Memorial Day thoughts

We have not done much this weekend...we shopped the sales on Saturday, went to Char for brunch after church Sunday with Jay's family, and ate dinner with my parents last night. I have also been sorting through the stacks of china and other wedding presents we don't have a place to store yet. I boxed them up and put them in the closet. You can actually walk in the guest bedroom now!!

Since today is Memorial Day, I have been thinking about both of my grandfathers. My mom's father served in the army during World War II, and my dad's father was a Marine who served in Japan.

My mom's father, whom I always called Granddaddy, passed away when I was in college. He joined the Army in 1942. He served in France, Belgium, and Germany. He was on the outskirts of the Battle of the Bulge, one of the major turning points in the war. He spent six weeks in a foxhole in the bitter cold and snow. Granddaddy didn't change his socks for those six weeks.

Granddaddy never spoke much about the war, especially not to us grandchildren. I always remembered him as a man of very few words. He did, however, spend three to four hours talking about his experiences to my parents when my mother was pregnant with me. After the Allied forces freed the concentration camps in Germany, troops occupied these camps to ensure that the Germans did not return to the camps to continue killing Jews. My grandfather was a part of these troops. He said that the ashes of the Jews and others who had been killed were piled higher than a two story house. Maybe it was hard for him to talk about the things that he had seen because they were so gruesome, and it was painful for him to remember.

My dad's father, Papaw, was in Japan on his tour of duty for the ten year anniversary of Iwo Jima. They had a special ceremony to remember all of the Marines who died there. Papaw played the trumpet in the Marine band.

Neither of my grandfathers were career military men. Granddaddy went on to graduate from Mississippi State with a degree in agriculture and to serve as a loan officer for the FHA. Papaw went to USM to finish the accounting degree he had begun at Baylor before his service, and later went into the family oil business..

Join me in remembering all of those who not only gave time during their youth, but their lives for our country.

Happy Memorial Day!