I Went Out to Eat on Veterans Day

Here is how it went

John Egelkrout
8 min readNov 14, 2023

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A picture of me in Army combat clothing from 1976
This is me in 1976 at age 18. Photo property of the author.

I have some funny quirks about me, as just about anyone who knows me very well will tell you. I think that is probably true for a lot of people. One of my quirks has to do with rarely taking advantage of deals and discounts.

In many places, I am eligible for a senior discount if they offer one. The trouble with many of those discounts is you have to ask if they offer one. I am either too proud or maybe too shy to do that, and instead I just pay the regular price.

Admittedly this is something I should work on.

As you can tell from the picture above, I am a veteran of the U.S. armed forces. I served in the U.S. Army from 1976 to 1979. It’s not something I am particularly proud or ashamed of. It is simply something I did a very long time ago. It is a short chapter in my life. I don’t wear the label on anything. I don’t put bumper stickers on my car to tell everyone. As a matter of fact, a few years back at my stepson’s college graduation, they asked all veterans to stand to be applauded. I remained seated.

Every year on November 11, we celebrate Veterans Day. Many years ago it was called Armistice Day. Its original purpose was to commemorate the end of WWI. Then in 1954, Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day, a day to honor all those who served in our…

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John Egelkrout

I am a sanity-curious former teacher who writes about politics, social issues, memoirs, and a variety of other topics.