Tank you very much

After a long day at the Gettysburg battlefield, we spent the afternoon having some lunch and shopping.  I know Mark wanted to stay at the field longer, but I was not all that pleasant so he was trying to sacrifice.  The next morning we headed down to Virginia Beach and we spent three days there.  It was beautiful.  I had never been to the ocean before and I couldn’t believe how massive it was!  The entire time we were there, it rained off and on.  It was windy but balmy and the air was salty!!  The sandy surface was covered with sea-life that had washed ashore.  I felt so bad for their little flip-flopping bodies that needed to breathe under water, until I stepped on a creepy jellyfish with my bare feet.  After that, it was all over and I just wanted to go walk the boardwalk and shop.  We bought a bunch of souvenir items for all my siblings and parents, etc.  Mark was getting a first glimpse of what it was going to be like to go Christmas shopping for such a large assortment of people.  We ate and walked for miles each day.  On the way home, we stopped in Maryland.  Why Maryland?  Because in Aberdeen Maryland, there is an actual Tank Museum!  Yes, that’s what I just typed…”Tank Museum.”  Oh, wait, I am not giving you the correct information.  It’s actually the “Aberdeen Proving Ground.”  According to their website (which I wish I had access to way back then), there is 300,000 square feet with tanks, equipment and weaponry!  Um, yeah!  Visualize the trip to the Gettysburg battlefield, only this time it is raining, cold and we are outside climbing on tanks.  He was able to sit in the cockpit of one of the tanks and I wish I had a picture of that.  He was checking out the dials and sitting there as if it was where he belonged.  He was in his glory!  Just a week before Mark met me in December of 1976, he had met with an army recruiter and was going to enlist if they allowed him to drive a tank!  That was his dream job!  Then he met me and told the Army recruiter that he changed his mind.  God had a different plan because Mark didn’t drive a tank and stayed here with me.  I was very happy I didn’t have to wonder what Mark was doing on a battlefield within a tank!  Mark and I always appreciated our military and their sacrifices.  When he died, he asked for donations to go to the USO, which provides entertainment for the troops that are away from home.  He always longed to go to Germany and several places overseas to put his historical mind in perspective by seeing all the places he read about.  I still don’t care for history, but lately I am looking back at our history we had together and realizing how important remembering yesterdays can be!