Post War memories - growing up with a knowing and expectations.

Being a Post War "Baby Boomer" - my elementary school years were filled with News Reels at the theater.

Saturdays we walked the 6 blocks from our downtown Indianapolis home to 10th and Dearborn for the matinees at the Rivoli.  Along with bonus full-feature length cartoons before the movie, there were intermissions with contests, prizes, sometimes clowns, or magicians, jugglers, ventriloquists or just comedians to entertain us.  Teenagers walked the aisles with flashlights to keep us all in our seats and behaving.  But just before the feature presentation, we were always fed a good dose of patriotism with News Reels that caught us up to date on progress since the big war that had just ended, and the battle on-going in Korea. 

It amazes me how conditioned I was by these News Reels.  I was prepared to be patriotic, I cried every time I said the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and memorized God Bless America, and the National Anthem faithfully belting out each word as a child.  My parents were married a few months after they met.  My Dad served in Europe WW II and when he returned his sister set the two of them up for a date.  This year they celebrated 63 years of marriage.  He didn't expect the welcome home he got from this country - but fanfare and celebration reigned.  My hubby's Dad lost an older brother on the SS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, his Dad dropped out of high school, married his HS sweetheart, and joined the Army.  They were separated nearly 4 years by WAR.  But they celebrated 63 years of marriage before he passed.  He continued his military service and retired a Chief Warrant Officer.  Patriotism ran thick in both of our families.

I wasn't too surprised when the hubby joined the Army - not happy about it, we were newly weds, but proud anyway.  But the reception he and his fellow comrades received when they returned from the "unpopular" war of the 60's and 70's was to our detriment as a nation and our generation.  It has caused a knee jerk reaction, we know, as we make every attempt to welcome home the warriors who are serving this day,  and we forgive America for this oversight, but people, war is what it is, soldiers serve out of a love for their fellow Americans, and their country.  Gotta respect them and treat them like warriors for this very reason, THEY ARE OUR HEROES!!