Interview I Conducted With My Grandfather. My

¶ … interview I conducted with my grandfather.

My Grandfather

The person I admire the most in life has to be my grandfather. He is an extraordinary man, one of those rare breeds that only come along every generation or so. He's an educated man and by that I do not mean he has a string of degrees after his name, but a very well-read person with common sense and a respect for the good in life. He is eighty-two years old this year. This interview was held in his den, surrounded by his books and favorite things.

Granddad, what is you fondest memory?

My fondest memory? Well, that would have to be your grandmother's face smiling through the tears at me when I came home from the war. Wars now aren't like they were back then. Hell, you can't even call them wars now, not really. I was gone over four years, came home not more than four or five times, and once it was over eighteen months in between furloughs. That's a long time to be away from someone you love. It was hard on everyone, though.

Q. What was it like for you in the war?

A. It was hell, that's what it was, pure hell. This generation doesn't have any idea what war is really like. Now we just go over and bomb some dot on the map and call it a war. World War II was exactly that, the entire world was involved, from one end of the globe to the other. And even though there were no battles fought here, this entire country was restructured for the war. Hell, women couldn't even buy rubber nipples for baby bottles, 'cause the rubber had to be used for the war. But no one complained, hell, that was little sacrifice compared to what most of the world was going through and everyone knew it. Ask your grandmother sometime about what she did during those years when I was away and she had two babies to care for. But as far as the war, well, most of it is too painful to recollect and too long, it could fill a book. Let's just say that I saw my share of blood and guts, as they say. Men maimed every way imaginable. Some lost legs or arms or both, some were blinded, some lost their manhood, and some didn't make it at all. I don't mean to trivialize and evade your questions, but war stories are hard for the teller and hard for the listener. That movie "Private Ryan" though, that's the best movie portrayal I've seen yet, but even that doesn't fully grasp the true horror of it. Watching it on the screen and being there are two different things. Let's talk about something else. Ask me something else.

Q. Okay, lets go back to Grandmother's smiling face, when you came home.

A. Well, the first job I had was driving a milk truck. I did that for over two years and moonlighted hanging wallpaper, painting, construction, I even drove a taxi for a while at night. Just anything to help ends meet, because by this time we had three children and another on the way. But we had everything we needed. Our upbringing taught us how to save and make do. We had both grown up during 'the depression' and were experts at making a dollar stretch. And then of course the war years simply perfected our skills and talents concerning frugality. You'd be surprised how little you can do without when you have to. Everyone is so wasteful today, fast food, videos, shopping malls, no one hardly knows how to cook a decent meal anymore or amuse themselves without the constant blare of the television. Well, anyway, I finally got on with the engineering corps and stayed there until I retired. It was a blessing to our lives when I got that job. No more moonlighting. I had regular hours, although I was out of town sometimes, I was home more than I'd ever been. We finally settled down to a real life so to speak. We bought our first house and car and before we knew it we had three more children, six now, a family of eight. But you know there's a saying that after the first three, it doesn't matter, and that's pretty much true. The children hand down their clothes and toys and beds and bedrooms to the next one in line. The older ones help with the younger ones, it's not that overwhelming to have a big family. You just have to plan and set the pace, then everything just sort of falls in order.