When I walk past the corner of York and Colfax here in Denver, I pass by Okinawa, the restaurant seen in the photograph on the left. Evidently, they specialize in sushi, and perusing the online menu, I have found that this place is not cheap. Of course, I myself would never eat sushi even if it was free. However, whenever I pass this restaurant, I think of my father Nelson, a dentist, who was drafted back in 1944 and sent to Okinawa during WWII. His friend Ed, also a dentist, was drafted at the same time, and was right behind him when they reported. Ed, however, was sent to Paris. That old Hoyt luck hasn't changed in decades.
According to my mother Mary, my father actually liked his time in the army. He hated dentistry, and this gave him the chance to avoid the office for 4 years and have an adventure - in addition to fixing teeth, of course. Surprisingly enough, he told me it was just like the television show MASH over there. During the past decade, it has been popular to send veterans back to the countries where they served during WWII, not to mention other wars. I was thinking my father, seen in the photograph on the right in the back row (third from the right), would have gotten a big laugh if someone offered to send him back to Okinawa. After all, they were hit by typhoons twice, and my father lost all of his possessions each time. Plus, there was always the occasional sniper trying to shoot you (I suspect that doesn't happen anymore, but I could be wrong). And I know for a fact that my father would never have eaten sushi. Now, if instead of Okinawa, he had been sent to Paris, and they wanted to send him back there, that would have been a completely different story.
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