We buried my granddad yesterday beneath the shadows of the mountains he once came down from. The sharp burst of a 21-gun salute and the smooth tune of Taps echoed around. He was 96.

Before he came down the mountains for war, he lived in Spruce Pine, NC. This stretch of the Blue Ridge is one of the prettiest places on earth, I think at least.

He told me stories of being a kid. Most just made me realize how long a life he lived. Like how they used to attach squirrel tails to their football helmets, and after that time we saw the Jonny Depp movie, he said “ah yeah I remember that. We used to play cops vs Dillinger”

The first elevator he rode in was in the Miami Beach hotel he was staying in on his way to Basic. He went from riding an elevator for the first time to flying a B-24 Bomber in like a year.

He was stationed in Italy. Did bombing runs starting in Jan 45 through the end of the war.

He bombed Neuburg Airbase, where the Germans had their fancy new jet powered fighter plane.

He also bombed Brenner Pass in the Italian Mtns, which is a map in one of my video games.

When he got back, he graduated from Georgia Tech and went to work building dams for TVA, eventually rising to division branch chief, before he retired and picked up golf. Boy did he love dams though. Some granddads take their grandkids to the zoo. We went to Norris Dam, a lot.

Speaking of, he had a lot of us. He is a lot to live up to, but maybe between the 8 grandkids and 19(maybe 20??) great-grandkids, we can live up to the life and example he paved for us.

Anyway, George L was great. His middle name was just the letter L, which after all that is still probably my favorite thing about him. He fought for his country and provided for his family and showed all of us what it meant to be a man. He will be very much missed.