Was at a local eatery this weekend and the daily specials board had "Happy Memorial Day" written on it. I asked to speak to the manager on my way out and pointed out to them that there is nothing "happy" about Memorial Day, it is a day of somber reflection of those who have passed away, especially those who died in the act of serving our country. She said she never thought about it that way and would speak to the owner and remember it for next year.
I worked with a guy who was in the merchant marine for the duration of WW2. He was sunk four times and never got a scratch, but he said that he spent a lot of time on the Atlantic - cold, wet, and hungry, on small boats or rafts waiting to be picked up.
This is one of the more disturbing hate-filled threads I've seen on the board. Not sure why Memorial Day inspires such sentiments. For me, each Memorial Day I think about my grandmother. her first husband, and the vast numbers of Americans who suffered the same loss and made the same sacrifice. She travelled the US but never left the country. I firmly believe it is because she knew that if she did she would have to visit her first husband's grave at Anzio, and that she couldn't bear the thought of doing so. I was the first relative to ever visit his grave a few years back. I wonder if the Doughboys of WW1 thought the next generation were a bunch of slackers, because it turned out they weren't. That generation went ahead and won WW2, then dismissed the next generation as a bunch of drugged-up slackers. That generation went ahead and fought gallantly in Vietnam, and it seems some of them dismiss current generations as a bunch of slackers now... Personally, I'm with the Who on this one: the kids are alright. They would probably rise to the occasion like all those generations before them. Let's just hope they never have to.
I think that it's almost a Human characteristic to feel that your generation got it right and the next is going to hell in a handbasket. Some of it is changing tastes and some is new technology. When I was a kid we were forced to take ballroom dancing lessons. Try forcing that on a 12 year old today. We were able to find creative things to do because we didn't have cell phones and most didn't have radios that we could carry around. Now kids are glued to their cell phones and don't talk much person to person. Every generation adapts, and the few who do not are left behind. If the Vladimir Putins of this world don't blow us up, the kids will be fine.
My kinda man! I smiled a bit when I read the first line cause I was underweight too and pigged out on banana's to pass through MEPS... MAD RESPECT to your family... -MIG
All b4 the modern tech,....the Beatles and British invasion is nothing like the mind altering crap kids are brainwashed by today,....kids are soft now,...very little testosterone
My Grandfather, the one who fought in WW1 for the Royal Canadian Army, was told he was underweight to join up. The recruitment doctor told him to eat a lot of bananas to gain weight. He came back a month later and just got in. This is one of the very few stories ever told us kids, not that we had to be encouraged to eat bananas. I wish I could have gotten more stories about his service, but, even as a young child, (under 7) respected it when he said "No." Of course, not respecting your elders in the 60's came with some painful consequences that kept you from sitting down for a week (Well, a half hour anyways. )
Watched Pearl Harbor narrated by Tom Selleck . Some good interviews . One girl was 6 , (so 81 when it was filmed in 2016. ) She was taught to shoot a pistol, and was told that the japs land, then she was to shoot her mother and herself because her mother would not do it, and it was better then the attrocities that would commited against them. Sobering the youngest survivors are almost 90, and soon we won’t have any left .
