I’ve know many WWII combatants very well. They were so modest, and they were so kind to us. I want to tell my kids and grand kids how spoiled they are, and how rough I had it, having to fix my own car, wear clothes until they were worn, eat baloney on cheap bread .... my father watched his friends burn alive, he flew in below zero temperatures with malaria, he became a chain smoking alcoholic to cope with the stress .... and he was kind to me.
We are not worthy.
I read a great essay about the boringly “normal, unexciting” 1950’s as portrayed in Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best. The reason? All the dads in the 1950s were WWII vets. They had had enough abnormal and exciting to last 10 lifetimes.