on vets

veterans day was this week.  when i was a kid, veterans were a bunch of old guys in long-outgrown uniforms, reminiscing about the old days. today, they are young people, fathers and mothers, who spend harrowing months away from their families in a desert.

as a kid, i marveled that vets had their own day. i did wonder why so many of those old guys dressed up and celebrated a day that was, in my view, only for uncle red, him being the only vet i knew. it took me years to realize it meant veteran and not veterinarian.