the price of cattle

about 1966 three of grampas' army buddies stopped at the farm to visit;  peplow was there, who visited regularly, i don't remember who the other two were, but by the comotion at their arrival i gathered that grampa and pep had not seen them since the war. i'm sure grama and grampa new they were coming, although it may have been a surprise arranged by pep; it was a surprise to me, but what did i know? grampa was not much of a drinker, so when the bottle of rum was brought out from under the kitchen sink and dusted off i knew it was a special reunion. i sat on the arm of gramas' big chair by the kitchen stove, made myself small and quiet so i might not get sent to bed, and, as always...listened. they had all been sappers together through scicily, italy and nw europe. peplow was in the tanks originaly but was busted out for punching an officer; he was a hothead, but a very likable guy; grampa, being the oldest of thier bunch tryed to keep pep out of trouble. they drank their hot rums and talked about all the funny stuff they saw and did; there was much laughter and all were talking at once..........going forward on a recce to find a place where the tanks could ford a river when the germans counter-attacked (nobody could counter attack like gerry) and they were cut off. half a dozen sappers layed low in the brush on the hillside while german troops and armour raced along the road below them; they are laughing this was funny; by the afternoon the heat and stress was real bad and haywire macdonald was starting to lose it;"god da ya remember how he kept his pants done up with a bent nail". haywire macdonald  is fipping out saying they gotta make a run for it and he can't lay there no more. the guys told him shut up and stay down; they would make it out after dark. "he was a crazy son of a bitch wasn't he." haywire macdonald made his move to run; "god, when the sergent clouted him in the side of the head with the butt of his tommy-gun it sounded like an axe hitting a maple tree". "silly bastard". "i'm just glad the s.o.b. woke up out of it before dark so's we didn't haf ta carry him out." "ya he was a big fella." also; their pal who hid from the germans for 3 or 4 days in the cellar of a bombed-out house; the only thing he could find to eat in the cellar was several jars of canned grean beans; he ate the beans and drank the water from the jars; "to this day he has never eaten another green bean!" this; another sapper lost one of his "nuts" to a piece of shrapnel; when he returned to the unit from hospital (one had to be seriously wounded to get sent home from the rca in ww2) "he was so worried he would be no good we dropped him at a redlight house for a test just to shut him up." it was loud and fun; stories about vino and bully beef, mud, heat, rain and army bs........then one of them said" god, do you remember the night we took the hitler line?" just like that it was so quiet you could hear the old house creaking....they were all four just sitting at the table looking at their hands........finally one of them wispered "jesus." (not like a curse; like a prayer) grampa got up and put the coffee pot on and they were talking about the weather and the price of cattle.....