WWII

Well, today, aside from suffering from jet-lag and being absolutely exhausted at around noon today (6am NY time) and being woken up at what would normally be my bed time (thank goodness I was able to get some rest), was pretty interesting.  We took about a 1 hour train ride to Mons, Brussels, where they hold an annual commemoration to an American invasion, so to say, to kick out those Germans.  So, they were plenty of people walking around in American uniforms, most of which didn't exactly go together, eating fries with mayonnaise, drinking beer, and digging trenches.  Oh, and going joy riding on a 60-something year old tank in the mud.  What I found to be very interesting is that back at home, those who are interested in the history of World War II all seem to be aging, and dying off, it does not take the interest of many people, say my age.  But here, kids were running around, helmet and toy machine gun and all, eagerly climbing into tanks and crawling into foxholes and tents for pictures.  I guess World War II is a whole lot more interesting to those over here in Europe, since it all basically took place here.  I remember sitting in American History with Mr. Carp (may he rest in peace), and getting excited to begin the World War II chapters, and being kind of disappointed in the lack of content.  I guess most of it had to do with the fact that I've gone to see so many different important sites of the war since I was little since my Dad is such an enthusiast, that since the American's didn't enter the war till Pearl Harbor, pretty much the tail end of the  war, there was not much to fill the textbook with.  I guess here, there'd be so much, and its probably just a train ride away from anywhere in Europe to go see one of the sites, which I guess makes the learning experience a whole lot more interesting, makes the war, which ended 65 years ago, that much more real.
It's too bad, there's so much more to World War II than most of us in America learn about.  I hope the enthusiasm for the war doesn't die back home.