That saying came to me while lying here thinking about my uncle .
Took a dinner plate over to him and my aunt yesterday evening and he was all excited to tell me of his adventure of the day .
At first I told him I couldn’t stay cause I was without a shirt .
This didn’t seem to matter , he had some excitement he wanted to share . So I had a set and listened to his story .
He has a cow he has made a pet if out of the bunch and takes an apple or HoHo cake 😀
He was opening the gate to a fresh feed lot when his gal , the cow , came up and gave him a friendly bump .
The ground has a couple inches of slush from melting snow so it was enough bump to cause him to lose footing and fall into a mud puddle in a ditch about a foot deep .
He said the shock of the cold water and mud that seeped into every opening of his clothes had him scrambling to get up .
But he kept slipping back into the ditch .
Almost gave out with stress and physical drain he came to his senses and realized the barn corner was right behind him and turned and pulled himself up . Soaked and a cold front blowing in had him hustling to get the gate secured open and then he was worried about the vehicle seat and thought about the blankets he had in the barn for new borns . Finally got in the vehicle and made it home and was worried about his new coat being soiled .
Now this may seem like another day on the farm to most , but the fact that he just turned 98 is certainly worthy of the title , “tough as a pine knot”
WWII veteran of Japan too , has some interesting stories about life .
Glad I slowed down and gave him an ear , was lying here this morning thinking about him .
Kenneth

The greatest generation. Unarguably.

We’ve got a veteran from WWII over here that a buddies uncle. Tommy fought in the South Pacific as your uncle did and just finally sold off his cows a couple of years ago. He is still haying the place to sell. They are definitely the greatest Generation.

Great story

Treasure these men while you can.


I have to ask though, why weren't you wearing a shirt? lol

Great story and glad you took time to hear it, as it was important to him to tell it.
Please tell him Thank you for your service for me. I have hard enough time with English, don't think I could ever learn to speak German or Jap.

He truly is. Good of you to listen. There are still a few tough guys out there. I know one. He is a man bun liberal, but the guy is truly as tough as nails. He will grow up to be a good man - he's 24.

Straight up bad ass. We need a million more like him.

Great story and most definitely “Tough as a pine knot.” Good for you for taking the time out of a busy day to listen. 98, jeeeebuz. That’s old time grit! We could use more like it.

My Uncle just passed away at the age of 98 in December. He was clear headed up until the day the Lord called him home. He was also a WWII vet in Okinawa, Saipan, and the Philippines. I wish I had taken more time to go visit and listen to his stories. I'm glad you decided to stay.

http://www.andersonmattson.com/obituary/owen-braseth

I had breakfast this morning with a gentleman age 88 who was the Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division. So you can imagine the war stories he has to tell, this morning's was about being shot down in a helicopter over Viet Nam and living to tell about it. His travels in the military and in civilian life after his military career have taken him all over the world. He is a very interesting gentleman to talk to.

LIKE !!!!

Going to services this morning for another tough, old WWII vet.
GM "Dogie" Jones died at 95. Enlisted in the Navy in 1943, after his mother agreed, at age 16.
Telephone lineman for a bit, then joined the NM Sanitary Board as an inspector, eventually rising to become director of the (now) New Mexico Livestock Board.
Ranched, farmed, and produced high quality Quarter Horses for decades. Active on the ranch until less than a year ago.
A good man, and a friend.

The greatest generation....agreed.
I/we have lost all of our close family who were of this generation, my mentor's, all of my uncles were WW2 veterans, one of them was a pow in Hong kong, so grateful to them all.

Not only am I thankful for men like this, I'm thankful to have been raised in a time that taught me the value of men like this.

Great story!

Here. Here.

Spot on. I miss many that I knew.

Yes Sir !

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Well we had just got done eating ourselves and realized how much food was left over and he loves my wife’s cooking , so sandals and pants on , I wrapped them each a plate of scalloped potatoes, cream of corn and meatloaf and figured it would be hi , hears some goodies , and head back to the house .
Couple days before that I took them some of my wife’s home made vegetable soup loaded with fresh hamburger.
And set a few hours with them .
Sometimes if the mood hits he will open up about the war , but usually in short stories . He experienced some hot moments, he almost always got point man , said he wondered often if the platoon sgt was trying to get him killed , I told him I figured he was doing a good job .
He was really good at judging distance too .
Still is .
Worked for him as a kid , he was wide open all the time .
Got me into reloading , he built his own house and built it accordingly to his height , his reloading stuff was in the basement , god all mighty the times I realized I left something in the vehicle and jumped up to make a dash and WHAM my head into those sharp cornered saw mill oak floor joyces.
😀
Man could cover some ground too , gave my long dangling azz all I wanted in the mountains .
Kenneth

Great story. Those men are a true treasure.

Awesome story. Reminds me of my dad.

Great story from the greatest generation. We need to get as many survivors as possible in front of the kiddies in school so they understand true American history.

As of 2021 only 240,000 left out of 16 million Americans who fought in WW2

God bless your uncle!

I'd say, tougher than a hickory knot!

There's was an old man that lived a few miles from me, that was in Europe during WWII. He was on a machine gunner crew and was at Normandy June 6. He didn't say a lot about his experiences though. It was hard for him to talk about but, I'm sure he saw things most can't imagine.

Kenneth,
Thank you for sharing this story with us!

Great story.

My dad told me a few years back that my head was harder than a pine knot. So I carry on the tradition with the grandson.

Awesome. Thank you Kenneth and tell him there is a guy in MN that truly thanks him for his service.

The old folks used to refer to Pre-war material (WWII) as being better.


When they told a story like your Uncle's, they eould say,
"He was made of pre-war material".

98 years old, qualifies for that.

Neighbor ladies grandma fell off their step up porch one day when she was
babysitting. I got called over to help her get up, she couldn't walk, refused
medical help. So we put her in a chair "for a rest". When she couldn't walk after a few minutes, I told her she was going to the hospital.
She refused an ambulance, I negotiated my taking her.

She had broken the head off her femur.

She got patched up, and a few months later knocked on our door to thank me.


The next January, she was walking over to a neighboring families house
in a snow/ice/rain storm, fell and couldn't get up. She lay there for 5 hours
until her son came by and saw the lump in the snow. Tough old bird lived
through that one too! Made another 4 or 5 years, died at around 90.