High school graduate Dad tends bar at his uncle’s “cafe.” Arriving before dawn, he finds the door glass shattered, shepherd guard dog Spider’s side gashed, Unk in back, sleeping off a night of cards and carousing. Dad cleans up, dispatches Spider to the vet with the cook, then wobbly Unk, fallen sweeping the sidewalk, to the ER with another bartender. Dad boards up the empty door pane and is ready to pour.
12/23/1944.
1st Lt. Dad organizes HQ company’s cooks and mechanics. They repel a night long surprise Panzer attack in the Ardennes Forest, last gasp of the Bulge.