Boots Came Home

Today is Memorial or Decoration Day and I have a significant memory.  It must have been summer because I don't recall wearing a coat.  The extended family had gathered at the Rock Island railroad depot in Shawnee, Oklahoma.  We were not the only extended family at the depot that afternoon.  If it was 1945, I was four and one-half years of age.  I recall playing with my cousins on the railroad baggage wagons.  The huge locomotive slowly made its way to the depot.  I think my father held me up so I could see Boots get off the train.  I do recall the applause, cheers, tears and hugs.  My Uncle, Boots, my mother's baby brother, had come home from the War.  He was in the Marine Corps.  Everyone in the family, plus some friends, went to Granny's house on Draper Street.  I don't know what happened in the house because I was outside playing with cousins and friends.  I remember that day because my Uncle, Boots, had come home from the War.