GI Joe and DD Daughter - 2005

Word of the Day

Distashion - Someone's poor fashion sense.

Today is Veteran's Day. I want to thank all our military and their families for their service. Those who have served in the past and those who are currently serving. Freedom is never free.

My Father sent me an e-mail yesterday. I'd like to share an edited version of his letter.

Today is Veterans Day. We went shopping this afternoon at one of the local supermarkets. I saw a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars selling commemorative poppies out front as we entered the store. The poppies were originally in commemoration of the poppies that grew in Flanders Field in France where so many U.S. Soldiers were buried during World War I. It gave me pause to reflect on how the celebration of the Day has changed over the years.

When your Mom and I were in grade school, November 11th was called "Armistice Day." It commemorated the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, when an Armistice was declared at the end of World War I. It was a time of rejoicing, much as the celebration of VE Day and VJ Day following World War II. In the 1930s, we stood next to our desks in grade school and faced the east at 11 o'clock on Armistice Day. The local church bells rang and factory whistles blew to commemorate the end of World War I. In those days, the end of the "War to End All Wars" was remembered as an important event.

Your Grandfather, my Father, served in World War I as did his younger brother, Leon.

Leon graduated from Delavan High School in 1913. After graduation he worked on the family dairy farm on the outskirts of Delavan and the milk route in Delavan. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1916 and attended one year as a student in the College of Agriculture.

With the entry of the United States in World War I, he tried repeatedly to enlist in the U.S. Army but was turned down each time because of his small stature. Finally, he was accepted by the U.S. Army in 1917.

Leon served overseas in France as a member of Company G, 39th Regiment of the Third Division. He was a courier in Liaison, delivering unwritten messages to the front line on the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne fronts. He was exposed to an enemy gas attack during his service on the front line and suffered permanent damage to his lungs. At the close of the war, Leon served in the Army of Occupation and was stationed at Trier and Coblenz, Germany. He was discharged in September 1919 and returned to his studies at the University of Wisconsin in the College of Agriculture. He graduated in 1922 with a degree in vocational agriculture education.

I remember my Uncle Leon as a small, wiry man, who was a dedicated farmer. He never talked about his wartime experiences and it was not until later years when my Aunt Ardys wrote his biography that I became aware he was a soldier in World War I.

Your Grandfather was also a soldier in World War I. I can remember his Army uniform and broad brimmed hat that hung in the upstairs cedar closet of the Grady House in Port Washington when I was a youngster. He didn't go overseas like his younger brother. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1918, serving in the Quartermaster Corps in Chicago, Illinois before entering Officer's Candidate School at Camp Grant, Illinois. I still have some of the truck maintenance manuals he used when he was stationed in Chicago. Your Grandma returned to Madison and resumed her job as a secretary in the Horticultural Department at the University of Wisconsin while he was in the service. Grandpa was attending Officer's Candidate School at Camp Grant, Illinois when World War I ended and his class was disbanded. (Ironically, it was at Camp Grant, Illinois, that I was inducted into the U.S. Army during World War II.)

Your Grandpa returned to Madison after his discharge at the end of World War I. Unable to find a teaching position, he worked with boys and girls clubs in Dane County, Wisconsin, for a year. Grandpa and Grandma lived on Lathrop Street near the First Congregational Church at this time. In 1919, they moved to Fox Lake, Wisconsin, where Grandpa served as principal of the public schools in Fox Lake. It was in Fox Lake that my brother Bill and I were born. He never talked about his wartime experiences and, regrettably, I never asked.

Other ancestors have served in the military. Your Great-Great-Great Grandfather, who was from Sugar Creek Township, Green County, Ohio, was a soldier in the War of 1812. John along with his brother, Samuel, and brother-in-law, Samuel E., were privates in Captain John Clark's Company in the 1st Regiment, 4th Brigade, 1st Division of the Ohio Militia from October 18 to November 20, 1812 and from August 10 to September 5, 1813. They served on the western frontier to repulse the advance of General Howe's British forces after the British capture of Detroit on August 12, 1812.

No whistles blew or church bells rang at 11:00 A.M. this morning. A lonely veteran sitting in front of the local supermarket with a tray of artificial poppies was a reminder. I suppose there were parades in and about the large city where we live, and a laying of a wreaths on the graves of the veterans buried in the local cemeteries. But, for us it has been a quiet day.

Dad

*******

It's been pretty quiet here today. No whistles or church bells. HTP and I spent the morning working in our yard while Gypsy watched in confusion. She couldn't figure out why her humans were driving huge stakes into the ground on either side of one of her trees. I don't suppose I really need whistles or church bells to remind me that today is Veteran's Day...though...I wish the commemoration in this way would have continued. It hasn't but I noted that many of my neighbors are proudly flying their flags today. For my part, I keep a very special magnet on my refrigerator which reminds me daily of DD Daughter's service to our country and tucked right next to that magnet is a poppy that I bought outside our local grocery store while DD Daughter's husband was serving in Iraq and which continues to remind me of GI Joe's service to our country.

Murphyism of the Day

La Rochefoucauld's Rule

We all have the strength to endure the misfortune of others.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

Behind the phony tinsel of Hollywood lies the real tinsel.

- Oscar Levant (1906 - 1972)