Veterans Day...A Little Late

This is a Veterans Day Post for my personal hero-

my Daddy

John Joseph Patrick Michael Mackey

Here he is as a dashing young Second Lieutenant during World War II.

He flew submarine patrol, keeping the Atlantic waters safe for Allied shipping.

My father....one of the Greatest Generation...who did what they had to do and 

didn't think that made them anything special.

Came home, went to Cal Berkley on the G.I. bill, by which a grateful nation made a university education possible for a poor kid from a poor neighborhood in Boston. Sometime, Nana will tell you the stories.  They are great stories.

Oh, all right.  I'll tell you one.

There were lots of Jews and Irish in the neighborhood.  Every Friday night, Jack would go around to the Jewish homes and light the stoves of the good Jewish housewives who couldn't strike a match on the Sabbath.  But the enterprising Catholic kid could,

 and made a nickel apiece doing it.

They didn't really know they were poor kids.  They organized their own football league, one neighborhood against another.  All the parents came out and watched on Saturdays, but no adult had anything to do with it except to cheer.

Here he is today.  He's 91.  Still has that sparkle in his eyes and the Irish Wit.

Thanks Dad.

To you and to all the heroes.  

Nana knows that you kids need to remember these guys and honor what they did.

It's very, very important.