snakes and planes

Memorial Day is always poignant. So many wars, battles, scars, stories. There were adventures, too, and many friendships forged.

My Grandpa Fred passed away five years ago (May 21, 2006) and was in the army in World War II. He was posted in exotic places like India and Northern Africa, and had so many stories. He once told me how he and a few friends placed a cobra under a fellow soldiers' helmet. This soldier happened to be deathly afraid of snakes, and they put the cobra on his cot (in one of those giant cloth tents with the thick wooden tent poles). He wet himself when he lifted his helmet. My Grandfather paused as he finished the story and said, "Thinking back, it wasn't the nicest thing to do."

He survived a cargo plane crash in the El Dorado National Forest on November 2, 1941 (also one of his granddaughters' birthdays) and the History Channel even did a story on him. Fifty years later, he was the last survivor.

He was a woodworker, and an antiques enthusiast. He loved to travel, and at 80 years old he took a trip to Vietnam to see the places his son had gone as a soldier in the Vietnam War.

We have a woodworking shop in our basement thanks to his many tools and machines (a new shelf in our bathroom, too!).

This photo is of my great-grandparents Andrew and Anna, my Grandfather Fred, and his little sister, Signe. I can see my uncles in his face, and love to think of all the stories I have heard.

Though they are gone, there are still the stories, the memories, the moments that we can hold dear. I like to spend a little time appreciating those who were, for they have left little treasures.

The Ranger Station Report