Abandonment and Loud Noises
The year was 1946...
Grandfather, on my dad's side, chemistry professor at the Ann Arbor Campus of the University of Michigan had just finished his tenure, completing his service to our country in the reserve as a full-bird Colonel in the US Army during WW 2 as Base Commander at Fort Benning during the build up to D-Day. He visited his old friend in Washington, the longest-serving Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. Sam liked to tell G'pa " it's 5 o' Clock somewhere Marshall, let's have a drink" (1-drink limit). Sam would regale G'pa with tales of inner-sanctum bitter feuds in Congress and G'pa would regale Sam with stories of skirmishes his buddy the General, George S. Patton (tank commander) had during the the summer of '42 (see the HBO Series 'Band of Brothers) with various Branch-Generals, scheduling jump-platform qualifying times preparing for the D-Day Invasion. For years, G'pa seldom visited Dad's dear suffering mom, who passed way too early in life (G'pa never even went to her funeral) this permanently scarred dad, a hurt he never recovered from, seldom visiting G'pa in later years...I remember one visit to Florida just outside an Army Base (where G'pa had canteen privileges) G'pa read his book the whole time, never looking up, he was dismayed dad wouldn't accept an officer's commission at the start of the Korean War...one in 4 Lieutenant's perished in battle, and on the advice of my precious Irish Grandfather on my mom's side, chose to begin a family...and here I am, writing this story...
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