45 Minutes With Morty

His name isn't actually Morty. I never did get his name, but he looks like he should be called Morty. Let me tell you how we met.

I hate to follow my wife around while she's shopping, so I usually look for a comfy chair and will sit and wait for her. Most of the time I'm not talking to anybody, but this afternoon we were at the Macy's in Santa Rosa looking for something for my daughter, and I was fortunate to find a very nice place to hang out while they shopped. A couple of minutes after I got there along came "Morty".

He looked to be in his late 70's and it was clear that he was going to be talkative. Turns out he was 93 and sharp as a tack. He's a German Jew who found himself in Dachau concentration camp at age 23 in 1939. He only spent six weeks there when by some miracle that even he to this day doesn't understand he was released and sent to England. He left Germany in January of 1939 - just in time.

He spent the war years in England working on instruments for Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, was married in 1941 to his first wife who he was with for 60 years (he told me the first 50 are the hardest). He's now been married for 5 years to his second wife.

In 1947 he moved to the United States where he worked for a couple of manufacturing companies.

As I told you Morty is a sharp guy with opinions on just about everything. When I told him I wrote for a political site he instructed me in no uncertain terms to tell everyone the following: "CEOs who stole from their companies ought to be hung.". There you have it.

We talked some politics past and present, the auto bailout (he's against it), and the dangers facing Israel from Iran. We also talked about "that new young man that will be president". His description of Obama: "He speaks well, but he's up the creek without a paddle." He added "the real winner of the election is the loser because that guy doesn't have to deal with all the problems".

We probably talked for 45 minutes. Several times I saw couples walk by watching our conversation, and one lady told her husband that he should "join our club". It was actually very entertaining.

Morty had to deal with a lot of tough stuff at a young age, and he's got a lot of wisdom to go with his years. It was a valuable 45 minutes.