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Continued from Page 9
was in the World Series that
fall, anyway? What about
Ingrid Bergman — damn,
what a dish. Are we going
to win this war? How, and
when? Small talk was driven
by uncertainty and the shad-
ow of ever-present danger.
Return to Belgium
Anderson might have
avoided the conflict. After
being drafted, he was chosen
for the U.S. Army Marching
Band, a safe job during war
time. He played a fine tenor
sax.
One day the master
sergeant said: Boys, the
Secretary of War, Henry L.
Stimson is going to be here,
and you are going to play
absolutely picture perfect.
There will be no false notes.
And there will be no leaves
until then.
Well, several of the
musicians protested, includ-
ing Blaine. Next thing he
remembers is being sent to
Europe, posthaste, a soldier
in Patton’s Third Army.
Blaine hadn’t yet met
his lovely wife of 62-years.
Her name is Vivian, and she
shares many of these stories.
She is forever his partner.
A plate of cookies placed be-
fore him is as much a delight
as it ever was for 96-year-old
Blaine Anderson, a World War
II veteran.
LAURIE ANDERSON PHOTOS
Vivian and Blaine Anderson (90 and 96, respectively) have been married for more than 50 years.
A few years ago, the couple
headed back to the village
of Herderen in Belgium, and
managed to find the children
(Danielle and Josli) of that
same family. The Belgians
treated Anderson as a return-
ing hero. Josli now owns the
tavern that once belonged
to his father. When the story
Santa Lucia
Festival of Lights
Friday, November 24 th
Astoria High School
1001 W. Marine Drive
Holiday Music 6:30 pm
Santa Lucia Festival of Lights Program 7 pm
Lucia Bride 2017
Kara Dowaliby
Program
• Santa Lucia Bride & Attendants
• Star Boys
• Introduction of the 2018 Scandinavian Court
• Lighting of the Christmas tree
www.AstoriaScanFest.com
Featured
Entertainment
• North Coast Chorale
• Holiday Sing - Along with Chris Lynn
• Refreshments: Sons of Norway
• Public Dancing: Scandinavian Music -
Entrainers TBA
Admission $1 per individual or $5 per family
Proceeds will go to the Festival Scholarship Fund
Sponsored by the Scandinavian Midsummer Heritage Association
got around, the whole town
came out to see Andre, their
nickname for Anderson. Joy
can overcome pain.
The SS was ruthless in
those war years. To jeopar-
dize one’s own family is an
act of bravery that remains
deserving of private honor.
But civilians weren’t given
bronze stars, though, god
knows, many suffered as the
soldiers suffered.
Near the war’s end, An-
derson remembers trading
for a bottle of whiskey with
a German resident. Ander-
son offered fresh coffee for
the prize, and the coffee
was delivered in a sock.
Anderson couldn’t pilfer
quite enough fresh coffee
from the PX, so he stuffed
used coffee grounds into
the bottom of that sock.
Turns out that Anderson got
screwed on the other end of
the transaction: The whiskey
was watered down. Blaine
felt that he deserved the
turn of events — he was an
honest man, after all, and
had crossed the line. So go
the winds of war.
At home in Seattle
All these years later, that
is what he talks about: that
funny and insignificant ruse.
Not the fear and death that
surrounded soldiers on both
sides of the Great War. Not
the Battle of the Bulge or the
terrible losses at Metz, just
months later. Soldiers don’t
generally go there. They are
not normally revealing about
loss and attrition.
Talking with veter-
an friends who fought in
Vietnam, I was surprised
that only a few choose to
watch Ken Burns’ brilliant
documentary on that war.
Tremors remained too close
to home.
Blaine happens to be
my wife’s uncle, her dad’s
twin brother. As far as the
conflicts that maimed and
killed so many of Blaine’s
compatriots, within the fam-
ily and elsewhere, mum has
remained the word.
I thought of asking Blaine
how the neo-Nazi movement
in Charlottesville struck
him. But I already knew the
answer. His buddies had
died fighting Nazis. What
else could he feel but anger?
I went on to other stories,
pulling pleasantries out of a
sock.
Now, in the final years of
his life, Blaine reminisces
about the good times. Within
the next decade, few, if any,
of these brave young men of
yesterday will be alive to tell
the stories about this war.
I remember standing
behind three veterans of this
same conflict. They talked
in the yard of my father’s
house. They belonged to an-
other club, the foot soldier’s
club. They were then in their
early 40s, and I was a young
man, a boy really. I thought
of those men as pillars of
my community, as both vital
and strong. I never imagined
them as survivors. I never
imagined their secret pain,
and the trauma they had to
overcome. The shadows that
lingered.
The Great Generation,
they are called. Well de-
served, I say, and wonder
how much we all owe
Blaine Anderson and the
millions of soldiers of that
war. CW