I grew up in a Nation of Heroes!
When I was a little boy in the fifties in a small midwestern farm town of less than 100 people, most all the Men I grew up with, were the Veterans of WWII and Korea! We little kids used to hang out at the Lumberyard and the Old Men probably in their twenties to their seventies used to pitch pennies and nickels and dimes in the sawdust for us kids to find on a treasure hunt. You should have heard those men laughing at our antics as we searched for those shiny coins. Then we would all go to the grocery store or the filling station and sit in the big lawn chairs outside with our feet dangling, drinking soda pop and eating a Hersheys or a Snickers and listening to the Men and their stories of war and the old days. Little hands clasped around a big bottle and smiles. No internet, no computers, used to listen to the radio programs before we got TV, I've even used a woodstove for cooking and an outhouse{lots of fun in the winter} and did work without powertools! Did'nt need the Internet we had Central and a Party line pick up the telephone and you could talk to half the town, finally the phone company got smart put in individual lines, called the party line a conference call and charged a fortune for it ! Nothing but your imagination and God's magnificent outdoors as your playground. People actually knew who their neighbors were and visited each other! And people helped out when family or friends or even strangers fell on hard times! Did'nt need any Welfare, Fathers took care of their Daughters back in those days, and if your Girlfriend got pregnant, you can bet you were going to marry her, because everyone knew it took a Man and a Woman, Grandpa and Grandma and all the relatives and friends to help raise a bunch of little ones. Did'nt have to worry about your kids wandering all over creation, everyone watched out for every one else's kids in those days and no one seemed to get kidnapped. No kids faces on milk cartons, the milk came in bottles then. The biggest excitement was the huge dog fights on mainstreet! Sure there was alcohol but never saw any drugs until in the Army overseas. Dad was a Veteran of WWII, his cruiser Savannah lost almost 200 men of a 800 man crew off the coast of Salerno from a German dive bomber, he passed away of cancer in 1996, at the age of 77 and right up until the end, he never asked for anything and never complained, that was just the kind of Man he was. I miss him everyday. There were so many Veterans of WWII and Korea back in those days, kids like me had all kinds of Heroes to look up to, Dad in the Navy in WWII, Darrell in the Air Force in WWII, Glen at Normandy in WWII, Gene at the Battle of the Bulge, Ralph with the Marines at Guadalcanal, Don and Howard and Marvin in Korea, practically every man in town and the surrounding area had served. Even with my Combat experience in Viet Nam, compared to the Men of WWII and Korea, I feel like a Boy Scout. Those were some of the kindest most decent Men I have ever met, especially considering the Hell they had gone through. In those days a Handshake and a Smile and a Man's Word, meant something.
Unfortunately today less than five per cent of our Nation's Citizens actually put on a Uniform and Serve and Protect our Country, as far as Role Models, I don't think the kids today have it easier, I think they have it worse.
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Last edited by PH/CIB : 02-19-2007 at 01:22 AM
When I was a little boy in the fifties in a small midwestern farm town of less than 100 people, most all the Men I grew up with, were the Veterans of WWII and Korea! We little kids used to hang out at the Lumberyard and the Old Men probably in their twenties to their seventies used to pitch pennies and nickels and dimes in the sawdust for us kids to find on a treasure hunt. You should have heard those men laughing at our antics as we searched for those shiny coins. Then we would all go to the grocery store or the filling station and sit in the big lawn chairs outside with our feet dangling, drinking soda pop and eating a Hersheys or a Snickers and listening to the Men and their stories of war and the old days. Little hands clasped around a big bottle and smiles. No internet, no computers, used to listen to the radio programs before we got TV, I've even used a woodstove for cooking and an outhouse{lots of fun in the winter} and did work without powertools! Did'nt need the Internet we had Central and a Party line pick up the telephone and you could talk to half the town, finally the phone company got smart put in individual lines, called the party line a conference call and charged a fortune for it ! Nothing but your imagination and God's magnificent outdoors as your playground. People actually knew who their neighbors were and visited each other! And people helped out when family or friends or even strangers fell on hard times! Did'nt need any Welfare, Fathers took care of their Daughters back in those days, and if your Girlfriend got pregnant, you can bet you were going to marry her, because everyone knew it took a Man and a Woman, Grandpa and Grandma and all the relatives and friends to help raise a bunch of little ones. Did'nt have to worry about your kids wandering all over creation, everyone watched out for every one else's kids in those days and no one seemed to get kidnapped. No kids faces on milk cartons, the milk came in bottles then. The biggest excitement was the huge dog fights on mainstreet! Sure there was alcohol but never saw any drugs until in the Army overseas. Dad was a Veteran of WWII, his cruiser Savannah lost almost 200 men of a 800 man crew off the coast of Salerno from a German dive bomber, he passed away of cancer in 1996, at the age of 77 and right up until the end, he never asked for anything and never complained, that was just the kind of Man he was. I miss him everyday. There were so many Veterans of WWII and Korea back in those days, kids like me had all kinds of Heroes to look up to, Dad in the Navy in WWII, Darrell in the Air Force in WWII, Glen at Normandy in WWII, Gene at the Battle of the Bulge, Ralph with the Marines at Guadalcanal, Don and Howard and Marvin in Korea, practically every man in town and the surrounding area had served. Even with my Combat experience in Viet Nam, compared to the Men of WWII and Korea, I feel like a Boy Scout. Those were some of the kindest most decent Men I have ever met, especially considering the Hell they had gone through. In those days a Handshake and a Smile and a Man's Word, meant something.
Unfortunately today less than five per cent of our Nation's Citizens actually put on a Uniform and Serve and Protect our Country, as far as Role Models, I don't think the kids today have it easier, I think they have it worse.
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Last edited by PH/CIB : 02-19-2007 at 01:22 AM
I enjoyed the little flashback. Thanks