Girl Watcher's Club
I am currently reading author Harry Stein's The Girl Watcher's Club. You'll notice that Stein is one of our advertisers over at right.
I must say that I'm still reading, but so far it's just terrific. Very real, very down to earth, and moving. It's basically remembrances of a bunch of World War II vets who get together to chat on a regular basis, and what they talk about and how they talk and who they are. Fascinating.
They really are different, those boys who fought in that war.
I"ll probably do a more full review later this week. But I sense that a lot of Dean's World readers would really like this book a lot.
Bought a copy a few days ago ... am saving it to enjoy on a long trip next month. Can't wait!
My father and most of his brothers - from that generation who fought WWII - are now dead. But they included a few who deserve to be remembered.
My uncle/godfather, a Marine who earned 3 Silver Stars, the last being wounded so badly his commander had already started drafting a request for a Congressional Medal of Honor. Softest-spoken man I've ever met, quiet ... and took out machine gun nests 3 times by himself, crawling 1/4 mile wounded to warn a convoy after one of them.
My aunt's husband, among the first wave of paratroops to hit the beach at Normandy. Came home with steel pins holding his body together & pain that never quite went away.
My father, a navy gunner shot down in the last days of the war, spent over a year in a body cast and then in rehab, recurrent malaria caught in the pacific, best dad a girl could ever have had.
.....
I had great uncles in WWII in the Canadian military who stormed the beaches. One of them came back with a steel plate in his head and complained bitterly of headaches and pain. One of my best friends is turning 80 next week. He was a mechanic in WWII and was in the Canadian Navy. Im 37. Whenever I visit we get out my laptop and we drink beers and whiskey and he and I look up WWII. In fact we recently tracked down a boat he was on and learned that it had sunk years later when it had hit ice in the St. Lawrence. Look up barrage balloons which he remembers vividly. These men are heroes and unlike anyone you will meet perhaps in your entire lifetime. Men should aspire to be more like these men of duty and courage.