I had a foster brother who was much older, he enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and served throughout WWII in the Pacific. My parents worried about him constantly of course, we got our news from an old battery-powered radio of some sort, having no electricity in the ramshackle farm house we lived in.

In our family we had a 1903 Colt pistol, 38 ACP, my grandfather had found it one day in the 1920's as he was working on some railroad track, that being his profession. During the war, of course, ammo for it was unobtainable.

On VJ day, we got the news of the surrender from the old radio, joyous does not adequately describe my parents' reaction, their (foster) son would be coming home safe and sound!!

My father was so overwhelmed with happiness, he grabbed up the Colt and went out on the back porch and ripped off a full mag in celebration, me right beside him.

I was only 5 years old at the time, I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen, made me a gun nut right on the spot there and have been one ever since. grin
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