Coming Home
A few days ago my wife and I stopped at a new "old restaurant" here in town. I label it as such because I can remember at least three other restaurants that have come and gone from this spot. This spot as I call it is actually a nice old depot building that served many years its intended purpose until the L&N Rail Road stopped hauling passengers. Now it's fallen prey to fast food joints and not enough parking space.
While we were eating I notice a very nice reproduction of a painting called "Coming Home". The rendering showed a mule pulling a wagon down a country road. The picture was such that the observer was seeing the wagon in a going away view. There was what appeared to be an old man and an old woman in the wagons seat. Both with their bent backs to me. The wagon was crossing a little stream, what we'd call a branch where I come from. There was a old hound dog trotting along beside the wagon. In the wagon was a long box wrapped in an American flag. Hence the title "Coming Home". A sobering reminder that freedom is not free.
The reason the picture really resonated with me was because of the number of military funerals I attended when I was a kid.
It was early 1946 and lots of local boys were coming home from the war. Far too many were returning in flag draped metal boxes. I sensed that our community had paid an awfully steep price for the safety and betterment of this world. The sound of rifle fire salutes, rang out from every country church grave yard in Walker County. A reminder of broken lives and broken dreams.
I was especially struck by the presentation of the carefully folded American Flag that had draped the casket. How much patriotism would that flag elicit from the grieving next of kin? Was it a fair trade for the life it represented?
It has long been a tradition of the American people to serve when every duty calls. Tom Brokaw labeled the people of World War Two as a special generation. Has America defaulted on the debt it owes these fallen hero's?
After publishing this piece it occurred to me that I'd failed to pay tribute to the many Americans that served their country in the wars following WW II. Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq and most of the mid-east. A great debt is owed to these good folks as well.
I have never ever come across such a wonderful piece of information. Today I am proud to say that I have finally gained knowledge on this topic.
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You sound like a good guy. Not to worry about you forgetting to pay a tribute, you have just done it in this blog..
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