"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast"
-Oscar Wilde		 Brilliant at Breakfast title banner "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself."
-- Proverbs 11:25
"...you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?" -- Steve Gilliard, 1964 - 2007

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"I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." -- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (1954-2015), They Live
Monday, November 12, 2007

Celebrating one veteran
Posted by Jill | 8:48 AM
When you work for a state agency, today is the "observance" of Veterans' Day, which means we have the day off. I had debated writing an angry screed listing all the names of the Iraq war dead, or a compendium of how the Bush Administration is screwing over returning soldiers, or about the appalling incidence of homelessness among veterans or their inability to find jobs after serving in the Middle East, or about how veterans who don't toe the Bush Line were barred from participating in yesterday's parade in Long Beach, California. But when you have outrage fatigue, as I do now, sometimes you have to step back a bit. It isn't that we don't think about what this Administration is doing to its own military, but when Mr. Brilliant, after watching yet another apocalyptic program on the History Channel, opined that we are all going to die horribly and screaming in pain in 2012 because not just the Mayans, but every major religion says so, you have to step back or you'll go insane.

So here's a story about one World War II veteran who ought to inspire everyone who says "It's to late for me to [insert your own thwarted dream here]":

Harold Dinzes may be the oldest college kid in New Jersey and is surely one of the most gung-ho.

At 91, Dinzes is a history major at Montclair State University at a time when the percentage of college students age 65 and older has plummeted in New Jersey.

Four days a week, the Passaic man is on campus wearing jeans and a backpack like any other student, drawn by the lure of academics and a conviction that he has discovered a place where he finally belongs. He has even asked the administration if he can be buried at the school.

As he makes his way across campus, Dinzes is greeted by professors, secretaries and classmates who wave and holler, "Hi Harold!" At the academic advising office, the counselors welcome him with hugs and pecks on the cheek. At the library, mature librarians and young interns whisper with him about gems in the stacks. At the student cafe, pals from class plop down beside him to discuss assignments.

"These kids," he says, referring to everyone on campus under 80, "make me feel like a million bucks."

[snip]

Even before Dinzes graduated from Passaic High in the 1930s, he dreamed of going to college but his family needed him to work. His parents could afford to send only one child to school and Dinzes' sister was the brainier one. Their mother hocked all her jewelry to pay the tab.

In 1942, Dinzes was drafted, spending four years with the Army in the South Pacific. He yearned for books but the only book at the base – besides Army manuals, and he even read those – was a worn copy of Plato. He read it until it came apart in the jungle humidity.

When the war ended, Dinzes signed up as a reservist. But in 1950, with tensions rising in Korea, he was tapped again. His wife was four months' pregnant with their first child. Dinzes served until 1953.

After his return, Dinzes worked with his father in a plumbing supply shop, which Dinzes eventually took over. His sons worked with him until he closed shop at age 84, trounced by the Home Depot down the street.

Unsure of what to do next, he applied for a job at the Barnes & Noble in Clifton. Five times he was turned down, but he pestered them until they relented. When he's not in class, he still works there.

At 88, he applied to Montclair State, where his granddaughter is in graduate school. His 83-year-old wife, Doreen, says he checked the mail every day to see if he had been accepted. When the letter finally arrived, he framed it.

He has taken 21 classes -- mostly in history, anthropology, archeology and political science -- about half the amount needed for graduation

[snip]

His wife says sometimes it's wearing to live with a college boy.

"I have to be quiet in the morning when he's sleeping or studying, and we don't have any social life because he always says, 'I have to go home and study,' " she says. "I thought when he retired he'd finally be around more, but he's always busy with school. I had to take up canasta and mah-jongg to find something to do."

[snip]

Does she look forward to the day he graduates?

"Are you kidding? He says he's going to be in college until 2099, and I won't be here then."

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