Originally posted by 6BQ5 They admit to destroying negatives and prints because they are remnants of an old life and they don't need it.
My grandfather served 2 tours as a navigator on a B-17 in WWII. He only told me one story. If you had an immediate family member who was wounded you could get a pass to go see them in the hospital. He had a cousin who was shot at Omaha Beach and transported back to the hospital in London. My grandfathers bomber group was flying out of England and my grandfather got a pass to go visit his cousin. At this point in the war they were running missions every day. A stand in navigator flew in my grandfather place while he was gone. His B-17 was shot down and the entire crew lost. He had a great memory, probably better than he really wanted when it came to things like this.
From the 1920's on the country went through the Great Depression, World War One and Two, Korea, & Vietnam. Depending on what part of the country they were in there were some droughts, famines, the Dust Bowl.
Often, the older people get, the less they want to talk about the "the good old days". Lots of friends and family members have been lost, and often they are the last one left to tell the story.
My great grandmother was married to a Civil War veteran. It was not uncommon for much older men to marry younger women, and that was the case. We were lucky in that she knew many of the Civil War veterans that were in the family pictures and since she didn't live through the Civil War she happy to talk about who was in the pictures and where they had been taken. We were lucky in that most of my family members who fought kept really good journals and wrote a lot of letters. My great grandmother would talk about the Civil War which she didn't actually live through, but she wouldn't talk about the Great Depression, which she did live through.
My grandparents had a neighbor who was a World War One veteran. He had no problem talking about WWI, but he was also the last known living member of the Night Riders which he refused to talk about. I know he was contacted several times by historians, but to my knowledge he never told his story, and I have never seen his name in any of the documentaries. Somethings people just want to forget.
I think if we live through a lot good times we will be more likely to talk about it than if we live through a lot of bad.