Holiday offers time for croquet as well as serious moments

Late Memorial Day morning, 72-year-old Leonard Pfeiffer lowered his red Toro push mower out of his pickup truck at Jackson City Park.

At the Eggers family reunions, Pfeiffer is known most for two things: the ability to make people laugh and his unrivaled skill and savvy around croquet wickets.

Uncle Leonard picked up his technique and strategy in the sand lot of Shawneetown, right behind the town tavern. Pfeiffer and his buddies used to play croquet under a string of lights, sometimes until midnight. The rest of the Eggers family has no shot against the semi-retired truck driver and croquet all-star.

Wearing a light blue and white ballcap, Uncle Leonard, undisputed Eggers croquet champion, began a tradition a couple years back to prepare the all-important croquet field. The whippersnappers had blamed the long grass as an excuse for many losses to the old-timer. Now, Pfeiffer mows the excuse and dumps the bag into the bed of his pickup.

Pfeiffer has lost only once at an Eggers reunion, and that happened a few years ago. He claims the family ganged up on him. They all went out of their way to aim at his ball and earn a chance at knocking it farther and farther away from the closest wicket.

After mowing the playing field Monday morning, Pfeiffer once again defended his crown, even with a backup mallet that was much too short. Now, he sits in a lawn chair with his brothers- and sisters-in-law, exchanging conversation about health and the weather.

Four young-adult relatives pitch washers several feet away. One washer disappears into the long grass. After a lengthy and unsuccessful search, they fetch a back-up, homemade washer box from a vehicle in the nearby parking lot.

The youngest family members have already ditched the adults in favor of the public swimming pool behind the shelter.

Only the adults remain after the big meal, which included fried chicken, bratwursts and smoked butts.

Still chokes up

Among the lawn-chair circle of adults, perhaps no one is more respected than Joe Eggers, 84. Emotions tend to bubble to the surface on Memorial Day. The light, airy conversation turns serious when Eggers is asked about the time he spent in World War II.

He still chokes up when talking about it. Eggers was 21 years old when he first served his country. He was shipped to Pearl Harbor shortly after Japan's surprise attack.

"I didn't realize what war was till I got to Pearl Harbor," he said. "We visited the boys in the hospitals, and they were all bandaged up."

Eggers spent 40 months away from his family during WWII. Every time he was supposed to come home to Jackson, he ended up going farther away.

Eggers' brother-in-law, Mickey Szwabo of Florissant, Mo. usually comes to the reunions. He was a WWII prisoner of war for several years. A knee surgery prevented him from attending the reunion this year.

Jim Englehart, 70, sits to Eggers' right. Uncle Jim served in the air force for four years. He was a member of the 98th Bomber Wing. The war ended two months into his service, and he spent the rest of the time as an aircraft mechanic.

Mr. Croquet is a Korean War veteran, too. Pfeiffer joined the Air Force because he wanted to fly planes. He found out he couldn't because he didn't have two years of college. He wound up serving in the military police.

A few feet away, the washer game resumes. Harold Rubel of Egypt Mills watches the game and laughs as the competitors carry on. The Vietnam veteran can appreciate the fun and games as much as anyone in the Eggers family. He notes how Marica's softball experience gives her an advantage, and a smooth motion, in washers.

'It's stuff I won't forget'

Even amid the games and the laughter, Memorial Day always takes him back to that place near the North and South Vietnam border where he served as a field medic.

"I saw the kind of stuff I don't wish on anybody," Rubel said. "It's stuff I won't forget as long as I live."

But today, while the children swim, while Marica, Caroline, Christopher and Kenda pitch washers, Joe Eggers, Jim Englehart, Leonard Pfeiffer and Rubel can all find reasons why they served their country.

But nieces and nephews can find no reasons why they can't beat their 72-year-old Uncle Leonard in croquet.

The washers game dissolves, and the foursome quietly heads over to the neatly groomed croquet course. This time, they don't ask Uncle Leonard to play. Uncle Leonard takes no offense. He knows why he wasn't asked to play.

"It's because I always beat them so bad," he says.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635