Fifty years ago, the Vietnam War raged both in Vietnam and here at home. As a military brat just beginning to sense the passions sweeping through the adult world, I didn't know what to make of what we saw each night on the evening news.

I saw how intently my parents followed the news of the war. And I was old enough to recognize that some of the men on TV and in newspaper photos wore the same uniform as my dad, and that once in a while Mom and Dad would be shaken by news that someone they knew or had served with, someone with a family like ours, had been reported killed in action or missing in action.

A lot of things have changed since then, and I understand some of it a lot better. Some of it I don't.

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Peggy Harris (foreground) stocks the shelves at Sandy's IGA, which is the only grocery store in town, Tuesday, October 7, 2025, in Sparta. Hancock County has one of the highest rates of childhood food insecurity in the country. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC