Barbara J. Hamby

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Veterans Day

We had a very busy Veterans Day. I helped Al move things around and load the station wagon this morning. Then my daughter and son-in-law stopped by to pick up some lamps we don?’ need and I went to lunch with them.

When we got back from lunch, Al was back with a load of furniture. We got that unloaded and put together. My kids left, then when Al got another load in the wagon, he left and I started moving books around.

I decided to take a break and write something for the blog this evening.

The first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan were all I could take. I was in high school during World War II and I guess I’m too much of a coward to see the details of how so many of the boys I went to school with died. War is such a horrible waste.

A few years ago I participated in a project at Clark College making a videotape of stories told by veterans of World War II and civilians who remembered the war and how it was to live in those times. It was very educational and very moving.

Fellow students in my creative writing classes in recent years ranged from a man who was in kindergarten in Germany when Hitler came to power to a woman who was imprisoned in the Philippines as the wife of an American soldier. A woman in my present writing class was evacuated from London and separated from her mother at the age of four. Their stories are fascinating.

Much as I abhor war, I’m grateful for the veterans who’ve helped preserve our freedom.