Veterans Day
Nov. 11th, 2006 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksI miss my grandfather, Poppop, fiercely today. It's kinda strange -- he never visited my house, since his health was declining when I bought it -- so his absense there isn't abnormal. But when I visit my mom's or any of my relatives, I miss him there. He wasn't talkative at family gatherings, usually would sit quietly in the living room with the game on or smoke outside, but he was there. And at some point during the gathering, everyone would have stopped and sat and chatted with him a bit.
As the first grandchildren, The Biochemist and I were the light of his life and we could do no wrong. Literally, there were diners and truckstops on routes across the country that watched us grow up in pictures. And a diner in Georgia, Hunnicut's (or Honeycut's? I'm not sure), that we had to stop in and be shown off to the regulars when we drove back and forth between Florida and Maryland for our summer visits. We could do anything and be anything in his eyes.
As I've said before, he was a veteran of the Korean War. I don't think I ever really understood or knew that until I was in high school. The Biochemist was thinking about applying to one of the military academies for college, not because she was interested in the military as much as the first rate education for free. A few years in the service afterward? Eh, okay, do it then get out with no student loans to pay back. Hearing this really upset him. At first I thought it was because he didn't think women should be in the military. No. He didn't think anyone should be. And a free education wasn't worth the risk that one of his grandbabies would end up in a war zone someday. In the end, The Biochemist didn't apply; I'm not sure if it was Poppop, or the first gulf war, or just a realization that the military life was not for her.
But it is for my cousin, Shawn. Poppop had mixed feelings when he enlisted, I think. Pride mixed with fear for one of his grandbabies. I don't know Shawn very well -- by the time he was old enough to be interesting, I was away at college and law school. I saw him at family gatherings and knew he was a quiet young man who loved hunting and fishing and excelled in Social Studies in school. He joined right after high school, since he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life, and that's what his own father had done, albeit with the navy. I've been told that he excels at marksmanship (all that hunting) and trained to be a sniper, and that he has been to Afghanistan. He was in New Orleans studying during Katrina, evacuated and then was sent back to work on the clean up. The most recent rumor? fact? I've heard is that he's getting ready to go back. Of course, I'm not sure how reliable that is. But I hope wherever he is today, he is safe and knows he is being thought of and that his family loves him.
As the first grandchildren, The Biochemist and I were the light of his life and we could do no wrong. Literally, there were diners and truckstops on routes across the country that watched us grow up in pictures. And a diner in Georgia, Hunnicut's (or Honeycut's? I'm not sure), that we had to stop in and be shown off to the regulars when we drove back and forth between Florida and Maryland for our summer visits. We could do anything and be anything in his eyes.
As I've said before, he was a veteran of the Korean War. I don't think I ever really understood or knew that until I was in high school. The Biochemist was thinking about applying to one of the military academies for college, not because she was interested in the military as much as the first rate education for free. A few years in the service afterward? Eh, okay, do it then get out with no student loans to pay back. Hearing this really upset him. At first I thought it was because he didn't think women should be in the military. No. He didn't think anyone should be. And a free education wasn't worth the risk that one of his grandbabies would end up in a war zone someday. In the end, The Biochemist didn't apply; I'm not sure if it was Poppop, or the first gulf war, or just a realization that the military life was not for her.
But it is for my cousin, Shawn. Poppop had mixed feelings when he enlisted, I think. Pride mixed with fear for one of his grandbabies. I don't know Shawn very well -- by the time he was old enough to be interesting, I was away at college and law school. I saw him at family gatherings and knew he was a quiet young man who loved hunting and fishing and excelled in Social Studies in school. He joined right after high school, since he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life, and that's what his own father had done, albeit with the navy. I've been told that he excels at marksmanship (all that hunting) and trained to be a sniper, and that he has been to Afghanistan. He was in New Orleans studying during Katrina, evacuated and then was sent back to work on the clean up. The most recent rumor? fact? I've heard is that he's getting ready to go back. Of course, I'm not sure how reliable that is. But I hope wherever he is today, he is safe and knows he is being thought of and that his family loves him.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 09:55 am (UTC)CindyS
Thanks, Cindy
Date: 2006-11-13 01:57 pm (UTC)And thanks for the kind words about Poppop. As I get older, I realize what an amazing person he was, beyond being a total marshmallow when it came to his grandkids.