My grandson, in training now at Parris Island, sent me one of those small, "rolled rope" style, elastic boot blouser, saying "Do you remember these, Gramp?"
All ex-Marines and soldiers will recall those.
Believe me, when that little OD colored object fell out of the envelope, it brought back a flood of memories for me from fifty years ago, when I first used those blousers.
I wrote back to him, commenting how such things trigger nostalgic reactions...
There is a local VFW a few miles from my house that has on display, a helicopter and an M60 tank. Each time I drive past that tank parked nearest the highway, a wave of memories flicker through my mind. Even though "my" tanks were M47 & M48 models (having same hulls, M48 having very similar turret), as I view that tank....I can hear the scream of the supercharger and the steady click, click, click of the end connectors.
Even these days, when I light my coal forge, on a frosty morning, to start smithing operations for the day such emotions come to fore. As the acrid, sulphrous, soft-coal smoke billows up from the fresh-fired forge...I am transported back to Fort Knox Ky,(1955) when I was a young soldier taking my tank training where the entire post was heated with soft coal.
Today, when I fire ammo of different types, there are similar "messages", most are simply the odor of burning gunpowder... but that peculiar smell of Eley primer...somewhere; in some munitions...there is that smell....just can't drag out the answer from my mind....too many ancient cobwebs I guess....LOL
How many vets here are not stirred by the sound of "Stars and Stripes Forever" or "The Thunderer"...just to name a couple.
Real nostalgia need not be military in nature...how about "butchering day" or "Maple sugaring"...
How about sharing some of those memories folks?
