Eric D. Schabell: My trip thru the Northwest continues!

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

My trip thru the Northwest continues!

We left Seattle on Saterday morning headed for Portland and my parents house.

We stopped at a Veterans Museum on the way down that my uncle has donated his Korean War memories and things to. It was rather awe inspiring to be received there and that they knew I was a Veteran too. Everyone kept coming up to me and saying 'Thank you.', very hard to describe the feelings that go thru you at a moment like that. Living in Europe I am not around my fellow countrymen that much to receive or feel any sort of appreciation for my service time. I am now dumped into it like a cold bath and it brings much of my 'adventures' and 'stories' back to the surface. It also brings back much emotion about a time in life that was so different from the times we now stand in.

The director of the museum, Lee Grimes, personally took me around to explain the various exibits when he heard I was the nephew of my uncle. He knew stories about each display, often about several articles in each display. He left the impression of a very caring and sincere man devoted to the memories of service men, one and all regardless of branch or time served in.

Personally I found it to be very moving to hear that each person brought in their memories (be that stories or items from their service time) and had a hard time letting them go as they donated them to the museum. I can relate to this with my own 'memories.' I have taken a business card from Lee and will keep him in mind when I next look through my own boxes. Maybe I will donate something, maybe I won't.

Onwards we arrived in Portland, met up with my parents and had a nice dinner for the evening. Spent the next two days just relaxing, shopping for Isabel, building a set of golf clubs for dad and hitting some balls at the driving range. We spent a day at a science museum with Henry today and will have all of my parents friends over tonight for a pizza party and chatting.

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