Dunno if you've ever read any of Paul Fussell's books ("Class," "Wartime," "BAD," "Thank God For the Atom Bomb," as well as a bunch of professorial stuff about English poetry), but I know you'd appreciate them. He had a privileged California prep school/collegiate childhood before he got drafted for WWII. He had the test scores for aviation, but by the time he was out of basic Big Army had all the pilots they needed... however infantry lieutenants were in high demand. You can see where this is going?
Anyway, in his personal memoir of surviving the Battle of the Bulge, which must've been pretty awful, he mentions feeling sorry for the Graves Registration guys who were staying drunk as much as they could. It's a telling detail.
That's the kind of work that drugs that interfere with long-term memory formation would be nice. Really, really bad day? Rohypnol and booze will get you to sleep and not remember much the next day.
I don't know. It always breaks my heart to see old men crying. It starts happening usually in their 70s and it's because of the loss of hormone action. And I'm not saying real men don't cry. I'm saying old men start crying over even the littlest things, let alone big ones. Almost as though they're making up for every tear they failed to shed when they were younger. I wish they'd've gotten to this man before he had to embarrass himself that much. He deserved better.
It made me feel good that he was able to let it go like that. How long had he been carrying that around. It honored me that he would share his story with such compassion. A few years after coming home I went to the VA mainly because I thought I was fucking nuts. I couldn't sleep, waking up screaming and sweating like pig, walking the perimeter around my home in the night, staying stoned, fighting, driving 150 mph and the list goes on. They in essence told me to pull my self up by the boot straps. Be a man.
Amazing. Any American who says this is not worth listening to has something major wrong with them. Something in their make up is missing.
ReplyDeleteDunno if you've ever read any of Paul Fussell's books ("Class," "Wartime," "BAD," "Thank God For the Atom Bomb," as well as a bunch of professorial stuff about English poetry), but I know you'd appreciate them. He had a privileged California prep school/collegiate childhood before he got drafted for WWII. He had the test scores for aviation, but by the time he was out of basic Big Army had all the pilots they needed... however infantry lieutenants were in high demand. You can see where this is going?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, in his personal memoir of surviving the Battle of the Bulge, which must've been pretty awful, he mentions feeling sorry for the Graves Registration guys who were staying drunk as much as they could. It's a telling detail.
That's the kind of work that drugs that interfere with long-term memory formation would be nice. Really, really bad day? Rohypnol and booze will get you to sleep and not remember much the next day.
DeleteI don't know. It always breaks my heart to see old men crying. It starts happening usually in their 70s and it's because of the loss of hormone action. And I'm not saying real men don't cry. I'm saying old men start crying over even the littlest things, let alone big ones. Almost as though they're making up for every tear they failed to shed when they were younger. I wish they'd've gotten to this man before he had to embarrass himself that much. He deserved better.
ReplyDeleteWe just have a lifetime of tears saved up by then.
DeleteIt made me feel good that he was able to let it go like that. How long had he been carrying that around. It honored me that he would share his story with such compassion. A few years after coming home I went to the VA mainly because I thought I was fucking nuts. I couldn't sleep, waking up screaming and sweating like pig, walking the perimeter around my home in the night, staying stoned, fighting, driving 150 mph and the list goes on. They in essence told me to pull my self up by the boot straps. Be a man.
DeleteOh, I still screw up and forget to sign myself. That was me. --nines
ReplyDelete