I find it quite amazing that something we perceive as happening so long ago was actually alive and with us until last weekend. When you think about, the Civil War and the Revolutionary War weren't really that long ago. John Quincy Adams watched the Battle of Bunker Hill from his rooftop, his grandson Henry played under John Quincy's congressional desk, and Henry lived until 1918, when Frank Buckles, the last US vet from WWI was serving in Europe. There's our entire history through 2011 in three people. Kind of cool, I think.
I think it's cool too. One of my Grandfathers served in WWI but he died in the mid 1970s. I get a kick out of talking to my folks about the stuff they have witnessed through the years. My Dad will be 83 this year and my Mom will be 78. Both of them were born during the depression and lived thru WWII. About a year after 9/11, I was having beers with my Dad, and I asked him which was worse....Pearl Harbor or 9/11? He immediately answered 9/11. When I asked why, his rationale was that 9/11 killed all civilians rather than military, and that with the advent of 24 hour news and the internet, everyone saw 9/11 as it happened rather than hearing radio reports and seeing newsreels months later as they did with Pearl Harbor. Greater, more instantaneous impact when you see it with your own eyes as it is happening. I also get a kick out of hearing his story about the very first professional baseball game he went to, when he was 7 , in 1936. He went to Yankee Stadium and saw Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio both start for the Yankees that day.
That is a very long life. Think of how different the world was 111 years ago and all the changes that took place. She probably had some good stories.
That was a nasty freaking war. You her about gas and machine guns a lot, but artillery accounted for 60% of fatalities and 70% of casualties. So most of the dying was just hanging out in a trench getting blown the f*** up.
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read a story the other day that said John Tyler's (10th president) grandsons are still alive- pretty wild. My texas Grandfather was in the army before WW1, but didn't fight in france. i still have his dog tags, on an old leather string.
I find it sad because it's living history that is no longer available. There's something awesome about being able to talk, listen, and touch someone who was actually there versus a dry history textbook. My uncle regularly conversed with a man who fought in the Civil War. That veteran was born before 1850. That means the Morse Code was the latest gadget, Mexico had just lost to the US ceding away territory that is the southwest, Calif, and Texas. Oh, and Karl Marx had just published his Communist Manifesto If I can live past 100, it'd be incredible to see how the world will change.
when my grandfather was born, 1889, the automobile had just been invented a few years before. He died a year before neil armstrong's giant leap.
basso's grandfather was born the same year mine was. My Grandfather was in WWI and died in 1982. He was about to come home when he was hurt by mustard gas and had to stay over in France for almost a year recovering with all kinds of treatments to get his lungs working properly again. When my father who was in WWII died we found some letters between them with my grandfather telling my father that if he felt he had to join the military he'd understand but that he really wished he wouldn't. My father eventually did join the Navy, and while my grandfather didn't say so outright, it was clear that he was bothered and worried about my Dad. The whole series of letters were strange because as many men of that age they weren't open or up front about their feelings. It wasn't until it was very clear that my Dad would be joining the military that my Grandfather was direct enough to say that he would worry about my dad and that he and my grandmother would wish he didn't feel like he had to.
I never got tired listening to my grandpa talking about his experience in the battle of midway. he was a crew of one of the destroyers. he died Sept 1979.
