My favorite John story is from the D-Day invasion. The landing craft he was on hit an obstruction made of railroad ties and started to sink. He had to abandon ship and ended up on Omaha Beach. Someone handed him a gun and said "You're in the army now!". He stormed the beach and the only way home was through France.
Before dinner, I added material for my Unofficial FDR Poll asking John what he thought of FDR. He said "In my day, you supported your President, whoever they were." He then told us how his dad, a Democrat, liked FDR, and his mom, a republican, didn't like FDR. Neither of them liked FDR's WPA, since they believed that everyone should work hard and shouldn't get handouts.
We got a couple of new stories from John at dinner.
My son asked him if he still had his license to carry a gun and asked how he got it. John told us about working in a bank when robbers came in and took the bank over. They pistol whipped several employees. The robber came to John and told him to get on the ground. He said the "military man in him kicked in" and he looked the robber "square in the eyes". Later, when reviewing the security tapes, someone asked "who's that guy in the black cowboy hat? He's the only one not on the ground!" It was John. He got his gun license because he testified against the bank robbers and the judge gave it to him. John also told us it was stupid for him to challenge someone with a gun.
John then started telling us how he learned poker. We all started laughing when he said the man who taught him "was the ugliest man I've ever seen in my life." "He was so ugly and his eyes were so black, that you couldn't stand to look at his poker face".
Thanks for some good Chili, John.
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