Though not my wedding anniversary -- December 26th is too hard to forget. October 3rd is the anniversary of the day my maternal grandfather escaped from a Nazi internment camp. Every year, I forget about it until the day is over. When I last visited him, he told me to drink a glass of wine in his honor on 10/3, but I forget every year. Here's the story, as best as I can remember it (and allowing for creative license from the original storyteller). He joined the French Army (being a Frenchman) when France declared war on Nazi Germany. I don't if he saw much combat or not. But, the French was quickly defeated and the soldiers were interned in labor camps, similar to the Jewish camps, but better and cleaner and they didn't kill everyone in them. Anyway, he tried to escape but failed. He tried again and suceeded, returning to the farm, but a neighbor turned him in and he went back to the camp. He escaped again (October 3rd, but I don't know what year), got back to the farm and stayed there until the end of the war (I don't know what happened with the neighbor). Anyway, sorry Pepe for forgetting again. I'll drink a belated toast when I get home. Sorry there isn't much to respond to here. I figure maybe my grandfather can check the web from beyond the grave, perhaps. Anyway, it's a festive occassion. Any other stories on missed anniversaries?
Well, I don't have any alcohol, but I raise my glass of Coke anyways to his dilligence. I also curse the cowardly neighbor who turned him in.
Well, I for one will definitely raise my glass to your grandfather. So: 'To a common man with uncommon courage.'
Well......you've helped me narrow my selection down for tonight. Tonight I'll have something French. Hmmmmmmmmmm.......Bordeaux or Burgandy? Or maybe a Chateauneuf du Pape To your Pepe.......and my Pepe too.
...and now for the rest of the story... During Pepe's first escape he made love to the beautiful german daughter neighboring the farmhouse. But they were caught. Infuriated that his daughter had made love to a suave frenchmen and prisoner, the neighbor turned Pepe into the Nazi camp. They brutalized him there. Giving him a scar that stretched from his ear to the corner of his lip. When Pepe escaped the camp the second time and returned to the farm he found that the daughter was now gone. Bansished. And he was devastated. The german father had sent his daughter to a remote island in shame. There, she grew into a woman, but with with a child she named Inigo. Revenge stirred in Pepe's blood. But eventually revenge subsided and he remarried, to a Valdez, and spawned a family. Many years passed and the legend passed with them. From one generation to the next. And the Valdez family grew in size. Eventually a young boy named Juan came into being. And every year he drank a glass of red wine in toast to his dead grandfather Pepe. If that were only the end of it. Eventually, the other child escaped the island. And he too vowed revenge on his grandfather. And one day the two boys met at Pepe's grave site. One with a glass of red wine. Juan. The other with a full set of fingers and a blade of steel. The one boy with fingers said to the other, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. I am looking for the man who killed my father." Juan replied. "He died of natural causes." And so the story came to conclusion.
Pepe escaped how many times? Those nazi guards are stupid. Don't they know that a cow that wears boots isn't a real cow?
Thanks for the toasts, everyone. He escaped 3 times. The story helps me understand why the Nazis never could quite crush the Resistance; the security they kept in France seems to have been quite poor. The wine of our region (Loire river valley) would be Muscadet, though I don't much like it. I had some Texan wine last night. My grandfather had a vineyard on some of his farmland, but he apparently made some pretty bad wine. His land is too far south from the river to yield good grapes. He also made some hard liquor with better success, reportedly, though I've never tried that either. Anyway, thanks again everyone. And thanks for the Princess Bride allusions (even if it was all nutty).
