i didn't observe silence, as this was veterans day and not memorial day. veterans day is for the living.

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i would be angry except that it's par for the dreadful course. i mean, did we really expect them to behave like normal, caring human beings? i never expect that of them.

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ah it is good to have these pix isn't it? a bit of continuity and we can hold it in our hand! did you know him well or did he die before you had a chance to know him? i knew my grandpop as well as he would let anyone know him; he was a rather private person. but he didn't die until 1996, when he was 99 and i was 44, so at least i had some time with him.

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@genessa I knew him pretty well thankfully. He spoke to me, his only grandchild about the war in ways he never did with my dad or gran. Tomorrow in history class I may be talking about my other granddad. He was involved at the end of the holocaust bulldozing bodies into pits at Belsen. He hardly ever spoke of the war, apart from describing how to drive a Tiger I tank. "compared to our Grants, it was like a Rolls Royce"! He got to drive one of those beasts in Tunisia. I asked him how? His reply was "every bugger that could, took it for a spin"! He fought back and forth North Africa, Sicily, Italy and then North West Europe. He was in Monty's 8th Army.

@Sofabeast so lucky to have known both of them!

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