Guard

My Mom's brother, my Uncle, always told two stories that always struck my interest about his grandpa. The way I understand it, these quick stories are about his mother's father but I could be wrong there. A quick bit of history, my mother's side of my family is all Russian-Germans. I was always under the impression, because that's what I was told, that Russian-Germans were peasants that got unwillingly transported to Russia when Catherine the Great moved there. A quick look <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_minority_in_Russia_and_Soviet_Union">here</a> shows that this story isn't true. Catherine the Great was instrumental in opening Russia up to German Immigrants, they weren't forced to go there. It appears the wars in Central Europe and religious oppression drove them out of Germany towards Russia just as it drove other Germans to America. This was an interesting find in and of itself for me. On to the story.<br />n<br />nOne time when he was young, my uncle and some of his friends were out by the garage at his house and they were comparing firearms and my uncle was showing his rifle when his grandpa came up and asked to look at the gun. This surprised my uncle since as far as he knew his grandpa had no interest in guns and did not own a gun so he couldn't figure out why he wanted it but handed it to him. His grandpa then checked that the rifle was unloaded and commenced to twirl the gun around like you see the soldiers do in the movies in close order drill. My uncle was struck dumb by this display since he had no idea his grandpa knew how to do this. When grandpa was done with his exhibition, my uncle asked him how he knew to do that. He responded that before he had left Russia he had been in the Czar's personal guard and they were always doing that. He wasn't sure if he still remembered how but he saw now that he did. <br />n<br />nThis story always fascinated me. I'm not sure when my great grandpa on this side came to this country but it was early in the 1900's so he just missed the Russian Revolution. That he was in the Czar's Guard was simply amazing. I wonder when it was and where he was? I'll probably never know. <br />n<br />nThe second story my uncle told happened quite a few years later. Grandpa was visiting and they were sitting there watching the TV when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. My uncle said he looked over and his grandpa had a tear coming out of his eye. My uncle asked what was wrong. Grandpa said that the advancement he had seen in his lifetime was amazing. When he left Russia they had a cart for their possessions and went by foot. Then I saw trains, cars and airplanes all developed and now a man sets foot on the moon. Then he said, "I don't think anyone will ever see the human race make as much progress as I have managed to see in my lifetime."<br />n<br />nThis story always struck me too. Think about it, how far the human race went in that time frame. From horsepower to landing on the moon in his lifetime. Quite something. Are we as a society making the same kinds of progress today? Maybe not in personal transport but in computers, information technology, medical science and other areas I think we are. It just isn't as obvious as it was to my great-grandpa with his seeing the revolutions in human transportation. Seeing the changes in a persons lifetime is interesting sometimes when you sit back and consider it. Have you?