Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Uncle Dave

My Uncle was also a military veteran and was a great man with a big heart. He passed away in October 2011 and is sorely missed as he was the yin to my dad's yang growing up. He was the funny one, the easy going one and the talkative one. He let me drink my first beer, offered me a home anytime I needed one in NT and in Florida. Him, my Grandfather and I had a two week long drink fest in April 2002. Just as I entered into my active duty contract. It was the best two week of my life, save the liver and onions dinner. We had some great times, hard times and family times together. He always made me feel safe and important to him and I always made it a point to see him and spend time with him. Even when I was only home on leave for a few days. I remember my first time to visit my Grandfather, his father's property in Bradford, Pennsylvania. My Grandfather lived in Fort Erie, Canada at the time and so we had to cross customs to pick him up and take him with us. Well our mission was to put flowers on my Great-Grandparents graves and visit the property. So, we had flowers, shovels, a pick axe and other yard equipment in the trunk. It was six of us total in this red Plymouth sedan, my Dad, two Uncle's, brother, Grandfather and myself. We get up to the U.S. Customs side and we list off we are from Florida and New York and one guy from Canada. The customs agents asks why it took five guys to get one guy out of Canada and as we are pulling away. Uncle Dave says "Cause he didn't wanna go" and we all couldn't stop laughing. I said at twelve years old "glad you waited till we were past them to say that, because of the shovels and stuff in the back". Miss you Uncle Dave, I make sure to visit your grave every chance I get.

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