"Our Boys Need Sox: Knit Your Bit"

"Our Boys Need Sox: Knit Your Bit"
was a Red Cross Poster during
World War 11.

It seems an appropriate segue.
Today is the anniversary of
the Battle of the Bulge.

Christmas is childhood.
My childhood Christmas
memories are imbued with
wartime clouds.

Songs:
"White Christmas,"
"I'll be Home for Christmas"
spoke of young men far
from home and missed.

My cousin, John Lawrence
fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
December 16th, 1944.

The telegram:
Missing-in Action
denotes Christmas 1944.

JL was a Prisoner-of-War until
the following May.

I treasure a postcard written
in pencil in a boyish script
to my mother upon liberation:

Dear Aunt Helen,

"I am all right.
Pray for me.
Give my love to Pat."

Love,
Buddy.

In all the years to follow,
he only told one story
about that Christmas.

He minimized the forcedmarches, the rail trip
in the box cars.

He always fast-forwarded
to his interview
in the prison camp.

The officer who interrogated him
had him place his possessions on
a table between them.

Coins, rosary beads, and my Kindergarten
photo.

The officer asked, "Is she your child?'

Johnny said, "No."

He said, "I have a child that age."

At the end of the interview.
the officer let him keep the beads,
the coins, and the photo.

JL was forever grateful
for that one small kindness.

So, today I knit "sox"
and remember John Lawrence,
my childhood prince, and
am grateful for men who
came home to forgive
and wage peace.