This Veterans Day I celebrated by reading my favorite post about World War II.  It’s the story of my parents when they were a young married couple.  My father was in San Diego - waiting to ship out to the south Pacific.  My mother was in Georgia - missing her Marine husband.  So she took the week-long train trip from one side of the country to the other in order to visit him.  Here her story - from her blog, Ruthlace.

A Glimspe of Romance during World War II

During World War II, I made a week long train trip from Georgia to San Diego, California to be with my Marine husband before he was to be shipped out for action in the South Pacific.

Charles told me “girls” were a major topic of conversation among these young marines in the barracks. This close knit unit of men passed around and pinned up pictures of girl friends and wives for the admiration of their brothers.

“The greatest generation” is a label that was later to be conferred on them. At this point they were just “men in the making” and still preparing for overseas duty and combat.

My husband was happy to announce to his buddies that a real Georgia peach was on her way to California. It was a week long train trip with crowds of soldiers and their wives as weary travelers.

Alas, soon after my arrival, I was quarantined at the Naval Hospital with Scarlet Fever. My Marine could only come over to sit on a wall outside the hospital window and look longingly inside and speak through the window.

One afternoon he brought a buddy to see his “pin up girl.” On this afternoon, the “Georgia Peach” was lying on her stomach with her feet toward the window. The only thing my husband’s buddy could think to say was, “She sure has beautiful feet.”

The photo above is of my mother during that time. I definitely come form “good stock,” don’t I?  No wonder my father was so crazy in love with her.

My mother talks about the exuberant patriotism of the times.  There were no pseudo-authorities in the news pontificating against the war.  Rather than highlighting and exaggerating every possible negative happening as the news agencies do today, the news shows were filled with positive news and supportive commentary.  It’s sad to see how the liberals have come to believe they’re “cool” by denouncing their own country - how they bastardize their free speech rights.  The contrast of our country from World War II times and now is disheartening.

My father came home from the war, and he and Mother went on to raise seven children together and to see all seven of their kids grow up, marry and do well on their own - and they welcomed a bunch of grandchildren before my father died in 1986.  God bless all our service folks - both past and present.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 8:59 am and is filed under Blog Recommendations, Family, Our Military, Remembering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.