@BungalowMo wrote:
@MattH wrote:
http://ericbogle.net/lyrics/lyricspdf/andbandplayedwaltzingm.pdf
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Jimmie_W._Monteith_Jr._Gravemarker_03.jpg
Thanks MattH!! Very sad poem & could be anywhere, just a change of a few names.
Is the grave marker a relative?? Is that in Arlington? If anyone ever has a chance to go there, do it. And bring your kleenex....trust me, you'll need it.
No those grave markers are not relatives, if anybody got that impression I apologize, that's an image from Wikipedia of soldiers who died on D-Day at a cemetery somewhere in Europe. While both my grandfathers served in the First World War, one uncle was in Europe in the Second World War, another uncle served in Germany circa 1955, and my father celebrated his 19th birthday on Saipan Island in the Pacific during World War Two, they all came home alive. My father and one uncle are still very much alive in their eighties, the other uncle died at 86 a few years ago, and both grandfathers passed away in the 1970s. The uncle who died a few years ago and both grandfathers are buried at local cemeteries in Wisconsin. When the time comes, my parents will not be buried, they have each requested cremation with the ashes scattered at a place near their current residence where they love to go hiking.
If you look closely at the image you will notice one of the graves notes he got the Medal of Honor. On Memorial Day my wife and I walked around two cemeteries near our home; one of them had a prominent sign pointing to where a Medal of Honor recipient was buried there. Again, nobody I know: while my male ancestors certainly did their duty as soldiers and sailors (my Dad was a sailor and the others were all soldiers), I don't believe any of them won any medals and certainly none of them got the Medal of Honor. For my father, who grew up in a tiny Wisconsin town that he describes as "fifty miles East of Lake Wobegon," his seafaring days during and after World War Two gave him an enormously wider view of the world and he ended up a Professor of History. He has said to me many times, "I always knew I came from a small town, but I didn't realize how small until I came back from World War Two and saw a dog asleep on Main Street."
My father has also spoken many times of how incredibly beautiful the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay looked to him when his ship returned to port there in 1945.
TU 791 02/11/2013, EQ 800 1/29/2011 , EX Plus FAKO 812, EX Vantage Score 955 3/19/2010 wife's EQ 9/23/2009 803
EX always was my highest when we could pull all three
Always remember: big print giveth, small print taketh away
If you dunno what tanstaafl means you must Google it
