18 DAYS UNTIL ...

CHRISTMAS ... DECEMBER 07 2012 ....

December 07, 1941 - Remember Pearl Harbor?  I do.  It changed everything. 

December 07 2012 - 71  years later.  Things are still changing. Some for the better, a lot for the worse.  Where have we gone wrong?

THAT's THE WAY IT WAS - the title of my new book that I have just completed.  Hopefully it will be available sometime in 2013.

I remember how our lives changed.  I remember the strange things that went on that I didn't understand until many years later. 

My husband served in that war.  He was with the 251st Station Hospital unit.  He was in the South Pacific.  He was on board the ship outside of Japan when General MacArthur signed the peace treaty.  He was in Japan until his discharge.  He was changed.  We were all changed.

But all the memories are not bad.  For many years, until his health began to fail, he and I attended the 251st Station Hospital annual reunion.  What a great weekend that was.  We attended every reunion except one.  A different family hosted this reunion, in a city near where they lived.

We planned part of our vacation time for this reunion.  We visited,and learned about, many cities and areas that we would not have visited otherwise.  They talked of the funny things that happened, the good memories they had.  They never discussed the actual war, the fighting, the horror stories. That had been blocked out for ever.  We all  just enjoyed being together for a weekend, the families and friends.

Tom and I were lucky enough to host two of the reunions, the first in Wheeling WV, near where we live.  We had arranged for a  bus tour of the area.  I could not believe the amount of history that our tour guide gave us that I had forgotten about, or did not know about. 

Most folks arrived at the destination on Thursday, Friday was meet and greet, and eat and stuff.  Saturday was the special day, the tour, or whatever our hosts had planned.  Saturday night was the banquet,  complete with entertainment, and Sunday  we  all parted company, anxiously waiting for the next reunion.

The second reunion we hosted, several years later, was in Washington Pa.  Tom's health had began to fail, and as it turned out it was the last reunion we were able to attend.

One of the high-lights of this reunion was that the local newspaper, The Observer-Reporter, sent  a reporter and photographer to interview the service men, and learn about them, their time in the service, and the enjoyment of the reunions.  They did a wonderful job of reporting in the newspaper.

There are no more reunions.  The folks, part of the Greatest Generation, are gone now.  So much history is gone.  So many stories still un-told.

December 7 - the holidays are in full swing.  But I never see this date on the calendar that I don't pause, and remember, all those many years ago, how our lives changed forever.  There aren't many of us left that actually were alive at that time.  Soon we will all be gone, and it will be just another page in the book of history.

I wonder - what will future generations think of this time in our history.  Or will they just shrug it off.

Please say a prayer for the 'Greatest Generation' and God Bless.