Many things aggravate me about Facebook, but one thing that occasionally scores points fort me is the memories feature that brings back posts and photos from years past. Today I saw a photo I shared of my grandfather and myself as we departed for Washington DC on the veteran’s Honor Flight.

One of the things I am most proud of is the fact that we both served in combat; he in WWII Pacific Theater and myself in Desert Storm. He had a much more difficult time, I can assure you, slogging through the jungles of New Guinea and the southern Philippines than I did riding around on a battleship doing shore bombardment. We had a few dangerous moments, but mostly we were well fed and reasonably comfortable as compared to the average infantryman.

We had a great trip together and I learned a lot about his experiences as a WWII soldier. One of the highlights of the trip for him was seeing the actual plane that ended the war, the Enola Gay. Grandpa served in Japan after the war and saw with his own eyes the devastation brought by Enola Gay on Hiroshima. He lived the rest of his life in Kansas in the peaceful profession of horticulture. He was an expert with more than four decades of experience working with flowers and plants. In recent years, I’ve taken more of an interest in the same. It gives me a sense of peace and accomplishment. I really miss having my grandfather around to give me advice on plant growing, but I think some of what he taught me has worked because we have all kinds of plants going now I might not have had otherwise.

I even brought some plants to school this fall. We have a perfect place to grow them in the glass-covered hallway just outside my office

This first plant, I think it is a philodendron, actually was propogated from one that belonged to my grandfather. I kept his original plant when he passed away, and made this new plant start that I brought to school.