying and she reminded me of my daughter. She was deep into drug addiction, so I took her to a revival. Maybe that will help, because Jesus Christ helped me and I have hope that it is not over,” said Bridges while he recounted the ways people have helped him in this community and the ways he tries to pass it on. “There are nice people here and I’m finding that out by just bouncing in and out,” he continued. “I’d like to stay but the friction of being locked in by neighbors… I just can’t handle that right now.”

Thousands in Arlington prepare for the Cowboys Stadium debut concert: George Strait and his fellow performers aren't the only ones preparing for tonight's debut concert at the $1.15 billion Cowboys Stadium. Window washer Miguel Torres works on making the glass curtain wall encircling the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington shine. He and a few others have been toiling for about a month cleaning each window pane in anticipation of the stadium's opening today. A cast of thousands – inside and outside the stadium – have been spending the week either preparing or bracing for the show. With about 60,000 fans scheduled to descend on the new stadium, it's possibly the largest single event in Arlington history and one of the largest local concerts in recent times. Inside the stadium, about 1,000 workers were finishing last-minute details Friday morning, such as installing carpeting, painting and checking electrical circuits. "We've got all hands on deck," said Jack Hill, Cowboys Stadium general manager. "Everybody is just prepared to stay here all night."