Memorial Day

I had other things to write about, but Unohuu mentioned Memorial Day and I thought of my dad. So next time I'll regale you with tales of PTA drama, today I'll talk about wartime.

When my father and mother married, my dad was a milkman. It made for a great joke my mother liked to play. See my oldest brother has red hair. Mom and Dad didn't. So when 'the old biddies' would admire my brother as an infant they'd say "Where did he get that red hair". My mother would say "the milkman" and they would titter off completely scandalized.

About that time my grandfather (mom's dad) sat down with the folks and allowed as how while being a milkman paid well, it wasn't a trade. He convinced the folks that dad should have a trade. So dad gave up the job at the dairy and became an apprentice machinist for $14 a week. It was a huge drop in pay, but it was training for a trade so they did it.

When war came dad didn't have to go. He was an apprentice machinist at the navy yard. He was doing important, skilled, wartime work. People can be cruel, though. He ended up enlisting even though he didn't have to.

From what I heard from them, mom started writing letters to get him back almost immediately. Trying to get him some sort of family hardship discharge. He would write to mom about how horrible it was and she would write to try to get him back. I don't think he saw much action but I don't really know. I think it was pretty late in the war. I know he was in the occupied Phillipenes, but I don't know much else about it. The war wasn't something he spoke about.

Like so many of the veterans of world war two, dad didn't dwell on it. He had a family to raise a life to live. He went back to the navy yard and became a machinist. He helped develop the proximity fuse. He raised his family, was a boyscout leader and a civil servant. He was a fine man and I was, and am proud of him.

So here's to all the men and women who work to keep us free. When you're barbecuing on Monday, take a moment to cast your mind back to all the boys who went to war and came back men, and for all those who went and gave all.