I woke this morning ready for work, and discovered a little too late that it's Memorial Day. American holidays often sneak up on me. In Canada, we have Remembrance Day on November 11. Nonetheless. Remember them. I have a little personal story that's relevant I think.
When I was about 12 or 13, the summer before American involvement in Vietnam ended, my family was on a camping trip. One day, while wandering around a campsite somewhere in Colorado, met a young G.I. who had just returned from Vietnam a short time before. He was wearing army fatigues, just standing on the shore of a lake skipping rocks. We started talking. I remember mostly that he was a nice guy. He talked mostly about growing up, where he was from (Denver, I remember that), but a little about Vietnam too. He met my father on the second day we were there. I remember we took the guy fishing that afternoon. My father was a fighter pilot, and had also been to Vietnam. Many people don't know, but several Canadians also served in Vietnam, mostly as advisers and observers. He and my father had some long chats too. Later my father told me that the guy had been drafted into the infantry right out of high school. I'd seen enough of the news to know what that was about.
On the third day, he came to our campsite, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and sat and spoke with my father for a while, they shook hands. He then came to find me, and said that he was happy to have met me, that I reminded him of himself in another life. He then left, I guess, to live his life.
My father encouraged me every November 11th while I was at home, to remember that guy. That was our day of remembrance, but I remember him on other days too. I've remember that guy, every year since. I think about his story, and think what it must have been like to have been 18 years old, and to find yourself in a situation like that.
Today, I thought about him again, and I wonder if he was ever able to find what he was seeking. He'd be in his mid-60's now I suppose. I sometimes can't help but wonder whatever came of him.
