War

As all young boys, my seven year old grandson has a vivid imagination and lately he has had a fascination with war games. I believe this is normal for little boys and I will not discourage it because he is not an aggressive or rough child, but simply intrigued with the struggle between good and evil. Because of his familiarity with The Chronicles of Narnia, his perception of 'bad guys' is that they are all Germans. If I were a politically correct person, I would take offence at this, but because his war figures are WW II characters, and because WW II was a conflict against the Nazis, who happened to be Germans, I let it pass because it is history and it is truth. So be it. (I am of German/Dutch descent)
On our family vacation, he had set up his battle scenes with great care when his Great Grandmother came upon his little game and I was very curious to see what her reaction would be. She is a Mennonite pacifist, but also, a survivor of WW II and first hand witness of the horrors of war.
She stood looking for a short time and then told her great grandson a story that related to the planes and artillery and the soldiers that were lined up in front of her. The story was of hiding, of bombers, of artillery shells bursting all around and a fire that erupted. The struggle to put the fire out with pails of sand, as no water was available, made an impression because the great grandson's father is a modern day fireman. He stood perfectly still as she told the story. His eyes were wide, and I was wondering if he believed her.
We hope our children will be capable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality and this could have been a struggle he had with her story. Surely this only happens in books, movies, and video games. Some day he will be able to tell his children and grandchildren the time his great grandmother told him eyewitness accounts of a war long ago. Not many his age will be able to do that.