At one time I would have said I regretted not walking away from my mother when I turned 18, but the older I got the more I regret not going through with my suicide plan at 16. There are no stories of a wacky misspent youth to look back on and laugh at while feeling a bit stupid about it. I didn’t do drugs or alcohol or run around with the wrong kind of people (I had no one to run around with good or bad). And I didn’t fuck around that much either. I regret it all now.
But if you weren’t here now, we wouldn’t have a chance to read this, think about it and reach out…
Tough stuff in this thread. (Three years-old? ::shudder:: )
What with it being Veteran’s Day, I offer this up.
My grandfather served in both WWII and the Korean war. Being all-knowing and all-powerful at some point in my teenager-hood* I was berating him for being in the military because it was “bad” and WAR was “bad”** and rest assured I was an expert on this subject because I was 4 years-old when the Vietnam war ended, PLUS I’d seen the movie Born on the Fouth of July so there, HMMPH.
Thankfully, he was content to chuckle and give me a condescending smirk and not flat out punch me in the face.
At his funeral my mother displayed his Bronze Star*** and I was stuck by how many of the people in my family commented and mentioned their service that I hadn’t known of because, like I said in another thread, there was a period where it was frowned upon.
*“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain
**War IS bad, but necessary.
***Apparently he bayonet-ted someone on his shift to protect his regiment’s food supply… Which horrified me when I read it in my grandmother’s scrapbooks (it was an actual newspaper clipping of “local boys done good” or something.) What would I have done in his position? Hope I never have to find out.
Anyways, if I could take back my condensation at his being a career military man I would. I’m so proud of him NOW and wish I could tell him so. 
What’s worse is that the three year olds mother sold her to them for drugs. Poor kid didn’t have a friend in the world.
And Foggy, I had a very wacky mispent youth and regret I gave my parents so much to worry about so sometimes you regret either way. My parents were wonderful and gave me enough great memories to last a lifetime and I just took it all in stride like everybody got the same. I was a blithe idiot to take such great people for granted. I regret that.
My dad was in three branches of service in WW II and Korea and I never even thought to ask what his medals were for. I know he manned anti aircraft guns and saw the first nuke test but got few details. I remember being at a friends dads funeral when someone mentioned he had gotten a silver star. I asked what for and got an interesting tale.
He had been lugging one of those heavy water cooled Browning machine guns ahead of the rest of his company because it weighed him down so that he knew soon enough he would be at the back of the pack again. He rounded a curve and came in sight of two panzer tank crews eating at a fire nearby. All their rifles were stacked against the sides of the tanks and when they saw him they took off after them. He slung his Browning off his shoulder and stitched a line of bullets between them and the guns and they held up their hands.
He got it without killing a one of those Germans. I thought that was cooler than polar bear shit.
You never know about those old guys. My big gentle uncle was at Iwo Jima and my always happy little neighbor mentioned he was at Omaha beach when I had mentioned seeing a history channel story about D day. They didn’t brag much. At all really. We think we have things hard? Please.