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Post by Old Badger on Jun 18, 2023 0:17:59 GMT -5
As a Father and Grandfather, I want to wish all my fellow Dads a great Father's Day.insert code here
My own dad died when I was only 14 years old. He had been drafted into the Army in 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, married my mother in June of that year (in fact, today would have been their anniversary) in full dress uniform, shipped out the UK the next year, and was part of the landing at Omaha Beach in June 1944. That's where he was hit with shrapnel that cut a chunk out of his upper right arm, leaving him with a huge concave scar for life. He could not be evacuated for several days because of weather conditions, and wound up with an infection that might have settled in kidneys, and killed him 15 years later.
But though I didn't have him for long, I treasure my memories of him: helping my brother and me set up our Lionel model train at Christmas (and then playing with it himself for hours), taking us for family drives in the summer that usually ended at an ice cream stand, taking on a part-time job with the Post Office at Christmas to build up savings for a down payment on a modest house. He was a quiet guy, yet popular with his workmates and adored by his six sisters, all of them younger than him. In my bedroom I have lots of pictures of him, but I don't really need the reminders. I loved him in life and still do. I don't think I am as good a father as he was, but fortunately my two daughters don't realize that, lol.
Any Dad stories you'd like to share?
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revived
City Council Member
Posts: 2
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Post by revived on Jun 18, 2023 11:50:23 GMT -5
Salve, OB! Bless your Dad.
Happy Father's Day to you also, glad you provided the link. My father was the best man I ever knew. He would have been 99 just this last Thursday. He graduated high school in 1942 and went straight into the Army Air Corps, where, thankfully, he did not see perilous action during the war. Then, like most vets, when he came out in '45 he set about getting on with American life. He was a proud vet but never dwelled on it. He liked people, and was not a man to hold prejudices. In our house we never heard a slur against anyone. He and my mother, who was blind from the age of 14, somehow saved every dime they could from his engineer's salary and made a wonderful home for 8 children. I often marvel at the courage he had to marry a blind woman, especially in the 1950s. My Dad was a man who did not anger easily, but occasionally when we were older he would describe some of the comments he had heard from people about my mother and about how he should reconsider, and the look in his eyes and the tone in his voice was fiery. My mother would have been 95 earlier this week (yes, their birthdays were just a few days apart). They had been married 55 years when my Dad passed. They were both enormously proud that they had gotten every one of their children through college -- all with a degree from the University of Wisconsin system! My parents had 20 grandchildren and loved them all enormously. My two sons had the good fortune of growing up only a few blocks from Grandma and Grandpa, and nothing made any of the four of them happier than when they would scoot over for a surprise visit.
My wife's father was not as lucky as my Dad. He was a Marine, and he saw terrible action in the Pacific. He never spoke of it to his children, and made a modest but decent life for his family as a public school principal. Like a lot of vets, he had become a heavy smoker during the war, and he died when my wife was still a young woman. I wish he would have had a chance to know his grandsons, and they him.
These men were truly from the greatest generation. The things they (and the women they partnered with) did, at great peril and with fearful uncertainty as to their futures, are inspiring. And since this is a political board, let me say that I am and always will be a proud "antifa." To be otherwise would shame our fathers' memory.
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Post by Old Badger on Jun 18, 2023 23:53:33 GMT -5
Salve, OB! Bless your Dad. And yours! Thanks for your post. Your dad sounds like a terrific man. Those of us with great dads are really fortunate.
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