I always knew that my grandpa was in WWII, but never really knew what all he did, I’m still trying to discover what exactly he did during the war, I’ve even seen his dress uniform jacket, still in great shape, but tonight I’m even a little closer, my Aunt sent me this picture of his military graduation class, it’s just awesome seeing what I read about, watch movies about and see history channel shows about, my grandfather in the middle of it in uniform getting ready to head to Europe… or maybe the Pacific?  That’s the best part, I’m still learning, he past away when I was a kid, before I became really interested in WWII history, so I never got the opportunity to ask him what he did, or to see if he was willing to talk about it.  I’ve heard stories from my father, but nothing really giving me what unit he was in or regiment.  I’m am excited though, my same Aunt that sent this picture is sending me some more pictures of him in the military, I can’t wait to see them.

Recently I learned that a buddy from the road, his grandfather was in the WWII pacific theater, he wrote a book about his time in the pacific, (he’s also going to be one of the characters in the new “Band of Brothers” type HBO series called “Pacific“) the stories that I’ve heard about this guy from his grandson, he’s a pretty amazing person, I can’t wait till his book comes out.

I’m jealous that he has, one his grandfather still around, and two that his grandfather is willing to tell his story about his time in WWII, that generation is so intriguing.

If you get a chance check out the link for his book, it comes out at the beginning of March.

So Christmas was good, Patti and I got some nice gifts, she got me a Golf bag organizer, and a video game, some other pretty cool stuff but I don’t want to brag, I got her some pretty cool stuff, I think?  My aunt sent us a gift box that had a couple family history items, the first we see when we opened the box is an ashtray from forever ago that has my Mom’s family trucking company logo on it.  I think this is pretty cool, there was and I’m sure still is a lot of these kindof things floating around, they use to employ a lot of people all over the States.  I’m not really sure exactly how old it is, but I enjoy the fact that I have this piece of family history.

The other was from my Dad’s side, My grandpa was on the city council for 22 years in the little town of Woolstock, IA. (If you click on the link you’ll see how big the town really is, the other cool part is, the building that my grandpa built for his electrical company is still there, it’s at the bottom mid/right just on the north side of the railroad tracks of the photo) It was the town my dad grew up in, it’s where we spent the first couple years of my life, the town only has like 200 people total, for the longest time it only had 1 stop sign, it’s claim to fame was because this guy was born there.  You just don’t hear of that any more, people don’t get involved in their community, or stay in the same community for more than a couple years, when we were buying our house everybody kept saying plan for 3 to 5 years then you’ll be on to another location in a different house.

I’ve never really understood that, is it because we’ve changed, the “iPod” generation, do we get bored that easily, or is the work environment turn over that much?  My wife’s grandma still lives in the house her and her husband bought in the 50′s, I mean that’s just unheard of.  I’m not saying that you have to live in the same house forever, my family never lived in the same spot for more than a couple years, and for half of my childhood I lived in a camper, we never spent more than a couple days in the same spot.  “Plan on moving in 3 years!  Seasons in life change that quick”  is what somebody said, and you know what that could be true, but does it have to be?