May 31, 2004
Memorial Day
My parents were both in their 40s when I was born (in the '60s). They had both lived through the Depression and would be considered to have been of the WWII generation. My father's usual occupation had been as a chemist. He did serve in WWII, though, where I'm told he had been an officer working in Intelligence and his division was one of the divisions that had helped in the planning of D-Day. The details of all that I'm very sketchy on, as he didn't really speak much of his experiences in the war to me when I was growing up. He died twenty-some years ago, so obviously I can't ask him now (... and I rather doubt he'd answer a Ouija board page or the like).
So, sometimes I wonder. The few stories I do remember him telling about the war were usually offbeat anecdotes that purposely didn't reveal a lot.
For instance -- this story that went with a medal of his that he gave me when I was a teenager. I had found the medal hanging around loose in an old box and had been, naturally, kinda curious about it. So, when I took the medal to him and asked him about it, he told me a silly story and said I could have it. I still have it. And, actually, to tell the truth, I'm still kinda curious about it.
I seem to recall he had said it was a medal from the Netherlands, but I could be wrong. When I asked him what he got the medal for, he replied they'd given it to him for regularly supplying a member of the royal family black market cigarettes.
So, in honor of Memorial Day, I share with you this medal of my father's --that he got for doing something, possibly smuggling in black market cigarettes for some royal. But I kinda doubt that .... at the very least, I'm sure that couldn't have been the official reason on record.
