Two Brothers on an Airplane

On October 6, 2008, when I had been writing this blog for only six months, and Leif had been dead that long, I wrote about an incident that took place on an airplane. I was surprised, the other day, to find a photo I took at that time. When I originally wrote about it, I had the date wrong. It actually happened April 24, 1977, and we must have been flying to Kansas, not Germany.

Leif was a little over two years old, and Peter A. was eight. I was flying alone with them, and they were quite a handful, just normal slightly rambunctious boys. They actually entertained each other for quite awhile but then they began to get on each other's nerves and began to fight. It was annoying to all of us, and although they weren't loud, it probably wasn't all that pleasant for those around us, either. It was primarily boredom and being stuck in those seats, just running out of interesting things to do.

Peter A. said to me, in a rather snotty tone of voice, "Why does HE have to be here?" and added some comment about why we didn't just leave Leif behind.

I remember telling him that he wouldn't appreciate it if someone had that attitude about him, either when he was two or now, but he wasn't buying it.

Not long after that, Leif fell asleep. I thought Peter A. would be glad, because then he didn't have to put up with his little brother, but no, in just a few minutes he was asking me, "When is he going to wake up?"

I told him I thought he wanted to be rid of his little brother and would be glad now that he was asleep and he didn't have to put up with him.

I had a hard time not laughing at his reply. He wanted to wake Leif up!

I asked him why, and he said, "I'm bored. There's no one to fight with."

Such is the way of brothers . . . and perhaps sisters, too, I guess.

Leif looks so sweet and cuddly in this picture. He's wearing the little plastic set of "pilot" wings the airline gave him. I wonder, sometimes, if those and that flight began his love of flying, a love that was destined for disappointment when he found out in high school that he couldn't pass the flight physical.

Peter A. looking over that pillow, the one he put between them to keep Leif from touching him. So cute, the two of them. It's easy to say that now, looking at the photo. At the time, I was doing all I could to keep them settled down. It wasn't a relaxing flight for me, though Leif eventually relaxed plenty. :)

Leif & Peter Anthony - Kyoto, Japan, Spring 1982 - Ages 7 & 13

Leif and his older brother were close and spent a lot of time together until Peter Anthony left for the Air Force Academy in the summer of 1987, and most of the time they got along well, but not always. Sometimes Peter, like most older brothers, delighted in teasing Leif or doing small things just to get a rise out of him, such as extending his right arm full length and pointing at Leif. Just that, just pointing. It drove Leif nuts.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard, "Mom, Peter's bugging me," I probably could take the family on a trip. One time, Peter did something that made Leif so angry that he grabbed a chain with a bicycle lock on it and chased Peter, swinging it. Whether he would actually have hit his brother with it, I don't know, although I doubt it. That was after he had the outburst in kindergarten and mostly had his temper under control . . . except when it came to frustration when drawing or building models, and then he'd crumple paper or, in extreme cases, break the model.

It was the usual sibling relationship. I remember when Leif was two-and-a-half and we were on the plane from the USA to Germany. They amused each other for quite some time, and then Peter got tired of it and started to get annoyed. They began squabbling, which annoyed me. Of course, it was primarily boredom at work. They were confined and ran out of things to do. Peter A. said to me, "Why does HE have to be here?" and added some comment about why we couldn't just leave him.

It wasn't long after that that Leif fell asleep. I thought Peter A. would be glad, that now he didn't have to put up with his little brother, but no, in a few minutes he was asking me, "When is he going to wake up?"

I said, "I thought you wanted to be rid of him. Now you are. Why do you want him to wake up?"

His answer was so telling, "I'm bored. There's no one to fight with."

When we got to Germany and moved into quarters in Nurnberg, Peter was eight-and-a-half and Leif was two-and-a-half. Peter quickly started making big deal about Leif not coming into his room. One day, he shoved Leif out and Leif got so upset he started throwing his toys at Peter's door. (This was before the kindergarten incident when he decided no more toy throwing.) But then, not long after that, the two of them were happily playing together and had constructed a big spaceport and city with all their toys.

By the time we moved to Japan in 1980, and Leif was five years old and precocious, they could do more together, though they each had their own friends.

These photos were taken in Kyoto in the spring of 1982 when Peter Anthony was 13 and Leif was 7. They were having a good time pretending and posing, play fighting, and making up imagination games. You can see the fake fist "fight" followed by the very genuine affection. There was a lot of that, and we loved to see it.

Leif - SCA Fight Circa 2002 - Age 27

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These photos should have come before the last two batches of SCA photos from 2003, but I didn't find them in time. I'm not sure when they were taken, but probably in 2002 or early summer 2003. They were again fighting in the Manhattan, Kansas City Park.

At his size and weight, plus the weight of all that armor, Leif must have been an imposing opponent and he certainly wasn't shy about going on the attack. However, did didn't win all his fights.

I wondered how all that weight and exertion in the heat (Kansas summers are HOT) affected his asthma, but he insisted he was fine.

Leif - SCA Fight - April 29, 2003 - Age 28

2003 was a good year for Leif. He graduated from KSU, got a new car, found two new jobs, and fell in love. More about some of those other things later. He also upgraded his SCA armor more than once.

In addition to armor he purchased, he also MADE this huge chain link shirt himself. I have no idea how many links it must have taken to make it, and each one he made himself by winding wire around a rod and cutting them. He had the shirt hanging on a rod from the archway between the living room and dining room where he lived at 710 N. 9th Street in Manhattan, Kansas so that he could work on it by continuing to add links to the lower edge.

The completed shirt weighed 50 pounds! You can imagine Leif's immense strength, to be able to not only put this shirt on and move around as though it were cotton, but to add all that additional heavy armor and be able to fight! We all tried it on and could barely stand still much less move.

Leif loved fighting and here are a couple of good action shots of him at the Manhattan City Park. I don't know who his opponent was. Perhaps if someone who knows is reading the blog, they can post a comment or email me with the identity.

These photos were taken on April 29, 2003, sadly, five years to the day before he was inurned at Bay Pines National Cemetery.

Leif - SCA Garb - 1998 & 2002, Ages 23 & 27

Leif was gone from Kansas from January 1998 until May 2001 while he served in the U.S. Army Infantry. When he returned, he rejoined the local SCA shire and began working on acquiring armor and fighting weapons. His first armor was leather and very simple, compared with what he eventually had. He made his weapons and worked to become certified to fight.

As I understand it, SCA weapons are made of rattan and are padded, and in order to fight, the fighter has to have armor and protection to avoid serious injury. That doesn't mean that some very nasty bruises can't occur. Leif got plenty of them.

The shire met in a couple of different locations, but the one where they were publicly visible and where I photographed Leif fighting was the Manhattan City Park. They were the often on Sunday afternoons, and sometimes would attract spectators. The set up a display at the Little Apple Folk Fest in September each year and put on demonstrations of a variety of medieval skills and costumes, including fighting.

Leif had rattan swords and other weapons, but he also liked to fight with two axes at the same time, an unorthodox two-handed style.

The left photo was taken June 1, 2002 in the Manhattan City Park. The one on the right was taken earlier, I believe the summer or fall before he went into the army in 1998. You can see that he gained quite a bit of weight in the photo at left and had added several more pieces to his armor.

The GQ Pirate Fights - Leif Garretson 2001

This is one of Leif's earlier SCA fights, in 2001, in the Manhattan, Kansas City Park. He loved the competition.