Through the Windshield Episode 1: Nazis and Frat Boys

          As most of you know, this week is my Spring Break.  For the first and last time in my college career (since I’m a senior) I'm taking a trip over break.  I’m spending half the week flying down to Sebring, FL and spending time with my grandpa at his winter home in an RV park. The second half of the week I’ll be helping him drive this bus of an RV back to Illinois.  So we’re taking this people watching blog mobile, and let me tell you: nothing makes you feel young again like vacationing with retirees.  This week’s blog will focus on my activities, conversations and thoughts over break; a lot has gone on this week so you may be in for a long read.  So let’s start the ride with some humor!

 

"GUYS.  I CAN’T FIND MY WALLET."

            As I mentioned, I flew down to Florida.  What I didn’t mention is we had quite the ride. I flew out of Peoria International Airport and, no surprise, there were some other Bradley students headed to Florida for break too.  What was a surprise was these young men’s levels of intoxication.  This was a 10am flight and these guys were already blitzed.  One even tried to get off the plane to find his phone (it was in his pocket, don’t panic).  To the point that they got two warnings before the plane even took off and were told they wouldn’t be drinking on the flight.   They were also told that if they caused any problems the plane would land and they would be escorted off.  One young man (henceforth referred to as 'moneybags') said, with some extra slur and more colorful commentary, he ‘has enough money to buy this airline.  You won’t escort me off.’  We were quickly reassured that they definitely wouldn’t be drinking, since moneybags behind me kept yelling that he ‘lost his F***ing wallet,’ and yelled at his friends to help him find it or they wouldn't be partying at his condo.  Luckily the gentlemen fell asleep shortly after takeoff and stayed that way for the majority of the two hour flight. 

The flight attendants woke them so that they could put their trays up in order for us to land.  Having slept for two hours, I was sure these guys would have sobered up.  But apparently not since moneybags immediately started ranting about how he wasn’t getting off the plane till he found his wallet.  Then, the nice old lady sitting next to me, with whom I’d spoken to a few times during the flight turns to me and said, as the edges of her lips started turning into a smile “I just hope he finds his F***ing wallet.”  I about died laughing.  As we landed (no one cheered or clapped for the pilot which I was happy for.  I never understood that – he was just doing his job) and he stood up, his friend promptly found his wallet wedged underneath him.  Deciding to return the favor to the nice old lady and turned to her and just said “They found his F***ing wallet.” And she laughed with me.  No one cheered for the pilot that day – but she and I clapped for this young man and his friends for finding his “F***ing wallet."

The Greatest Generation

            I always have and always will look up to my grandpa.  He came up from nothing, a dirt poor farm boy from Kansas, built a thriving business, and is one of the kindest, most skilled people I know.  I’ve always cherished my conversations with him and I don’t care what anyone says, they really are the greatest generation.  This week, I got to talk with another wonderful person from his generation with an amazing story, which she gave me permission to share with you. 

            Karin was the wife of one of my grandpa’s friends and he had mentioned she was German.  We got to talking and she told me her story.  Born in Germany, she was your typical blonde-haired blue eyed German girl.  Just one thing set her apart from an American girl of the same description: she was living in a war zone.  There was one other thing.  Her father, a man of intelligence with the degree to prove it, eventually became a Nazi officer of significant rank.  She wanted to emphasize that he was no monster, most Nazi’s weren’t.  Hitler used the general feeling that Germany was treated unfairly following WWI to feed hatred and rise to power.  Not everyone who was involved with the party felt that hatred, and not all of them were evil.  Her father was a provider, a lover, and most importantly a dad.  “He loved flowers and people,” she said, “He was a good man.”  Due to their father’s standing, her older sister (about 6 years older) also began to climb the ranks. 

I was very curious about Karin’s experience and perspective of the war from a child’s eyes so we got to talking about that.  She said ‘I always loved nature, and what upset me about the war the most was seeing the trees all shot up.’  She said as a child it was harder for her to see the trees shot up than the people, she just got so used to seeing people like that.  Karin’s family lived on the Dutch border in Northern Germany, so they didn’t see too much fighting she said.  But she recalled that they’d often see planes flying overhead to drop there bombs on Berlin or Dusseldorf.  She told me one story of when her family was huddled in their bombing shelter, but her sick brother who couldn’t come down stayed up and counted the planes with her grandmother to keep occupied.  Over 800 planes were counted that night, she said. 

After the war, her family came to America.  Karin was 10 at the time (this puts her older sister at no more than 16).  I asked her if it was hard coming to America.  She said her father struggled to get papers, given his Nazi status after the war.  But she said eventually her family moved to Long Island.  To a Jewish neighborhood.  So here she was, a blonde-haired blue eyed, 10 year old, German immigrant, who only spoke German, only a few years after the war, living in a Jewish neighborhood.  I was sure she would say that this neighborhood was where they’d experience most of their troubles moving to the states.  But I was wrong.  She said everyone was wonderful.  This made my heart happy.  Karin, her neighbors, and my grandpa, really are part of the greatest generation.  Despite the war, the awful things they saw, and the trials they went through, and the hard decisions they had to make, they still knew how to be kind and how to love – we should strive to be more like them. 

Next week we’ll cover more of Spring Break! Including my visit to the Navy SEAL museum and the very special windows I looked through there as well as some other interesting events!