The health club I go to is a kind of a subculture. There are the kick boxing women (who scare me a little), the serious middle aged guys (I count myself as one of them), the group that has spent way too much time away from the gym but are still fighting the good fight, and the old guys. The old guys exercise a little, talk, visit, exercise, steam, and talk some more. It seems like the health club is an important part of their social life. I have gotten to know them over the years. A few months ago I went to get the towel to wipe off the elliptical machine I had just brought to it's knees and Frank and John decided it was time for me to slow down and talk to them a bit. They were both slowly biking their way nowhere. I had been watching the HBO series Band of Brothers. Karen had given the set of DVDs to me as a gift. It is the true story of the Easy Company of the 506th. It traces their story from boot camp through D-Day to the Eagle's Nest (Hitler's mountain hide away). It is an astounding story. Anyway, I asked Frank and John if they had ever seen it. I was rambling about the episode I had just watched about Bastogne where Easy Company held off the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge until they were rescued by Patton's tank division. Frank said quietly,"Yeah, I know. I was there." He then proceeded to tell me he was in Patton's tank division that cut all the way up to Bastogne to relieve Easy Company. I stood there looking at an old man peddling slowly on a stationary bike and when I finally gathered myself I thanked him. All this time I had been going to my health club I have been rubbing shoulders with heroes. They don't look like heroes any more but they are. Frank had to be taken off the line for a month so they could save his feet from frostbite. Today, on this Veteran's Day I saw Frank in the locker room. I watched him from a distance, made sure I said hi and left thankful for men like Frank who did something more than 50 years ago that made it possible for me to go to a health club today. Today when you walk past a person in their 80's look at them long enough to catch their eye and pay your respects. The heroes are all around us and today is the day to notice.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Thanks for the reminder. My dad served in Europe in WWII. He was the only one to survive from his entire barracks. We just got home from visiting them this evening. I saw him crawling over furniture and helping haul things and forgot he's 87 years old - I think he's indestructible.
Post a Comment