What is Pearl Harbor Day?

Decemeber 7. My grandson's date of birth. He's 6 now, and likes to ask random questions. (Wonder where that comes from?) "What is Pearl Harbor Day?" First he needed to know how to say it , cuz it came out sounding something like Porl Hubba. We have told him since he was born his birthday is Pearl Harbor Day. So now he knows it is a naval base in Hawaii. And the Navy...his great grandfather was in the Navy during WWII, but not in Pearl Harbor on December 7.

Speaking of the Navy and WWII, my father in law is 85, and recently went home to Florida with my mother -in-law, ending their summer in NH early because he has a bad back. He has had quite a life..most of the exciting parts coming before I was born. Much of the excitement coming from the time he spent in the Navy during WWII. Who knew? Now I wish I had written his stories down right after he told them..because the details are fuzzy in my mind. It has nothing to do with the Labor Day cookout and the Pina Coladas...

Stories come out randomly, and they are like little surprises. Earlier this summer we were chatting about their neighbors in Woburn when he was growing up. Then off to the Navy he went. He started telling us how they took back this little village in France, and brought back a ton of loot to the ship, including guns. On the way back to the ship his buddy asked if he could grab one of the guns for a souvenir. His buddy didn't have any room in his locker to store it, so my father in law said "Sure, I'll see what I can do..no guarantees." They were not supposed to keep anything for themselves, personally, let alone a gun! So the next time they had a layover, my father in law secretly whisked the gun off the ship wrapped in clothes, and shipped the gun to his friend's house in Woburn.

Now here's where the story gets fuzzy. Some time recently someone who knew that family met my in laws in Florida.....and told the story of that gun and how much it meant to that sailor's family. It stayed in their family for years and was passed down for generations. Just a story...obviously a much more interesting one told from my father in law's point of view...he described the little French village, he described the invasion, the sailors, his friends,and the capture of prisoners, and the release of the French. He described how much trouble he would have been in if he had been caught with that gun! (And of course he described the gun IN DETAIL.!)

But he took it anyways, for his friend, no big deal, and wondered whatever became of his friend and that gun. Some 60 years later the story comes full circle with an ending you could not make up. I should have written it down. Next time I will.

Write down your stories.