who here has actually used a carpeted bathroom

very weird to me how young everyone's family is. my mom was born in 1949. i am one generation removed from the wars in europe. i am 32 years old, my mom had me when she was 37, a pretty normal age, but my grandma is 100 and my grandpa is 104. yes their bathrooms are carpeted

me, reading about anything from history: "that's really not that long ago"

when my grandfather enlisted he had to lie about his age and his height and his eyesight. he was 15 when he was shipped off to the south pacific in the merchant marines with one leg shorter than the other by several inches. when he came home he build his family a house

my mom remembers listening to him hit his thumb with a hammer when he was doing hot-tar roofing and thinking he was bound for hell because of the words he said that the nuns had warned her about. he laid about 2000 sq ft of doug fir heartwood by hand

and then six months later my grandma decided she wanted wall to wall carpet so the hardwoods were spared the indignity of tricycles and barfing babies and dogs and the time a deer launched itself through the plate glass. and to whoever bought the house: you're welcome

my grandmas brother was shot to death at the very end of the war in france for a reason that the united states still declines to tell us about but he was declared by the government to be a hero. i can only assume he was some sort of spy

hope it worked