Memorial day, my 8yr old son, handloading, grandpa

I adopted my son 2 years ago from a broken system. Lots and lots of patience, love, more love and a few cubscout badges and a football trophy later we are spending time at the loading bench. He's learned the Red Ryder BB gun and my Ruger 10/22. Today I introduced him to the basics of operating a 1911. He is to young and small to shoot or operate it, but familiarity is often better than curiosity.

We spent a lot of time discussing the process of sizing and priming cases. He's helped me with it before but today we got down to the nuts and bolts of it. We discussed correct terminology and the purpose of every step. He's not strong enough to seat the primers but he does a fine job sizing the cases.

Over my loading bench I have pictures of my two grandfathers from WWII and Korea. One in the Army and the other in the Navy. We discussed the importance of Memorial day and how we can honor our nations fallen by enjoying our freedoms and being ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice that so we can preserve freedom for our children. This is a lot for an 8 year old boy to digest. I told him about one of my good friends who lost his life while working as a medic in the Green Berets. He isn't sure what all of this stuff means yet, but it puts a smile on my face to see him listening and wanting to hear more about these great men and women who paid all they could pay. It made me feel like I was doing something right. It was just a great moment. We didn't attend any memorial day ceremonies, we just discussed our affection for this great nation and spoke of the ultimate sacrifices that many made so that we could have this great nation.

God, family, duty and country were present with us at my single stage press. It does my heart well to know that he is so inspired by it all.

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Memorial day, my 8yr old son, handloading, grandpa