That Old Guy Sitting Beside You Might Have A Story To Tell...

[Stringmaker]

We went to a classic car show yesterday and whilst we were sitting on a hay bale having lunch an elderly gent sat beside us.

We exchanged pleasantries as you do, and the chat turned to memories of first cars. He mentioned getting his after he came out of the RAF in 1946 which got my attention.

For those of you who know your WWII history it turned out that he had been in Bomber Command, flying in Wellingtons, Stirlings, moving onto Lancasters and then finishing up on Mosquitos in the pathfinder squadron set up by Leonard Cheshire.

When we went our seperate ways I was left feeling distinctly humble; not through anything he said or implied but more from a sense of having been in the company of an exceedingly brave (and lucky) man who had seen and experienced more in his early life than I ever will in the whole of mine.

Next time you're sitting next to a gent of a certain age spare a thought for what he might have done.

 

[Elen Sentier]

Oh you lucky so-and-so! What a marvellous meeting. And what a lovely man

 

[Goatboy]

It very true, I wish my Grandfather and Father had told me more. But I understand why they didn't.

 

[Toddy]

Yes, I'm feeling the same way just now. My 90 year old Uncle is becoming very frail and the box with all the medals with no stories attached is on my mind.

'When an old person dies, it's like a library burnt down."


M

 

[Stringmaker]

It was one of those chance encounters; I shall never forget it.

 

[Goatboy]

Yes, I'm feeling the same way just now. My 90 year old Uncle is becoming very frail and the box with all the medals with no stories attached is on my mind.

'When an old person dies, it's like a library burnt down."


M

That's one of the truest and saddest sentiments I've heard Mary.

 

[Stringmaker]

It also made me think about the importance and significance of the oral tradition of various peoples.

Here was a respected tribal elder simply sharing his story with a humble younger man. It is my duty to remember it and pass it down.

 

[xylaria]

It very true, I wish my Grandfather and Father had told me more. But I understand why they didn't.

Thats what my grandad was like. He was a glider pilot that took aerial reccy photos. He slept in the box room, it only had a bed in the room and a lino floor. I was told it was due to his back injury he got when he ejected over france. He was mild mannered except if the death camps was mentioned. A year or so ago aerial photos of the death camps were released, it must of been very frustrating to know and do nothing. I am convinced it effected him all his life.

My irish gran died before I was born. The shock of my dad getting engaged to Brit made her drop dead of a heart attack. She was the youngest female to be arrested in the easter rising, there is a photo or her on bicycle with a tricolor, she just had delivered "pearce's sword". When ireland got too quite she went off to spain to fight. She married my grandfather when she in her late thirties, she was too busy to be bothered before hand. I have always felt cheated that I have been deprived of her experiances. Her stories I have only heard second hand and are coloured by the bias of who is telling me.

 

[Badger74]

My wifes uncle was in the forced german labour units in the Balkans during WWII. When the Germans came to his village (Ukraine/Romanian border), he simply said, "his dad and brother died" and he was taken to Yugoslavia. Survived the war but came away with shrapnel and bullet wounds.

 

[petrochemicals]

my great uncle no1 died at Dunkirk. Member of the BEF aged 35 two offspring and a wife

my great uncle no2 died in training in Norfolk, I don't know whether he saw action or not. But then again many thousand allied soldiers died in live fire exersises without firing a bullet in anger, thats total war for you. Aged about 24 no kids.

My grandad whom I knew, I believe started two days after d-day, blown up twice survived, and ended up in Berlin 1945 with everything inbetween.

all brothers, my great grandfather was heartbroken. Also there mother and there only sister.

 

[sandbender]

My wife's grandfather survived the fighting on the Eastern Front, not long after returning home to Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) he was randomly picked up on the street one morning by Russian soldiers "you are needed to clear some war debris today get on the truck". He didn't get home for another three years and would have died on his return had his wife not had a hidden supply of goose fat to build up his strength.

To add to Toddy's quote above I would add this one from Yevgeny Yevtushenko.

"In any man who dies there dies with him
his first snow and kiss and fight...
Not people die but worlds die in them."