Just Some Thoughts

I write this as the kids are outside making a huge mess with the blue sand and the hose. They will be at the back door soon crying to come in and change clothes.
And here is a boy and his new boots.

I can't really make a post without including comments and pictures of the kids, but I really wanted to talk about some other people today. Shad and I have been watching the "Band of Brothers" series on DVD and it has really gotten me thinking about my dad and his mom. And wouldn't you know it that my dad called me an hour ago to say hi, so I was able to ask him a couple of questions about Grandma.

For those of you that don't know, "Band of Brothers" is about the first ever airborne infantry during World War II. It has reminded me of my grandma, Annelore Schmidt McBride, because she was born in Germany and was forced to serve in Hitler's army. She was on a searchlight crew in Northern Italy. I can only deduce from the title that she ran a searchlight. Just before the war ended her crew was released to go as her leaders could see that they were not going to win the war. So Grandma, a tiny but spunky lady, walked about 700 miles back to her home village. And she had to do all her walking at night because the roads were being watched and she could have been caught or killed. My dad said it would have been the equivalent to walking from San Francisco to Salem. And when she got home, she was dirty and covered in lice.

I'm not exactly sure when she met my grandpa, but he was an Irish-American soldier in our army. I guess they did not even speak the same language, but Grandma was quoted in saying that "they found ways to communicate." They were married and had 4 kids, 2 boys and 2 girls. Grandma endured so much in her childhood, losing both of her parents at a very young age. And as a mother she had to endure the loss of a son at about 30 years old.

I always enjoyed going to Grandma's house, even the yippy dogs that tended to pee on the carpet. I remember her calling her grand kids "little puss" in her thick German accent that never really seemed to fade as she got older.

The last couple of years of her life were tough to watch by all of us as she suffered from some dementia and ended up not really talking and in a wheelchair. That is never easy to watch, especially in a woman as tough as Grandma. But I remember when she was in the hospital about a year before we lost her, I went to see her. She was this tiny woman lying in a huge hospital bed, chowing away on her breakfast without her teeth in. And when I walked in the room she looked up at me in pure recognition and said, "Well hello little puss," with that same thick German accent. Now that I think about it, that was the last clear thing my grandma ever said to me.

Here she is holding Josh when he was about 3 months old.

Watching the series also got me thinking about my dad, Grandma's oldest son, Wolfgang "Butch" Wayne McBride. Dad was in the airborne infantry in Vietnam. He made like 30 jumps out of airplanes, but never jumped in combat. He joined the military at 17 and went off to Vietnam. After watching war movies most of my life (because of Dad's love for them), I have grown to enjoy them. But I have also wondered how anyone would want to be involved in any kind of war combat. So intense and scary. I have an amazing respect for my dad that he endured fighting and is mentally normal after it.

I remember looking at his pictures from the war and they usually involve him with a tough, mean look on his face and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. So not my dad now. He drives elderly and handicapped people around town in a bus now and tells sweet stories about the people he encounters in his job. He's come a long way from that teenager that jumped out of airplanes.

He was a great dad that was never ashamed of his beliefs and moral values and was not afraid to teach his kids right from wrong. He taught us about God and the bible and that is why I am saved today, I have no doubt about that. And as a Grandpa he rocks too! The kids just love him and he loves them. When he was here for a visit last month Mom, Abby and I went shopping for a little while. While we were gone they colored, rode bikes and went for a walk. I am so thankful that my dad is my kids' grandpa! I know he has and will teach them so many great things just like he did me.

Here is Dad playing with the kids at the zoo.

And I would just like to add that one thing I did NOT get from my dad was a desire to jump out of an airplane. They are for riding in from destination to destination and that is all! Thank you very much!!