Memorial Day Music

A special thank you to all the families who have lost someone due to their fighting for freedom.

I don’t think there is a family tree out there that does not have roots in some war or another. As a writer, sometimes I find the stories remarkable. How one person, or many if there were a lot of boys, changed and shaped their family tree.

If it were a real tree, you would easily see the rough life and perseverance written in the gnarled bark. Scars, notches, cracks, even entirely broken off limbs leaving all sorts of holes. Many stories, written into the fabric of this tree, of our lives that make us lucky. Lucky to be alive, lucky to have survived, lucky to have had the family members that shaped our families for better or worse. Yet, even bent up and twisted, we still grow.

On my mother’s side, there was once a case of luck. Or maybe human kindness in a nasty business. Either way, without that moment, the extra branches (myself possibly included) would not be here at all. You see, I am a first generation American on my mom’s side (second on my father’s) and my mother is from Poland. She came to be in 1960, but she has some older sisters too, and one younger. But, if you remember your history, that’s not very very far off a World War.

So, my family tree luck story is simple, mostly because I do not remember all the little details. Soldiers came to rob the place, German ones most likely (yes, if you regularly read me, you know I am Polish and German predominantly.) The story goes that they took my grandfather out into the woods, after grabbing food and alcohol. They planned to kill him, but one of the men basically said why bother? We have the drinks, why not let him live? Let’s just keep going.

That’s the simple act that saved my family tree from being cut down. I know many others were not so lucky, while there are plenty of odd war stories to go around too. I’ve made a simple little list of music to remember the fallen by. As always, I own nothing, but I will say the last one makes me cry every time…

The Band- The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down