I needed these last three days at the campground. No internet, no “news”, no phones and no clocks. People trying to enjoy themselves are friendlier so I made no attempt to burst this proud father’s bubble.
He pulled up next to our camper and we struck up a friendly conversation about the unusual 80 day in New England. I had girls, pulling their own campers no less and he had boys. We were waiting in the parking lot as it was too early to check in. Soon he was showing us pictures of his son in Falluja and I thought my wife was going to cringe. You could almost feel the love this man had for his two boys, both in the Marines and the confidence he had in the US military. “We need to finish the job”, he said. I bit my tounge and gave him the prescribed line, “Well maybe they should have made them glow in the dark”, after all he identified himself first and I was on vacation.
I’m a proud father too though. My oldest daughter kicked the Army recruiters out of her store. My daughters thought I was loosing it when I started to explain how and why the government did 911. Now it’s why global warming is a scam and how to minimize their digital footprints in this data mining age. Then there was a phone call from a recruiter to daughter number two. Wow, the nasty emails from that lasted awhile. It’s tough being a father today.
I was on vacation but I was left with the impression I wanted to protect this big hearted man, so I left his illusions intact.