Veterans

tho it cost him the hearing in 1 ear, his service on a destroyer in ww2 set him on his course.
he got a job cooking at the va, where he met his wife. which they both regretted. 😜
from there he was a butcher at ew kneip. she had a good job, too. they raised 4 kids, owned a hime, bought new cars, lived the american dream. he had side jobs, weekends and such, working for ppl he loved. the moose lodge, the priests in his parish, a summer boy scout camp, his buddy’s bakery as a fill in, which happened to b a few blocks from us.
he had a bad heart attack in his 50’s that kept him down for a while, but not long. at age 74 he dropped dead in the rectory kitchen.
a pretty, almost, perfect life for a 1st gen polish immigrant, 1 of 13 kids who quit the steel mills to join the navy.