You know you are getting old when:

[2jakes]

^^^^^
Must be difficult to do things you enjoy when one gets married.
The responsibility of raising a family & all.

 

[BlueTrain]

Oh, I've got it easy. My mother was an invalid. My father literally worked night and day six days a week to provide for us. But I got married when I was ready to. I was 32. My father got married young. He was 28, same year he got drafted, I think. Of course there are things you have to stop doing if you are going to get married. Some men don't get that.

 

[scottyrocks]

Oh, I've got it easy. My mother was an invalid. My father literally worked night and day six days a week to provide for us. But I got married when I was ready to. I was 32. My father got married young. He was 28, same year he got drafted, I think. Of course there are things you have to stop doing if you are going to get married. Some men don't get that.

Did you mean 18?

 

[BlueTrain]

No. Twenty-eight. I was nineteen when I went in the army. My son was twenty, I think. One reason soldiers today look so much younger than soldiers in WWII is because they ARE younger.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

You know you're getting old when, after many year's absence, you drive down the main drag alongside your old college campus and you remember every business that used to be in those buildings.

 

[BlueTrain]

Well, where I went to school, WVU, the entire neighborhood (Sunnyside) has been demolished for more university buildings, except for the one building on the corner and that's the building where I lived practically the whole time I was in school.

 

[2jakes]

My elementary school still exits.
I had the opportunity to visit my classroom.
The room was empty.
Nevertheless, the smell of children, desks, pencils, drawings
on the wall, Elmer’s glue, chalkboard & the old waxed
wooden floor was still there.

But after 50+ years, the room had shrunken.
At least that was the way it appeared.

I bent down to tie my shoe lace. Looking up,
I felt like 10 years old once again.

This was where I spent most of the day!
You could say it was my second home.

Because of FB, I have made contact with the cute little blond
with pigtails from long ago from that classroom. I had a crush
on her but was too shy to talk to her.
We are now good friends.

 

[scottyrocks]

My elementary school still exits.
I had the opportunity to visit my classroom.
The room was empty.
Nevertheless, the smell of children, desks, pencils, drawings
on the wall, Elmer’s glue, chalkboard & the old waxed
wooden floor was still there.

But after 50+ years, the room had shrunken.
At least that was the way it appeared.

I bent down to tie my shoe lace. Looking up at my classroom,
it looked the same size as when I was 10 years old .

This was where I spent most of the day!
You could say it was my second home.

Because of FB, I have made contact with the cute little blond
with pigtails from long ago from that classroom. I had a crush
on her but was too shy to talk to her.
We are now good friends.

I did this a couple of years ago about this time of year.

My elementary school was built in 1907 so the architecture is what you'd expect - very different than the building I am currently teaching in, which was finished in 2002.

The hallways of my old elementary school were tiny, and the auditorium, which I remember as being this huge place where it seemed the entire school held 'assemblies' every Tuesday, was like a postage stamp compared to more modern schools I've been in these last 20 years.

But I didn't crouch down. I should have thought of it to see the change in perspective would have made a difference.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Did you mean 18?

28 does seem somewhat strange. I was drafted in 1970 ( after 4 years of marriage with a child deferment classification ). Then the draft was limited to 18-26 year olds. However, I don't know what the cut off was during previous wars. When I trained troops, most inductees were 18 to ( in rarer cases...usually when deferments changed ) early 20s.
HD

 

[2jakes]

HD, here’s some info on the draft from the '40s time period.
FDR signs draft act, Sept. 16, 1940 - POLITICO

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Thanks 2jakes. Did not know that..or had forgotten.

 

[2jakes]

Thanks 2jakes. Did not know that..or had forgotten.

I was 19. (Vietnam conflict)
And I think I blocked most of it out.
But some things will stay with me forever.


So young then, makes me think how I would’ve handled it
if I had been older back then.

The chances I took were scary, but heck we were all so young & pretty
naive!
We were lucky to have guys in charge that knew how to deal with it.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I was 22 as a Drill Sgt during Viet Nam. It did often bother me whether 'basic' training really offered even the minimum needs for the soldier heading to war. I tended to give myself some consolation that perhaps some of it would/could help him save his own ass..or a buddies during heat of conflict. It was a time that we didn't have much choice....

 

[2jakes]

^^^^
I removed the video in case the mods feel it’s inappropriate.

And I have to hand it to the guys who took that extra step & watched
out for you.
You know the ones...
They would jump on a grenade to save the patrol.

Those are my heroes .

God Bless them!

( Mods can remove that last phrase if they have to. It’s cool!)

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Not so sure that I knew 'how' to deal with it 2jakes. Sure I was a Drill Sgt, but had never been in war. However, I did realize that those I trained would most likely face a fierceness that must be dealt with even/especially on a personal level. The training touched on what the army required...but I also realized that it fell short considering the personal aspects of those young men.
HD

 

[2jakes]

Not so sure that I knew 'how' to deal with it 2jakes....

What ???? Now you tell me ! ha-ha-ha-ha!


Kidding aside, you guys were all we had !
I went in as a 19 yr.old.
Luckily made it in one piece but I felt like 100 yrs old.

HD, I can never explain or have those understand how it
felt to live on a daily basis not knowing if tomorrow would be
the last.

When ever I felt sorry for myself, I always remembered the marines
who were there before me. They had it worse.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

What ???? Now you tell me ! ha-ha-ha-ha!

Don't get me wrong. I did have a very important job to accomplish, and I was serious and sincere about it. Yet I was also human and did feel as if it wasn't enough. Watching my trainees ship out left me with a sadness that I had to deal with after every cycle...then always on to the next one.
HD

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Much depended on the quality of the training unit. I took Basic at Ft. Polk in fall of '67 and it was as rough as anything the Marines had. 8 weeks isn't enough to get anyone ready to go to war but I sure learned how to make up a bunk. It's mostly about learning how little you matter in the big picture and that's a valuable lesson. They knock the adolescent self-centeredness out of you. Infantry AIT at Ft. McClellan, AL was bad because the unit was bad. Everyone who has ever served knows about that unit. It's the one that collects all the 8-balls. It gets a reputation as an 8-ball unit and anytime an NCO transfers into the base because somebody else wanted to get rid of him some Personnel officer says, "Send him to Delta Company. He can't do much harm there." So Delta Company becomes a training unit made up entirely of misfits and losers. I did Infantry AIT at Delta Company. I'll bet a lot more graduates of Delta died in Vietnam than from any other company and every AIT base had a Delta or its equivalent.

I went from McClellan to jump school at Fort Benning, GA and that was the most efficient outfit I ever experienced. They had been giving the same three-week course for at least 25 years by that time and they really knew how to deliver. From Benning I went to Special Forces Training Group at Ft. Bragg, NC. Most of my fellow trainees were college dropouts like me and none were draftees. Our training cadre were capable and many of them were certifiably insane, but God, it was fun! There's nothing like a military unit made up of highly intelligent crazies.

After that, my service was mostly boring, including Vietnam. Most people never appreciate how boring a war can be. But everyone remembers the really good DIs, and the really bad ones. The former are the ones who get you through a war alive. And, also, my high school gym teacher, Abe Spangler. At the time I thought he was out to kill me, but after old Abe's tutelage, the Army held no terrors for me.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I was DSGT at North Fort ( Tiger Land ) Ft. Polk, La. during 1971.
We weren't DIs or called Sir.... Gimme 20...

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Yeah, and we weren't supposed to say "Ten-Hut!" either but we did anyway. It's what they said in the movies.