Oldest snake you have

[Reinz]

Thank you Reinz!! The hardest thing I have ever done, but by far, the best thing I have ever done.
I was talking to my grandfather a few months ago, the week the oldest living woman in the world passed away at 117, and was talking to him
about her. He said he had seen she passed. So I asked "What do you think, Pepere, you got another 20 years in you?" He said "$*@# no!!! I hope not anyway!! I've outlived my wife of 68 years and all my friends. I get bored now, what the heck is there to do at 117?!?!?" Hahahaha!!! The man has an amazing sense of humor and is undoubtedly my hero. I think he's still got a few years in him though, wouldn't be at all surprised to see him hit 100 and then some.

...Now for my shameless plug: A local (MA) author named Charley Valera recently wrote a book called "My Father's War" which was about some local men who had fought in WWII telling their stories of the war. My grandfather was interviewed several times and shared his story with the author. He ended up being in the book and has his own chapter. It was amazing to read, especially since he has talked about the war so little. He just started talking about it within the last 10 years, but still speaks of it very rarely. Anyway, because of this book, the family was able to learn some of his history that he had previously kept to himself. We knew he was a code-breaker for General Patton's "Ghost Corps", we knew he had seen a lot, including concentration camps, but didn't know much else. Turns out he was a huge part of the deception part of the war which included building "fake" armies, tanks, camps, etc...to deceive the Germans into thinking they knew where the Americans were. They even used recorded noise from other companies and played it over loudspeakers, were purposely allowing Germans to intercept false code, etc...and would then ambush the Germans when they attacked a fake American Army. He wasn't allowed to speak of this for 50 years after the war in case the tactic needed to be used again, as the Americans knew the Cold War would be inevitable. He was also part of the very first group to liberate the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, and actually stepped foot in Hitler's Crow's Nest hiding spot.
My grandfather is without a doubt, my hero.

He sure sounds like a cool guy 😎. Thank you for sharing his story! His generation was truly the Greatest!