PITTSBORO — For the past 60 years, through various moves, the uniform Sam Hummel wore as a young Marine hung in a closet, an untouched and mostly forgotten relic of the two years he spent in the Corps.
A whim Monday morning — Veterans Day — found the 83-year-old wearing it again.
“I just thought ‘Why don’t I do that?’” said the Fearrington Village resident.
So first thing Monday, Hummel donned the old wool suit — it’s complete with pants, shirt, jacket, tie and cap, though he admits he lost track of the Marine-issue shoes at some point over the past decades — and played the “Marine Corps Hymn” on his harmonica before deciding to venture from home in military dress.
Hummel stepped outside in full uniform — though it bears no insignia save for the corporal stripes on each arm and the Marine Corps emblem on his cap and lapel — and the response from the folks he encountered on the street began immediately.
“I got such a warm, positive reaction,” he said.
“And I was amazed,” he observed, “how broad the veteran impact is on all the people I talked to. So many people thanked me for my service and they told me about their families and how military service has touched their lives. So many people did what they felt it was their duty to do.”
Hummel said he spoke with a lot of people on his Monday morning outing, which included a visit to the gym at Galloway Ridge near his Fearrington home, meeting and talking with many people who have lost family in one conflict or other, even as far back as World War I.
“So many people have stood up when called,” he said. “So many people had stories they shared about their families. It was impressive to hear their stories.”
Hummel served in the Marines from 1956 to 1958, a period of calm between “the end of the Korean War and the beginning of the Vietnam War,” he said. “Thankfully, nobody was shooting at me.”
His duties landed the young Marine in Washington, D.C., where he was part of the Marine Corps’ Presidential Guard, protecting the perimeter around the places President Eisenhower visited.
“It was a good duty,” Hummel said.
At the time of his service, Hummel weighed somewhere around 130 pounds and stood 6 feet tall.
Decades later, his weight hasn’t fluctuated much, though age has shortened him to around 5’11’’, he said. But no matter. The uniform still fit as well as it did the day he last previous wore it, circa 1958.
“I hadn’t put it on since then,” he said.
Now, wearing the uniform may become a part of his annual Veterans Day observance, he said.
Hummel, a native of Wilmington and a longtime resident of Greensboro, and his wife moved to Chatham County nine months ago to be close to their family, including grandchildren ages 5 and 9, who live in Pittsboro.
Randall Rigsbee can be contacted at rigsbee@chathamnr.com.