96 Year Old Memories

I was in a book store today and briefly chatted (I always chat with strangers who are willing) with a 96 year old man. What an interesting gentleman to speak with. It seems he is physically able to drive his own car and live without assistance. What was most remarkable about him was his mental acuity. The fellow was quick thinker, completely aware of past and present events in his like and in others. His memory was like that of a man 20 years old. Is the good gene effect that powerful in preserving the human mind? Perhaps.

We somehow stumbled into conversation about WW II., he telling me he joined the army in 1940, as W.W. II had begun. I suggested he record an oral history of what he experienced in the war. But he seemed to think he was not important or interesting enough to bother. What a shame.

When I asked him his role in the war he related that he spent many months in combat in Europe, though he was not involved in the D Day invasion of France. This man was a contemporary of my late father, who also participated in W.W. II (My father was a cryptographer in Northern Africa who was involved in breaking German General Rommel's code, which when the information was given to British Air Force, precipitated the bombing and destruction of Rommel's German Tank Panther regiments, who were in Africa securing oil needed by the German army). We talked about the war, his life in Oregon and assorted topics that come up when strangers chat.

That engaging man was a living history to me, a link to my own father. It's interesting how a chance encounter has me flashed back to my father, my memories of him so vividly brought forth now. I wonder if that 96 year old man has any family left, what he thinks of the world as it is as opposed to what it as in 1940. One thing younger generations do too much is to erase any connection to the past. They are so busy with the present that they forget the past. it is unfortunate because one can never understand today without an understanding and connection to the past.

Ninety six year old's like that gentleman are important to us all. But how many younger people realize or care about that?