[trickyrick]

yeah, i was talking to gramps the other day as i'm trying to spend more time w/ him and the military thing came up. he worked as an apprentice in a machine shop that made parts for ford. his journeyman was an alcoholic and wouldn't show up 1 or 2 days a week. well gramps would push a broom on those days. one day he went into the office and asked to work the lathe. they kinda chuckled and said go ahead. the floor supervisor strolled by and watched him. he was crapping his pants. he wasn't sure he could do it, but it beat pushing a broom. the floor boss went down the line and then came back and watched a little more. well gramps evidently fooled them and whenever the journeyman didn't show gramps got to work the lathe. he ended up replacing him in a short while. then the war broke out. gramps went down w/ his friends to sign up. they all went but nobody wanted gramps. turned out the co. he worked for got some government contracts for some parts and they kept gramps exempt from the draft so he could run the shop full of women who they hired to fill the contracts. he did his part but did it on the home front. when he was telling me this i thought he was gonna start crying. he lost a lot of friends and relatives in the war and always felt kinda guilty for not going over. he would go down every 3 months and it was always the same. we need you here.