Week 281: She loved the Army

When my grandpa joined the Army, he asked my grandma--his friend and neighbor--if she would send him a picture and write to him so that his name would get called during mail call. She wrote to him. I don't know what exactly she wrote, but it was enough to capture my grandpa's heart. In 1938, they got married. And just like that, Grandma was an Army wife.

My grandma often talked about how much she loved the Army. Even just a few days before she passed away, she said again to my youngest brother, "I loved the Army." Considering this small town girl hadn't been to a big city until she was 17, getting a life of moving from place to place--all over the country and the world--was an exciting life for her. It was hard too, but she loved it. She did not want to be a farmer's wife. She grew up a farmer's daughter, and she figured whatever the Army had to offer her was bound to be better than farming.

So many of her stories of Army life blend together in my mind. There were homes that had bugs; homes that had squeaky floors; homes that needing painting. In Japan, they had women who helped her with the cleaning and admired my aunt and my mom's blonde hair. Oh, how she loved having women help her with the daily chores.

 

Since I got to travel quite a bit with my grandparents, I often was able to see the different places my grandpa had been stationed, sometimes even driving by the house they might have lived in. In 1997, my family went to Hawaii with my grandparents. We drove through the neighborhood they had once lived in; we walked around Tripler Army Hospital where my grandpa had worked; we visited the friends they had had when they lived in Honolulu.

   

It has never been far from my mind that my grandpa was in the military. I can hardly bear to watch World War II movies because I always picture my grandpa as a young kid fighting in the war. He didn't talk much about his Army days.

My grandma, on the other hand, loved to talk about her Army days. Her experience makes me smile. It wouldn't be a life I would want, but then again, I didn't have the childhood she had. From Washington to Oregon to California to Nevada to Japan and finally Hawaii, it was the Army that took my grandma where she wanted to go. 

She might have been a small town girl who grew up during the Great Depression, but she had big dreams. That's why she loved the Army.

Comments

[Jen @ The Short Years]

In these old pictures, some of them when she was probably close to the age you are now, I see a definite resemblance between the two of you.

[Alida]

Stephanie these pictures are really lovely. My father-in-law was a Navy man. I asked him why he joined and his answer made me spit me soda. He said, "I wanted to get the hell out of El Paso!" I don't much like wars, (who does?) but I do love our men and women in uniform.

[Sam]

I agree with Jen - I totally see the resemblance between you and your grandma.

I know the Army served a very similiar function for my grandparents - they were able to live in Germany, in New Mexico - and my Grandma feels much the same. She feels so lucky that she got to travel the world and have different experiences than so many of her family. It really was (and hopefully still is) a way for people to make a new way for themselves. I love that your Grandma loved being an Army wife!

[Margaret]

Wonderful that she appreciated her Army experiences because many don't look at the life they've lived with such satisfaction and joy. I think it's a shame. Is it just me or do you look like this grandma?