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But during those times, I at that time dreaded what I thought was his tendency to look at things from the perspective of a 1940s-1950s time warp as well as the times he talked on and on about what he did in the War. Oh - I didn't tell you about what he did during WW II? He served in a tank battalion in France and Germany as, among other things, a truck driver (Note: I'm not exactly for sure what he did - so don't necessarily take what I am telling you here about this as the gospel truth.) If you want to know a little bit more about the culture of my state, you first have to remember the fact that a good bit of how the people of this state perceive themselves is reflective in the number of people who have served in the American military in all of its armed conflicts - WW I, WW II, and Vietnam in particular.
My granddad was very active in the local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and participated in various funerals of those who were affliated at one time of their lives with the U.S. military. I also recall a weekend I had to spend with my grandparents and my mother in Lubbock on my way back home from a summer break at South Plains College at a reunion of his tank battalion. For a young man like myself, it definitely did not offer much in the area of excitement - the occasion was his party, not mine. There was one interesting man I met at that time to whom I got to converse with - but otherwise I was trying to simply bide my time until I got home.
The stories of his participation in the war were things that the rest of us in my family (especially my mother and myself) would have just as soon not wanted to even hear. His focus seemed to be too much over the glories and his experiences of the past - even to the point to where he refused to keep in touch with the present. But maybe in retrospect, I may have took it too much for granted. I guess it's because familiarity breeds contempt (or at least so they say) - and there may have been a few things that I might have missed along the way as a result.
