Candy and Jim's Great Canadian Adventure: Coined in Tacoma

This past week Jim and I went to Vancouver and then on to Seattle (Tacoma) to meet up with good friends Garner and Charlene Strickland. Jim and Garner played in the annual TOTE golf tournament while Charlene and I drank Bloody Mary's.......I mean, while we sipped lemonade.

One evening while "Go-Go and Cha-Cha" (try to top those grandparent names if you can!) entertained us with stories of the new grand baby, a couple of military officers showed up on the hotel balcony. Since we were the only ones out there, we invited them to have a drink with us. The officers were in Tacoma to help train ROTC recruits from all over the country. We enjoyed each other's company and told each other big whoppers of stories. Most of the whoppers came from Jim of course. Anyway, at the end of the evening, the officers "coined" us. I had never heard of the tradition, but it goes something like this: The military has a tradition of recognizing those who go the extra mile. The public usually thinks of medals being awarded for heroism and such, but troops of all services know that a coin can tell the tale about service. Wherever or however it started, the idea of giving small medallions, or coins to recognize those who performed exemplary service gained in popularity within the military. To be "coined" is something special. We hadn't really done anything special. We had looked at pictures of their kids and swapped stories with two men who were missing their families, but man did we feel special. I even cried a little. Good luck and God speed to the officers from Fort Lewis and all troops around the world.