Another Big Day

"Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative." ~Maurice Chevalier

The day we've been waiting for has arrived. Hard to believe it. Tonight we're honoring my father-in-law with a party to celebrate his 90th birthday, something one doesn't get to do every day. Hopefully some of us will be fortunate enough to have the experience. Ninety is a milestone for anyone, but especially for those veterans who left so many of their young friends on battlefields in Europe and the South Pacific.

My father-in-law W. A. "Bud" Wagner was the second Minnesotan drafted into the war. Cook, machine gunner and company agent, Wagner had the privilege of being on the first convoy to make its way across the Atlantic for the European theater. And the good fortune of having survived the duration of the war without becoming one of its casualties, in North Africa and Italy, which included beachheads at Anzio and Salerno.

A lifelong journal keeper, Bud finally set about at age 79 to assemble the book he'd been mentally writing all his life. With the help of his son Lloyd, who lives now and Laos and no doubt wishes he could be here tonight, Bud completed his 186,000 word war memories and reflections titled And There Shall Be Wars, which amounted to 535 pages.

Bud had several motivations for writing the book, primarily to put his diaries into a concise form for his family. When citing the value of diaries Bud frequently quotes the Chinese proverb, "The faintest ink is stronger than the strongest memory."

The big birthday's are pretty special. Last year while gardening out here on our property he said he was looking forward to this one. He made it a goal to be here when it happened.

Congratulations, Bud, for marking another milestone.

The older the fiddler, the sweeter the tune. -- English Proverb