I've been careful for the last eighteen days.  I put a spray can of Lysol on the front porch so when anyone has something to give me, they spray it down.

Today, Becky came with something she found for me.  At first I couldn't tell what it was.  It was 18 inches square, dark brown wood with raised black reverse letters and symbols.  It took me a minute.

It was exactly what I've always needed!!  A printers block with raised reverse print and reverse Marine Corps emblem.  She said it was what they used to make license plates in the late forties early fifties for Marine vehicles.  When you pressed it down, the symbols came out in the right direction.  Not reversed.

Now all I need is a tank.  I can print a tag for it.

I could tell it was a printer's block because I was born back when they used them to print on things.  But it was fun to see the Marine symbol on it.  I'm going to hang it in the back bedroom which has become the Marine museum.  All of Ken's stuff is on the walls.  Grandkids love it.

You never know what it is you don't have that you really need.  The only thing of Ken's that I lost in the million moves we made were his LSO (Landing Signal Officer) paddles.  The ones he used to wave planes aboard the carrier.  A few years after we were married, the Navy quit using them and mounted mirrors and lights on the carrier to guide the pilots in.  And LSO's were obsolete--until they had a fire or lost the lights and mirrors in an accident.  Then they were scrambling for an LSO.  Hopefully without the mirror the pilots had watched the old movies and could interpret the LSO's paddle signals?  If anyone out there has some old LSO glow-nylon paddles, I'd love to have them.