Of all the books I moved Friday morning there are 6 that are personally special. Almost all of them relate to his time in the Navy and the last one was so near and dear to his heart it will be the last one I mention.
Finding these books made me feel like I won the lottery. I don’t know if Papaw forgot where they were or just still had that idea that his service-time wasn’t as consequential as Papaw Bishop’s was being a POW or even his own brother Uncle Horace’s service in the South Pacific.
His time in the Navy was never inconsequential. It was a big part of what made him the man I got to know for a Grandfather. The Keel as you can see to your left there are two books. I went through each and every page looking for Papaw’s name and image and found all that I could find. It was soothing and just plain wonderful to see these Navy Annuals.
The first book from the United States Naval Training Center Great Lakes, Illinois was from the year 1952 CO. R. 31. Unfortunately, he came down with measles and was forced to change Regiments once he was discharged from the infirmary. The second book from 1952 shows him in Regiment 36.
If you look at the right side of the picture there’s another book. This is called ‘Traditions Of The Navy’, by Cedric W. Windas. When I began to read through these I found several of them to be of interest for a project I will mention in a moment. The cover of this book has Grandpa’s name on the right corner of it. This could have been a gift from his big brother. I don’t really know for sure.
So this leads me to this Scrapbook I made for Grandma and our Family. Inside are the pictures he took. Plus some pictures others took of him in front of planes. I highlighted some of the Traditions of the Navy that sounded like Grandpa. It was bittersweet putting this together, because he wasn’t here to answer my questions anymore.
I don’t want to forget his service time. I want my younger cousins to know what he did and how he became the man he was and that we remember.
Because of Grandpa, I had the courage and boldness to begin a Veterans Day Program at Fellowship that I have updated several times. It is an absolute labor of love to work on for the Church and the Veterans and their Families. That sixth book was my contribution to the Veterans to give them a copy of the PowerPoint Presentation from 2007. Sadly and happily a lot of those Veterans have gone on to be with the Lord. We at the Church do miss them and their characters, they were our storytellers of the Church. The core of the Church, always there lay speakers when needed or teachers… the elders of the Church. They are so greatly missed.
One of those men was Freddy Allen. The black book underneath the two white binders was a book he produced. He had been a Miner and came from a family of Miners. Grandpa Freddy’s Dad was a Miner. So he bought this from Freddy Allen in honor and remembrance of his own father. The depth of research Freddy Allen had put into this book is amazing the articles he found and old pictures its really an amazing work of art.
Jewells of Thought 
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