One very late post

January 10 was my grandfather`s birthday. For those of you who saw the post about my dad`s birthday, yes, their birthdays are a day apart. I always thought that fact was cool. When I was in elementary school, I always told kids that my dad was a day older than his dad. It probably confused some kids. Anyway, this was Bestefar`s
95th birthday. He was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1914. When I was a teenager he and my grandmother took a trip with my parents and I out west, and we stopped in Nauvoo. If you`ve never been to Nauvoo, Illinois, there are all kinds of things there to make it look like it did when it was settled. There were some games set up that you could play that children played in the 1800`s, and one of them was a game that was still around when Bestefar was a child. You take a large round piece of metal, and roll it down a stick to get it moving, and then you run around pushing it with the stick. Bestefar wanted to play, so he ran around behind that large metal piece for as long as he could. He was about 86 years old at the time, so that was pretty interesting sight. I wish I had the pictures to put on here, but my parents have them. Bestefar is a person with very unique qualities and a lot of talents.
He is an exceptional piano player, and a great person to have a conversation with.
Recently he retold me a story from when he was in Germany in World War Two that I have always found very interesting. Someone from his unit while messing around one day, playfully put a German sailor`s hat on his head, and shortly after some Germans came by, and one of them asked Bestefar in German, "Where are the Americans?" Bestefar thankfully knew some German, so he answered back in German that he didn`t know, and the Germans kept on going. Bestefar has made a lot of sacrifices in his life to give his children and grandchildren a wonderful life, and I am so thankful that he was willing to make those choices and for the example he has always been to me.

Happy birthday Bestefar!