70 YEARS?!!!

So, world war two started 70 years ago. I feel like I've been living with wwii most of my life. The Phenom has a particular interest in wwii and the holocaust. . . our home is littered with books on the subject. The old people were shaped by the war.

The Old Woman was just shy of her 18th birthday on this date 70 years ago. Her mother had recently died and she'd been sent to live with a much older, spinster sister. She was fairly miserable. Miserable enough that she eloped with the Old Man just 3 days after her 18th birthday. She went home from school at the holiday break to tell her father she was married, but her father was murdered before she had the chance to speak to him.

It was an uneasy and frightening time for her, personally and in the world. By the time the bombs were dropped, she had three young children.

The Old Woman once told me that she was in favor of the bombs. This shocked me, being that she is a peaceful sort. She explained that the times were scary, and she knew she didn't want her children growing up under a dictatorship. She also knew she wanted the war to end before her children were old enough to be sent off to fight. She says experiencing the fear changes the way you think about it.

The combination of the very academic conversations in my home with the influence of the Old People . . . world war two is never really 70 years behind us. And, it's one of the reasons I'm such a peace loving sort of monkey.