Brown Paper Packages.... (Part 1)

 Brown Paper Packages

My dearest Amelia…

As you know, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  But perhaps you don't know how it came to be my favorite.  You know that our family  celebrates Thanksgiving a little differently than most American families.  Of Course we have a big meal, with turkey, stuffing, and pies.  But our family has added a very special element, and there’s a story of how that came to be.   I’d like to tell you that story… and Well, to tell that story right, I have to start in 1966... In Vietnam.

PART ONE:

Vietnam

If you ever ask your Papa Larry about his youth, he'll tell you what a "bad kid" he was…  Always getting into trouble-- stealing, skipping school, getting in fights, smoking... Pretty much everything you're not supposed to do.  His dad died from cancer when he was three years old, leaving his mother with very little money, and too many kids.  So, your grandfather was pretty much left to find his own way... And he'll tell you....  He made lots of bad choices.

Then, when he was 15, his mother also died of cancer.   People didn't know how dangerous smoking was back then.... Sad.  So, at age 15, your grandfather was an orphan.

Now back then, no one would have cared too much if a 15 year old was just left on his own to find a job and survive… or not.  So, Larry wasn’t really anyone's concern.  But, his younger brother and sister were sent to live with an older couple, Norman and Margret Knudson.  They were distant relations and for some reason, they were never able to have children of their own.   So they took in the younger Chalfant kids.   No one expected them to take in Larry-- he was considered too much of a trouble maker. Everyone figured it was only a matter of time before Larry would end up in prison.

Now, the Knudsons were very special people.  And interesting!  Margret worked as a secretary for a Private investigator or a lawyer or something, and she actually carried a concealed weapon-- a pistol-- to work everyday.   And Norman, was a “salty sailor” type.  He captained Ferry Boats in the Puget Sound, near Seattle, Washington.  He was a craftsman, an artist, a musician, and a woodcarver-- all “self taught”  He built his entire home during the “Great Depression”  from scrap lumber he collected.  And he was a “big” man…   I remember him being at least 6ft, 5 inches…  Which may not seem so tall anymore, but…  I remember him being so very, very tall…   I wish I could have known them more-- I’m sure they had amazing stories to tell.  Of course, with “Grandpa Norman,” I imagine a lot of his stories would have been “tall tales…”

But getting back to this story…. Like I said, no one expected anyone to take on the burden of taking in a 15 yr old troublemaker like Larry.  But when Margret Knudsen heard that there was a child being left all alone, she said, “Nonsense!”  She and Norman offered Larry a real home.  They made him go to school.  They made him behave.  They gave him a place to belong.  Love.  and Care.   And that’s how they eventually came to be known by me and my brothers and sister as…  “Granny Nanny & Grandpa Norm.”

After some encouragement from the Knudsens,  Larry graduated from high-school. He then joined the Marine Corps and after basic training… was sent to Vietnam…  and WAR!

I’ve asked my dad about his time in Vietnam many times.  For those of us who have never seen war-- and I pray we never do….  It’s a hard thing to understand.  Killing and accepting “being killed” for your country… That kind of sacrifice…  to believe in something that strongly….  I never thought I’d believe in anything that much.  To make something more important than my own life...  I just couldn’t comprehend it…    Until I became a Daddy, and then, suddenly I understood that the purpose of my life truly was to serve something more important than me.  You.

But this story isn’t about me…. yet, anyway…  It’s about a young man in a green uniform, in a far away place, facing an enemy he doesn’t know, and doesn’t hate.  He has been there several months.  He has seen horrible things he never could have imagined.  He has watched his friends be torn to pieces in front of him, and cry out in pain, and bleed, and suffer, and die.  He knows there is someone out there in the jungle trying to kill him.  Always… day and night.  And he is afraid.

I have never known that kind of fear.

Your Papa Larry was born into a Catholic family. He went to Catholic Church when he was young.  So even though he didn’t really think much about God as a kid, or teenager, when he Joined the Marines, and they asked him his religion… he said “Catholic.”  And that’s what it said on his “dog tags.”  So, when that young man found himself facing the soul crushing fear of war, he-- like so many young soldiers do-- began to search for the God they had been told about as children.  And to bargain with that God for their lives…   and perhaps more sincerely than anyone ever does…. Pray.

One night, Larry felt in his heart that he was about to face his death.  The company of his comrades gave him no peace.  He trembled in every muscle and bone with inescapable fear.  As he wandered through the camp, he saw a light on, outside the camp chapel.  He went inside, and found himself alone.  Alone with God.   He fell to his knees and prayed the prayer of every soldier…  “Please God… spare my life… save me from this…. and I will be a good person…” 

When Papa Larry tells of that night, you can tell that he remembers it with perfect clarity, as if he is reliving that moment again, and it just happened…

Trembling on his knees, hands clasped together tightly, feeling completely alone and terrified, praying, “Please God….  Please God….”  Larry heard a voice.  Did the voice fill the room?  Or did he only hear it in his head and heart?  Larry couldn’t tell--  all he knew was that it was real.  It was God speaking directly to him.  God said to Larry, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Larry opened his eyes, startled….  He didn’t actually expect to hear a voice.  He looked around-- was there a priest in the room trying to trick him?  He was completely alone.  It must have been God!  “If you love me, keep my commandments.”  What did it mean?  The “ten commandments?”  Those were the only commandments Larry had ever heard of…  Quickly, he promised to do so.  “I will, God, I promise!  I’ll follow your commandments!  I promise!!  Just please, let me live!...”

Larry left the chapel that night, feeling slightly confused, but at peace.  He still had tremendous fear as he faced combat and the horrors of war, for several more months, and even for years after the danger was behind him.  But he remembered his promise, and it gave him peace. 

 Now, most soldiers make promises to God before battle, but when the war is over, and the war memories fade, their promises to God also fade.  But for Larry it was different--  Larry kept his promise.