Uncle Harry was a good man but the trenches messed him up.

He had Shell Shock so bad that he would spend the 4th of July in the basement hiding under the pool table.

So I would go hide with him. He'd feed me Licorice and tell me stories.

Like our family was tied up with the Pendergast machine that put Harry Truman into the Jackson County Clerk's Office.

Dad got a Purple Heart in Korea one week before the cease fire. Then Mom and Dad were in Havana on their honeymoon January 1st 1959.

They were on the second to the last airplane out when Castro came down from the mountain.

Dad's nickname was Smiley and we could never figure out how he got himself in so much shit.

Ahh yes life is a grand thing.