No...not the shitty Gerard Depardu film from the 90’s. This is real life...
Over the past few years, my dad and I have swapped more stories than ever before. I love hearing about the days when he was a young and fairly reckless dude. He has some truly crazy stories and discussing them is one of my favorite things. Not only do I feel as though we are bonding...father and son, but I feel like he’s longing for a friend as well. With my mom now in a special care facility for her ailments and the loss of his pup and companion a few months back, I think he longs for connection. He definitely gets that with a few of his kids...me included. I’m grateful for that.
Anyway, besides the tales of his days working at Budweiser or the years he owned 2 taverns in Newark, I love hearing about his days in the military. He served in Vietnam and has some truly scary and unbelievable stories from his time served there. The man dodged death a gazillion times and overcame the obstacles each and every time. Pure madness!!!
Recently during one of our conversations about this, I asked him about his medals and he told me he sadly lost them all years ago. Luckily a kind gentleman from his local VFW helped him submit the proper paperwork to have the medals resent out. I didn’t even know that was a thing...pretty awesome though. Then another gentleman made a display case for all of them and presented it to my pops.
He popped by my shop yesterday during work to show me as he knew I wanted to see. It was awesome and I could tell he was so happy having these back and looking all fancy and snazzy in the display case. You’ll notice that in the bottom left corner is the Purple Heart. He recalled the awful story to me on how he received it. Once again, a tale of him luckily dodging death but losing brothers in the process.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine the things he’s seen and been a part of. As someone who has never served, it’s hard for me to grasp the insanity of some of these situations. Being a young man thrust into a shitty war in a foreign land just seems...so surreal and downright scary. According to him, it was just that. Luckily he’s here to tell me the tales. I hope I continue to learn these stories for a long time to come. I also told him he better leave this shit to me in the will. 😉
Love ya dad.
Blewitt
