Why I am an American
I don't normally type long winded stories in the MPT but this one is worth telling.
I am dealing with a customer today that has an obvious middle European accent. His is a very nice old man and we were having an entertaining conversation. I asked him if he was from Belgium or southern Netherlands. He said he was from Belgium but has been in the USA since 1961 and is a US citizen now. I asked him what brought him to America.
His eyes welled up and he said "This is going to be a long story, if I can tell it". He said when he was 8 years old the Nazis took over Belgium. They came to his farm and killed his father and older brothers. His mother grabbed him and they ran into the woods and hid from the Nazis. The Nazis burned their farm to the ground. He said the Nazis also killed all of their neighbors in all of the farms near by. He and his mother scavenged for food, and he said they would eat anything because they were starving. He is a short man, about 5'4" tall. He said his father and brothers were all tall but he was short because most of his childhood he didn't have any food. He said everywhere they went there were rotting bodies of the people the Nazis killed. This went on for a very long time. He said death was everywhere, the Nazis treated people in rural areas very badly. He said after what felt like an eternity of living like a rat, he and his mother were hiding in a burned out farm building. He went out looking for something to eat and was suddenly surrounded by US troops. He did not speak a word of English but remembers a huge man walking up and saying "Hey blondie. Where's your papa?" He didn't understand anything but "papa" at the time. He made the slash across the throat motion to tell them his papa was dead. He said the man then asked "Where's your momma?" He pointed at where his mother was hiding. He said the Americans gathered them up and put them in a truck with other people and gave them some water and crackers. He said he thought the truck was taking them to be shot. He said when the truck stopped they were at an American military base. They all got off of the truck and were taken to a medical tent where they were cleaned up, checked out and given clean clothes. Then they were taken to another tent and fed the first full meal they had eaten in years. He said it was amazing, you could eat as much as you wanted. That night they were given clean beds to sleep in for the first time in years. He said the Americans were wonderful people and everyone treated them very well. He told his mother the Americans are great people and some day he will be an American too. My eyes were welled up, his eyes were welled up and I gave him a big hug.
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