The YEAR WAS 1918

• A pound of coffee: 29 cents in 1918

Time of a baseball game:

• Game 1 of 1918 World Series — 1 hour, 50 minutes

In 1918 ...

• Annual daylight saving time begins; the post office begins air mail service.

• World War I ends.

• The flu strikes one-quarter of the U.S. population. Worldwide, it kills 25 million.

• U.S. women are not allowed to vote.

* My Grandpa was born December 3, 1918.

We celebrated his Special Day with a dinner at a new Chinese Restaurant he suggested. It was a fun Birthday for him. We talked about many things at dinner but the funniest thing was that my Grandpa said he "Just wants to know what the Future will be like." i laughed and said, "Pa you already had your future, your 89 how much more future do you want." When you are 89 what does your family get you. My thoughts were things that could be used or enjoyed in a short amount of time. (That's my sick humor I guess) So I got him a flat of Pansies he could plant in his front yard and enjoy this winter. A Christmas Wrath for the Front Door and some Breakfast Cookies to enjoy with his Morning Coffee. My Mom made him a Pecan Pie and gave him An American Flag that lights up to hang in his front window. At dinner I asked my Grandpa what the most amazing thing he had experienced in his 89 years. I must say his response to that question caught me off guard. He said that it was his marriage to my Grandmother, June. I was thinking his response to that might be Automobiles, Indoor Plumbing, A man on the Moon or Cell phones. But it was a relationship between a man and a woman he said was most amazing in 89 years. I don't think of my Nannie as much as I use to. I mostly think of her around the Holidays but can you imagine thinking of someone you loved every single day, every single minute of the day until you are together again in heaven. I realized at that moment in a Chinese Restaurant on my Grandpa's 89th Birthday how that most feel and hope to find that kind of LOVE AGAIN.
I hope I can say this gracefully but we all hurt and disappoint people we love or have loved with all kinds of sins. The only thing that frees us is the Gift of Forgiveness. And that Gift is to ourselves not to the person that has hurt or disappointed us. I pray that my Grandpa was given himself the Gift of Forgiveness in his 89 years.