Not many people reading this article will remember the old television serial called I Remember Mamma and certainly almost none of the young men and women of our present day armed forces will remember it. I shudder when I think of how old I am getting, because I do remember it very well. I Remember Mamma was a TV series on every week about a Swedish family that came to America to start a new life away from the old country. Each episode was a perfect picture of what life was like for a family of immigrants in the new land of opportunity.
It was a typical family of four with mother, father and sister and brother. One unforgettable episode was when the young man of the family decided to join the army because the war had broken out and he wanted to serve his new country. The folks and the sister were devastated by his choice to go, but they seemed to adapt to the idea if only to support his decision although not fully agreeing with it. You could feel the sadness on that family as the young man slept in his bed for the last night. I cried so deeply when his mother came in to give him a good night kiss, perhaps his last. I became so emotionally caught up with the story that I...