A friend of mine, an attorney named Martin Green, was born in 1931.   He has had a long successful career in St. Louis and he is still going strong, litigating complex cases.   While at the courthouse today, I mentioned to Martin that a lot of things have happened during his life (and during mine–I’m 56).   I mentioned that his life spans through a large swath of history.   He responded with this story (this is a paraphrase):

When I was 7, back in 1938, I visited an old folks home in St. Louis, where I was introduced to “General Claypool.”  His claim to fame was that he served as a soldier in the Civil War.   He was quite young when he was in the war, only 15.  He mentioned that he carried a flag.

Therefore, today I shook the hand of a man who shook the hand of a man who fought in the civil war.  Pretty cool.

And now this post reminds me of my own ancient cousins and and ancestors.