I had a nice little birthday party. Old Marine combat veterans came by with gifts of an eagle feather, books, a new desert camo blouse, money, beer, and food. The ones I call “YOU PEOPLE” grilled hamburgers and brats. My wife made her special potato salad. It got kinda cool outside so we moved inside- it froze last night and it was 30 degrees this morning- turned on the furnace.
This 64th year got me to think of things I've seen in my lifetime. We (twin sister) and I were born to an Ojibway woman in a TB sanitorium. She would hire a lawyer by the name of Miles Lord- he would later become a federal judge- who proved TB could and was being cured, and got the TB sanatoriums opened. By that time we had been adopted.
Being an Indian with TB, she was considered a ward of the state, with no rights. It would be 25 years before I would see her again. Raised a Catholic, I am now a “born again Pagan”!
4.4 years as a two-tour Vietnam Marine, I got attitude. When I got out, I married Christopher's (shlepcar) mother till she went to prison. I tracked down my mother. She lived in Glendale, California. I took Chris with me, and to the obligatory trip to Disneyland.
Anyhoo, coming within a “hair's breadth” of prison myself, I turned my life around and have worked as a corrections and homeless counselor, became a father to 4 MORE SONS, and a daughter. My folks died in the 70s, along with my wife's mother, so the only grandparent my kids had was my real mother.
She would come to MN to visit, but was really uncomfortable around us. She would drink a little, and then apologize for not raising us, which would make me really uncomfortable. I would tell her “Ah fuck it, ain't no sweat.” Anyhoo, she would live with her granddaughter on the Yakima Reservation in Washington, where her granddaughter was a tribal attorney. In 1995, she became deathly ill, put on life support for 44 days when it was decided she would be unhooked, though none of her West Coast family would do it. Along with her brother- my uncle- we drove to Washington where I said, “See ya later” and unhooked her from life support. She had brought me into this life, I helped her leave “Singh Loi Mamasahn”.
Anyhoo, my point being is that this life we live is all we got and we oughta “live and let live”. We have been so manipulated by the powers that be, that off to war we go. Having been indoctrinated on John Wayne war movies (he never went), my war was VIETNAM! What the fuck was that??? Nobody has ever been able to tell me. My son Zac and his girlfriend came to my party. She is Vietnamese and Ojibway. They said you will be a Grampa soon! All I could say was FFO!!!!!!!!!B
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