Lawrence Meritt Larry Palmer

Well, I had no work as far as that goes and [joining The Carleton & York Regiment] was something to do. You know. Get a little money. Besides, you know, it wasn’t very much. But I wasn’t too familiar with the Army or anything. It was just something to do, actually. I got wounded in Sicily [at Mount Etna], leg wound. Really, that was more of a benefit for me than anything. Get a small pension from all the years. I was telling my kids, you know, they asked me if I wanted to drink coffee. I said, well, I can tell you something about that. I said, if I hadn’t wanted a drink of coffee one time, none of you people would be here today. So they asked me why that was and I said, well, I was in a place where I was in a holding unit and we were dug in on the side hill. And they had coffee being boiled, about 50 feet from where I was sitting. I was sitting on a box; it was filled with sand and stuff to protect me. Well, because we had a hole dug behind where the box was in a wall, like side hill and that’s where we used to sleep in there [in a slit trench]. And I was sitting on the box, having a coffee and I was wondering if I should have another one; I’d have to walk over about 50 feet or so and get it. I said, well, I may as well; I ain’t doing nothing anyway, I might as well go get another coffee. I walked over and I was pouring the coffee in my cup, when a shell hit right where I had been sitting. And I said, if I hadn’t wanted that coffee, none of you people would be here today. So.