Old Ironsides: A picture worth a thousand words.

Story time.
My grandparents grew up together during the depression in a small town in rural Alabama. The depression didn't really affect them, everyone was already poor. You worked for what you had. You ate what you grew and you wore what you made and everyone worked together just to get by. WW2 brought not only a great responsibility to our nation but also opportunity. They married and moved to the big city where Grandpa went to college but also enlisted in the Navy while Grandma worked at a local military hospital while he was away. After the war they bought a house in town, Grandpa was offered a job at a local refinery as an engineer and they raised a family of 5, including my mother. Grandpa was only a few credits shy of his engineering degree but with a family to take care of the job was too good to refuse. He always retained a fondness of naval memorabilia, Along with trains, trucks, aircraft,bridges, lighthouses, I guess anything he saw to be great engineering achievements. It must have been impressive to go from growing up on a farm with horses to living and working on an aircraft carrier (U.S.S. Tripoli) and seeing parts of the world he didn't know existed. By the time I came along their house was filled with these commemorative plates, paintings of ships, model trucks and locomotives. Fast forward 60 years.

April 27, 2011, Tuscaloosa Alabama. The Southeastern U.S. Witnessed a storm outbreak of biblical proportions sending an EF4 tornado straight through our town, right down my grandparents street. They made it into the basement and escaped with their lives but what was left of the house was wrecked. I saw things that day that I didn't know were physically possible. While we tried to salvage what we could, important documents, family pictures, personal items, my Grandpa silently sifted through debris just looking for pieces of what was left of what he worked his whole life for. They were fortunate, they were alive and able to make a timely insurance claim and moved into a new house weeks later. Only one of the many decorative plates that lined the walls of their old house hung in the new one. Boxes of untouched plates and paintings had survived in closets and under beds but Grandpa only put one up. The U.S.S. Constitution, ‘Old Ironsides.’ He picked the pieces out of the debris, glued them back together, and proudly hung it in the main hallway. I never got the chance to ask him, "why that one?" Maybe just because it had the most pieces left. Maybe because he's stubborn. Maybe for no reason at all. But I do know that ship was built in 1797 with an expected service life of 10-15 years. Despite many attempts over the years to have it scrapped it has been restored time and time again and is still in service today. On one such occasion Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the poem “Old Ironsides” in which He suggests what a pity it would be if the Ship were to be unceremoniously picked apart in a shipyard. He then alludes that a more dignified farewell might be to set the old ship a sail one last time to be bravely taken by the wind and waves where it can rest at sea. The poem sparked a public outcry which may have sparked the decision to go ahead with the extensive repairs and she is still afloat today. I think there's a metaphor there somewhere. Maybe people aren't generally as tough as they used to be, get upset too easily when faced with adversity. A little hard work can go a long way, a lot of hard work can make almost anything happen. People like my grandparents spent their whole life trying to get this country where it is today and would hate to see the state of thing. No matter whose side you're on, try to work together and keep moving forward. Thanks for reading.
TL;DR
Old people are awesome and know a thing or two. Learn what you can from them while they are still in your life.

Her name is Garfield and we adopted her when she was 3 because who could say no to that?