Muddy finish to the season!

The Neon Slicers!

Take the trophy!

Crazy lookin mushroom.

A little fairy fauna.

Where's the winery?

Max and Sophia's Great Grandpa, WWII Veteran Jack Merritt

In honor of Veteran's Day, here is the story of Great Grandpa Jack.

Jack Merritt was a student at the University of Oklahoma when WWII began in the U.S. He dropped out, like many others, to join the Army. He was a "90 Day Wonder" which was a term which describes soldiers who quickly went to Officer Candidate School, and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the Horse Artillery. While in boot camp, he met Emma Jean Fehrenbach in Dallas, proposed to her the day he met her, and married her two weeks later while on another leave.

A very bad case of poison ivy very likely saved his life, as he was sent out into the woods of Georgia to rescue a fallen airplane pilot, and after finding the plane crash and the dead pilot, he slept in the woods in a bed of poison ivy. When his company was sent to Italy to storm a beach, he was in the hospital with poison ivy. Most of his Company died in the invasion. Jack then spent the war in Alaska, guarding an air base at the end of a runway with a big gun. Then towards the end of the war, he was in charge of a train that traveled from San Francisco across the country bringing home soldiers, alive and dead, and returning to San Francisco with weapons and ammunition to help with the war in Japan.
He loved the horses and mules that were used in the Army, and this love lasted his whole life, as we always had horses and mules around the house. He also had a lifelong love for California and Alaska from the time spent there during the war.
At the end of the war, he had a wife, Emma Jean Fehrenbach, and two children. They were almost like strangers, as they had spent very little time together. The relationship was held together mostly by love letters. They were married for 54 years until Emma Jean died in 1996.
To me, he is one of the heros of our country. (written by his son, John Merritt Sr.)

I wish I had stories like this for my own grandparents, Jack, Agatha, and Reuben, who also served in WWII. My grandma Aggie was a WAC and Grandpa Jack Hutchison served as a cook on a ship. I remember one story about him being left behind in France, and not minding too much... he was always one for fun:)
If you have any stories, please share!