75th Anniversary of VE Day

Today is the 75th Anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) and the end of World War II in Europe. As one would expect, the Internet was all about the anniversary, but I don’t remember seeing anything on the world or local news. Typical.

I don’t remember hearing about anyone in the family fighting in Europe during the war, but someone must have. My Grandpa Steve (my Mom’s father) was in US Marine Corps in the Pacific during WWII where he was an airplane mechanic (my Mom once said he was also fixed cars during the war). He was a farm kid from Wisconsin, who during the Great Depression road the rails across the country to look for work. One time he and his uncle road the trains illegally all the way out to Hoover Dam, which was under construction, looking for work, but he was too young so they would not hire him and his uncle was too old so they would not hire him. He also said that he could always get a job picking potatoes out in Idaho, but it was a horrible job and he did not do it for very long. During the war he would get promoted in rank and then he would do something stupid so he would get in trouble and demoted. After the war he married Grandma Kay (who was having a wonderful time in Chicago during the war working in the factories and one said that all the women were fired at the end of the war and they told her that they were giving her job to a man) and worked in the factory for the Northern Pump Company.