X files, pipe smoke and my grandfather

Today while I was at work a co worker had some sort scent thing running and the scent was familiar and I couldn’t place it at first. Then it came to me my grandfather smoked a pipe and the smell was what he smoked. My co worker was not however huddled in the corner puffing away on a pipe but there is something about that image which might not be far from the truth… but I digress My maternal grandfather smoked a pipe everyone else in the family smoked cigarettes and I mean everyone smoked. Now no one does… go figure. I had not thought about my grandfather smoking a pipe let alone what it smelled like until today probably not ever consciously. Today though I found myself anytime my mind wandered thinking about this man who has been gone now for nearly 30 years. My children never met him nor any of my nieces or my nephew. Here is a man whose memories of who he was and his mannerisms end with my generation. Sure there are photos and stories but not a real link to the man. He was not a famous man; he came from humble beginnings, one of fourteen children born to immigrants from Italy. He was the first in his family to graduate from High School. He was not a prideful man and put others before himself. He could have been a professional baseball player and was recruited by the Cleveland Indians prior to World War II. When the War began he, like many other men, put aside their personal goals and dreams and enlisted in the Military. My grandfather was a medical corpsman in the US Navy and served from WW II through Korea. During his time in the military he earned two bronze stars. He talked very little about his service only saying he met Jack Kennedy and thought he was a bit arrogant, that he was on Iwo Jima and that the photo of the flag rising was staged after the fighting was over for the news papers. During Korea he was transferred from ship duty to field duty with a US Marine unit and once when he had newly arrived at a camp, the camp came under attack and he jumped into a defensive bunker. The soldier helping him dust off and get to his feet was his brother in law, who supposedly said, “Funny thing running into you here, Johnny.” I remember going to the town barber shop and the liquor store with him and the smells of hair clippings, witch hazel and Old Spice, Vitalis hair tonic and whiskey where common, along with that pipe smoke. I don’t remember any of the conversations just a bunch of older men telling stories in a barber shop or at the liquor store and hearing those men call him Doc which was from his days in the Navy having been a medic. Granddad may have actually worked at the liquor store not to give you the impression he was a drunk. He did nurse me back from my first drunken outing though which hot black coffee from a percolator. I had a good relationship with my grandfather, but not one that was overly close. He didn’t really impart any great pearls of wisdom or knowledge. Although he was a patient man, he was kind and I only really saw him get angry once in my life. Maybe twice because I am remembering him spanking me now that I think about it but mainly he left that up to our grandmother. Truth be told she hit harder and not because he couldn’t hit as hard as her I just don’t think he liked to do it. He was a gentle man and quiet, but was firm when he was passionate about something. When I was stationed in Germany, I went on leave to Italy. I didn’t have a plan; I didn’t tell anyone where I was going because I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t tell anyone where I was staying, because when I got off the train I had no idea where I would go. I just started walking and found a bank then found a hotel that looked okay and booked a room. There were not any other Americans in that town apart from me, at least not that I was aware, I was alone. I was able to use the bartenders moped in exchange for teaching him some basic English phrases for an hour a day. One day after I had been there in Italy for about a week, the desk clerk tells me I have a phone call. I think no I don’t because no one knows I’m here. The clerk said he was sure it was for me. I go into a phone booth, answer the call, and it is my grandfather. I’m still not sure how he found me, and I was not able to ask him later because one week after that phone call he had a massive stroke and remained in a coma until he died several weeks later. His funeral was a full dress Navy funeral complete with color and honor guard. Turns out this quiet man was kind of a big deal at least in the eyes of the Navy and not just his family. I remember he said he had been proud of me for my service in the military even if it was in the Air Force. I have a photo of my grandfather and his parents on the wall beside my desk here at home. I see him everyday but today he is a lot clearer in my mind than he has been in years. Today was a good day remembering a man who I miss and wish my kids could have known. My daughter would have certainly earned his pride because they both like the whiskey and speak their mind in no uncertain terms. My son is a lot like him, in his quiet nature and my grandfather liked to dress up. He wore a tie just to go to the store and my son likes to dress to the nines just because he likes to look nice. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Wabbit Season ... Duck Season... Conservation Season

I was raised in a part of the country where hunting is as much a part of the culture as Thanksgiving dinner. In fact the local board of education in that area has closed school for the opening day of deer season because otherwise absentee students would far out number those students in attendance and the cost of keeping the schools open for so few students did not make sense. While I never took part in hunting, I do support hunting but in the sense that is hunting for a purpose not for personal pride or trophies. That kind of killing isn’t hunting, it is brutal and is without honor and there is nothing sportsmanlike about killing animals just for the joy of killing them or to have a trophy. A true hunter is someone who will eat what they kill and many will use other parts of the animal for something such as bones for tools and jewelry and hides for clothing or many other things. Sometimes hunters will have to cull the populations of certain animals because man has driven out the natural predators of those animals. When this happens animals deplete their food sources and become malnourished and sick. They also suffer genetically without the weeding out of the weak and ill by natural predators the whole population is made weaker. However hunting doesn’t necessarily correct the problems created by the weaker in the species breeding in to the population; Often times hunting removes the better genetic animals leaving only the weaker ones to carry on the next year and the year after and so on and so on. Leaving a much lesser animal than what was previously hunted in less than one human generation. Hunters will not take a shot with gun or arrow if they think they can not kill the animal. Hunters will not let an animal suffer needlessly. Hunters do respect the animals they hunt. Killers do not respect the animals they kill. They may say they respect them but their actions speak for themselves. Running an animal in the woods with dogs until it is exhausted and shooting it when it is finally treed or cornered, is not hunting it is cruelty. Baiting animals is not hunting. Flying helicopters or planes to run an animal to exhaustion and shooting them from the air is not hunting it is brutality. Trophy hunting so called big game is not hunting it is ego feeding senselessness that serves no purpose, and it is essentially public masturbation with a gun. Predatory animals tend to avoid people until they have no where else to go. We push into the land where these animals have lived and hunted for eons and expect they will yield to our so called progress. Their yielding is called extinction and our invasion of lands we do not need is wasteful and wanton disregard for the natural world. The hunting of predatory animals should be outlawed throughout the world. The US can take a stand for the world to follow and make it illegal for any US Citizen to hunt all predatory animals and birds regardless of where it is in the world. Other nations would follow. The business of safari hunting would become not profitable and other businesses around animal conservation would most likely take their place. Other benefits will be that non predatory and herd animals will be thinned more productively by their natural predators than human culling can accomplish leading to healthier animals. Some non predatory animals should also become protected because killing them does not serve a purpose for sustaining human life. Trapping for fur and pelts is also a practice which has outlived its purpose. Traps do not discriminate and as often as not an animal which was not wanted ends up in the trap and is killed needlessly. More times than not that unwanted kill is just left to rot, it is not eaten or used in any manner. It is brutality. Fur farming while with a separate set of problems does, when done correctly, preserve the wild populations of those animals. You may disagree with what I have to say and that is fine, and if you partake in the killing of animals for sport rather than for purpose it still makes you a killer and not a hunter. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards