Because our extended family is the product of several long-ago divorces and deaths, our progeny have multiple "obligations" to visit family on The Great Day. Leatherness being the accomodating Saint she is, we wound up having two daughters with husbands and all four grandsons here at the Camp yesterday. Replete with beef and ham feast mid-day, and an afternoon of glorious weather and boys and dogs and BB guns and sawdust in the shop, we settled in for the Great Paper Tear late in the day.
We all gave and received some nice and thoughtful gifts, and the youngest boys had an adrenalin rush of the sort that provokes screaming in both boys and grownups.
The bestest moment of the day came when SIL #2--the Army pilot--opened his gift from me. The card read "Good tools are a joy for life." And the box-in-a-box was the generic plastic case that, say, a socket set might repose in. Instead, it was my Milspec 1911A1 which was built and accurized for me by a Marine Warrant Officer from Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico a decade ago and has been my preferred carry piece for all that time. I had decided Mark needed a better weapon than the POS from NORINCO or some such he's been using. I mean, the Lad is directly responsible for caring for half of the most important people in my life, and what good is it for a quality .45 to be on my hip if he and his tribe get in a situation.
The look on his face when he realized it wasn't something by Craftsman made the sacrifice worth it. Normally taciturn, he smiled broadly at first; then when he hefted the weapon, the expression turned into what only has one description, and it involves fecal matter.
'Course, now I'm temporarily out of the 1911 business, so I'll be looking around for a MILSURP 1911 that can benefit from some TLC.
I hope your holiday is as rewarding as mine.
TC
