My first job out of high school, was as an apprentice mechanic. This was in 1973. I had just turned 17 years of age, which is probably around the age that boys are often at odds with their own fathers. The head mechanic at the shop, John, was a WWII vet. I wasn't told a lot, but I learned that John had seen military action in Europe. He had a no-nonsense attitude, which probably served him well in that awful war.
I was warned by the other mechanics that he also had a volatile temper, but
never was I
ever on the receiving end of his temper. John was great to me, and due to my age, he was sort of like a second father.
I stayed at that shop for four years. I greatly admired and respected John, and I continued to occasionally visit him and the other mechanics at the shop. A year after I had quit (would've been 1978), I got a phone call from one of the other mechanics. At age 65, John had suddenly died of a heart attack. I was devastated. I still remember bawling my eyes out. I attended the funeral, and that was the last of my contact with anything to do with John. However, 46 years later...
After making
This post yesterday, I was inspired to do a google search on John's full name. Lo and behold, a couple of hits emerged! To make a long story short, one of John's daughters, who must now be around 80 years of age, had recently posted a couple photos of her dad at a online military site.
At first I didn't think it was the same "John" that I had worked with fifty years ago, but I had to keep in mind that the photos she had uploaded of him were from the early 1940's, 30 years before I first met him. I discovered that he was in the
8th Reconnaissance Regiment (14th Canadian Hussars). That Wikipedia page is chuck full of information on the exploits of the
8 Recce.
So today, I find myself attempting to contact John's elderly daughter, as well as one of his grandsons, who is named after his grandfather! Seems so very appropriate, that after all these years, I've remade contact of sorts... on Remembrance Day.
This is John, photo taken in 1942. Thank-you for your service, sir. You will never be forgotten.
