Topic: I tried to play a Christmas song for you guys
I couldn't do it. I can't get past the "in two tongues one song filled up the sky." It chokes me up every time.
My grandfather was the strongest man I've ever known. He worked stone and wood equally well. When he would hunt he never took a sled because he'd just pick the deer up, toss it around his neck, and carry it out of the woods. He was drafted for World War One. The Army put his tremendous strength to use as a machine gunner, because on his own he could carry his own pack, a huge machine gun, the tripod for it, and ammunition. It usually took three people.
Well, in a terrible battle of wretched trench warfare in Belgium, he was the only survivor of the Germans and of the Americans. At the end of the battle, he picked up the machine gun, ammunition, and rations, and started the 40 mile walk back to the closest American position he knew. He reported in and was asked where his battalion was. He told them, "I'm it." He was reassigned to another battalion and shipped out that afternoon to another battle...the infamously bloody and wretched Battle of Verdun. The German general entered into that battle intending to make it a battle of attrition. Over the months of battle the Germans lost 120,000 men. The French lost 133,000. I don't know how many Americans. Maybe they weren't supposed to be there. I have no idea how many of the 120,000 Germans fell before my grandfather's gun, but given his marksmanship and determination I'm guessing that it was more than a few.
It was fifty years later in the late 1960's and early 1970's when I knew my grandfather. He was a peaceful man of prayer whose marksmanship reserved solely for rabbits in his garden. His ire was reserved for Joe Garagiola whose play-by-play commentary Pap-pap could not abide.
I cannot sing the song below without thinking of this outstanding man, and how he was equally comfortable in either of the "two tongues" that filled the sky, and whatever he said in either language was bound to be worth the brief time it took him to say anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5on4WK1MpA
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude
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