Veteran's Day 2019...

This year Bailey invited her Grampa Claude to attend the Oldham County Middle School Veteran's Celebration on Thursday, November 7th. This is an all day event. The school does an excellent job of honoring the veteran's. They have a program, lunch, a parade, etc. Claude was happy to see Bailey marching in at the opening holding the Air Force flag. He said Bailey was very sweet. She kept hugging him and telling him she loved him. 

Since their Elementary, Middle and High Schools are all in the same plot of ground, they always have a parade. All the kids come out of their classes to watch the parade and cheer for the veterans. The band marches with them and the cheerleaders cheer. Posters are made with the name of the veteran and the branch of service in which they served. The student gets to march in the parade with the veteran they invited. All of this parade stuff is great fun and held at the end of the day. However, on this day there were bad storms and record breaking cold temperatures. An outdoor parade didn't need to happen in all of that. They had Plan B in place. They marched through the halls of the Middle School with the students cheering them. There is an enclosed hallway from the Middle School to the Elementary School so they marched through that to get to the Elementary School. Then they marched around the cafeteria and the room next to it while all the elementary kids cheered them on. Back through the hall to the Middle School they returned. It was a grand parade even if it was Plan B. 

Claude enjoys this time with the Mini's. He will have one more year of this before Bailey goes to the High School. 

Veteran's Day was actually Monday, November 11th. I posted this to Facebook: "In 1969 this handsome fella (with no facial hair) was transferred to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. In 1970 I started my eternal journey with my favorite veteran. After all these years, one of his favorite requests from his Mini's is to attend the Oldham County Middle School's Veteran's celebration. This year Bailey was with her Grampa. Claude Christensen loves his country. He and I are grateful for every veteran past and present and for this amazing country in which we live. Happy Veteran's Day!!"

I posted to Jo, Claude's older sister, who was also in the Air Force, that I was thinking of her on Veteran's Day. I also asked if she knew if there was a picture of her and Claude in their dress blues. She said she was not aware of one. Then Lynette, Claude's younger sister, sent me this picture.

I posted it to Facebook with this comment: "Thank you Lynette Christensen Drysdale for this picture of Jo Johnson and Claude Christensen. This is just cool!! Sister and brother in their dress blues. Yes!!"

It was a nice Veteran's Day.