Contents
Decompressing
Smoking or non-smoking?
Old friends
Am I a coward if I duck?
Normale! Normale!
The old soldiers were friends too
Shaky old bodies stood to attention
Let Avis worry
I wrote this as Dad and I traveled around southern Italy for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Cassino. It was 1994, making him 76 and me 48. Thirty years ago. I’m a bit worried now that the only people who come out of it looking bad are me and an impatient Italian waiter.
For better or worse it started as a diary, and pretty much it still is. If you think I was being hard on him I agree. I’m sure you’ll be just as hard on me — I certainly come across as a bit of a smart aleck. But reading it now recalls the trip so vividly that I’ll take what’s coming and let it stand.
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Yes, I’ve noticed that I’m older now than Dad was then, and our kids older than I was. Please let them know that I’m not ready to pass on the reins to them just yet!
Tell the kids also that Dad and I always had a combative relationship, but I’d never been closer to him than this. I can’t remember exactly when we stopped bickering with each other, but this trip was a rather graceless step on the way. Rather graceless on my part, I mean. I was, necessarily, in charge.
Mum said to me at the airport, “You know it’s going to be a long two weeks, don’t you?” Dad was starting to show his age at times, and Mum, showing hers rather less, was managing partner in the relationship. The sad irony is that over the next six years she declined a little faster than him, and the roles began to reverse. Our cohort knows these things first hand now. As the tee-shirt says, it’s weird finding yourself the same age as old people. ~ Ian
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The photos were scanned from an album we made at the time. Not very flash — 6×4 prints from a Minolta compact film camera — but they bring back memories.