One of my other hobbies, aside from memorabilia collecting is geneaology. My great-uncle Frank was a two-time Purple Heart recipient during WWII. He didn’t like to talk about the war. If he talked sports, it was mainly about Football and Baseball. Otherwise he was just your normal uncle. When I was about five, I remember getting a stand punching bag from him, for Christmas. Frank passed away in 1996, due to pancreatic cancer. About a year or so ago, I’m searching newspapers.com and I pull up the above photo. Frank fought (and from the photo it seems pretty well, lol) in the Golden Gloves tournament…He never told anyone. I asked my aunt about it and she was in disbelief when she saw the photo. We joked that he likely didn’t tell anyone because if his mother (my great-grandmother) found out she would have beaten him worse than any boxer could have (I’m being facetious, lol), but she would have disapproved from what I heard of her. I would have loved to have talked boxing with him, but again, he never said a word. In a way, his purchasing of the stand punching bag for a Christmas present for me, was a way for him to maintain his secret but give a slight nod to his “shadow” boxing endeavors. Knowing this now is bittersweet, but I will remember that Christmas gift and my uncle “the boxer”, every holiday season and every time I look at this picture! Thank you all for letting me share!
