Jewells of Thought

Memorial Day!!

What Does It Mean To You This Year?

How Will You Celebrate It This Weekend?

Grandpa Leo, once the war was declared over got a hero’s welcome. The local paper ran an article about him coming home. They gave him a spot on the front page for the occasion also doubling as a feature for the Memorial holiday.

What an exciting time to be alive and to see the war finally come to an end. Although, the South Pacific was still embroiled, but not for too much longer thanks to the Manhattan Project. War on that front might never had ended without it, unfortunate as it was a decision to make. The new President not knowing anything about it until literally having to make a decision.

Grandpa being a prisoner of war had survivors leave, a whole month at home with his family and the lady that kept writing him back. Grandma told me she wasn’t going to write to him until she first received his letter. How surreal did it all feel to him, I wonder? Did he have to pinch himself a time or two? Not all pow’s returned home, he knew that firsthand I’m sure.

This would be his homecoming and his first home leave. It was not the end of being a soldier, however. He would have to report back to duty and serve out his time with about another year or so.

The date on this printout of the newspaper says I printed it on May 15, 2020. The historian in me loves that the date is automatically printed on the page allowing me to document the day I accessed this newspaper file. It was one of many newspapers I found that have helped me to document various events in accordance to Grandpa and his family and Grandma’s family during his service time, but before and afterwards as well. It’s pretty incredible what I found during that time buried in old newspapers that are now digitized. This was also not the first time a Bishop relative of mine was in the front page of a newspaper and not the last.