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thendrix
Orange Level Joined: 04 Feb 2013 Location: Fairmount GA Points: 4746 |
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Posted: 18 May 2020 at 4:52pm |
Got this from another forum and I absolutely agree with it. To any of this generation here, you have my upmost respect and if I ever get to share a room with you or shake your hand it'll be an honor.
TALKED TO A MAN TODAY . . . I talked with a man today, an 80+ year old man. I asked him if there was anything I can get him while this Corona virus scare was gripping America. He simply smiled, looked away and said: "Let me tell you what I need! [pause] I need to believe, at some point, this country my generation fought for [pause] I need to believe this nation we handed safely to our children and their children [pause] . . . I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies . . . that they respect what they've been given . . . that they've earned what others sacrificed for." I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or if it was going anywhere at all. So, I sat there, quietly observing. "You know, I was a little boy during WWII. Those were scary days. We didn't know if we were going to be speaking English, German or Japanese at the end of the war. There was no certainty, no guarantees like Americans enjoy today. And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down every street, had someone in harm's way. Maybe their Daddy was a soldier, maybe their son was a sailor, maybe it was an uncle. Sometimes it was the whole damn family . . . fathers, sons, uncles . . . Having someone, you love, sent off to war . . . it wasn't less frightening than it is today. It was scary as Hell. If anything, it was more frightening. We didn't have battlefront news. We didn't have email or cellphones. You sent them away and you hoped...you prayed. You may not hear from them for months, if ever. Sometimes a mother was getting her son's letters the same day Dad was comforting her over their child's death. And we sacrificed. You couldn't buy things. Everything was rationed. You were only allowed so much milk per month, only so much bread, toilet paper. EVERYTHING was restricted for the war effort. And what you weren't using, what you didn't need, things you threw away, they were saved and sorted for the war effort. My generation was the original recycling movement in America. And we had viruses back then...serious viruses. Things like polio, measles, and such. It was nothing to walk to school and pass a house or two that was quarantined. We didn't shut down our schools. We didn't shut down our cities. We carried on, without masks, without hand sanitizer. And do you know what? We persevered. We overcame. We didn't attack our President, we came together. We rallied around the flag for the war. Thick or thin, we were in it to win. And we would lose more boys in an hour of combat than we lose in entire wars today." He slowly looked away again. Maybe I saw a small tear in the corner of his eye. Then he continued: "Today's kids don't know sacrifice. They think sacrifice is not having coverage on their phone while they freely drive across the country. Today's kids are selfish and spoiled. In my generation, we looked out for our elders. We helped out with single moms whose husbands were either at war or dead from war. Today's kids rush [to] the store, buying everything they can . . . no concern for anyone but themselves. It's shameful the way Americans behave these days. None of them deserve the sacrifices their granddads made. So, no I don't need anything. I appreciate your offer but, I know I've been through worse things than this virus. But maybe I should be asking you, what can I do to help you? Do you have enough pop to get through this, enough steak? Will you be able to survive with 113 channels on your TV?" I smiled, fighting back a tear of my own . . . now humbled by a man in his 80's. All I could do was thank him for the history lesson, leave my number for emergency and leave with my ego firmly tucked in my rear. I talked to a man today. A real man. An American man from an era long gone and forgotten. We will never understand the sacrifices. We will never fully earn their sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about them . . . learn from them . . . . . to respect them. |
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"Farming is a business that makes a Las Vegas craps table look like a regular paycheck" Ronald Reagan
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Dave in PA
Orange Level Joined: 13 Sep 2009 Location: Mars/Wexford PA Points: 2616 |
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VERY well said!!!
I might add some of my thoughts to this post, but not now. Todays kids are not the same, as us "older folks"!
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chaskaduo
Orange Level Joined: 26 Nov 2016 Location: Twin Cities Points: 5203 |
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Could not agree more. I miss my Dad and Grandfather, they were Great Men. Edited by chaskaduo - 18 May 2020 at 5:12pm |
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1938 B, 79 Dynamark 11/36 6spd, 95 Weed-Eater 16hp, 2010 Bolens 14hp
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Boss Man
Orange Level Joined: 03 Mar 2018 Location: Greenleaf, WI Points: 610 |
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Hate to see what a lot of these people today would do if they had to live like he did. Country all ready has to many unstable minds.
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Hubert (Ga)engine7
Orange Level Joined: 12 Sep 2009 Location: Jackson Cnty,GA Points: 6152 |
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Great read, Tyler, and very true! My Dad told me about rationing during WWII and also growing up on a farm during the depression. My FIL fought in Europe during WWII. Both were hard working men.
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Just an old country boy saved by the grace of God.
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thendrix
Orange Level Joined: 04 Feb 2013 Location: Fairmount GA Points: 4746 |
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I can't say for sure but I figure they'd either hit a point where they realized they had to stand up and would do so then the country would stand for something again..... Or they'd roll over like a whooped pup and speak whatever language they were told to. Doubt seriously if there would be any in between |
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"Farming is a business that makes a Las Vegas craps table look like a regular paycheck" Ronald Reagan
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steve(ill)
Orange Level Access Joined: 11 Sep 2009 Location: illinois Points: 78238 |
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If you asked most kids to write a page about WW2, what happened, who we fought, for what, and what was going on at the home front... I doubt you could get 2-3 sentences.
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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weiner
Orange Level Joined: 19 May 2012 Location: Cadillac, Mi. Points: 4305 |
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So true, My dad was too young for WW1 and too old for WW2, but he had 3 son in law`s in WW2 and 1 son in law in VietNam. 4 went to war and only 2 made it home. My oldest sister`s husband was killed in the Pacific and my youngest sister`s husband was killed in Vietnam. I heard stories about them living during the great depression, rationing, going without, I heard it all and growing up in the 40s and 50s, we still did not have it much better. Dad and mom were farmers if you wanted to call them farmers with what they had, a couple of cows, a team of horses, rented 40 acres that had a shack of a house and small barn, mom planted a big big garden and canned. They always said they were the lucky ones, dad had a team of horses and got work on the WPA. He helped put in M-115 between Cadillac and Clare. He made a dollar a day and his team of horses made a dollar a day. Yes my folks thought they were rich and managed to put away a dollar here and there. In 1943, the year I was born they bought grandpa`s farm for $3500.00, 160 acres, large barn and house, 5 other small buildings. They had it paid off in 3 years. They did not trust banks at all. And they were avid democrats, I can still hear him talking about President Truman. He like Ike because he was a great General and with JFK he had to hold his nose and then Johnson come along and dad went republican all the way. I know if there was anything to help a veteran, dad was there helping. They were very very patriotic.
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Real heros wear dogtags, not capes.
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john(MI)
Orange Level Joined: 12 Sep 2009 Location: SE MI Points: 9263 |
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I remember my folks reminiscing about trading some people shoe stamps for sugar stamps. A friend has been posting very old newspaper clippings from the little town I grew up in in SW WI., approximately 1100 population. They had an article in the paper that the town was quarantined along with a smaller neighboring town, for a polio outbreak. Known affected persons and families were quarantined to their home. It is interesting finding out what was going on back then. I agree with another thing he said. These spoiled people with no ones interests but their own are going to be causing more problems. I figure if there are people out in public where there are a lot of people and they are not wearing a mask, they are the problem generation. The auto workers are going back to work and they covered it on the news. They showed them all lined up to get into to the plant. Their temperature was taken and they were given a mask, most had not been wearing one while waiting in line. They were required to wear the mask and observe social distancing while at work. I'm thinking those not wearing a mask hadn't been watching the news for the last 3 months, or they had absolutely no common sense. They are the spoiled generation. It is odd how the people of the spoiled generation are folks from 3 or 4 different generations!!
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D14, D17, 5020, 612H, CASE 446
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tadams(OH)
Orange Level Access Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Location: Jeromesville, O Points: 9744 |
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The people in Washington causing all the problem and the news media don't understand what it was like back then. You never heard
Walter Kronkide or Dorthy Fultine talk the way they do
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ac fleet
Orange Level Joined: 12 Jan 2014 Location: Arrowsmith, ILL Points: 2226 |
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WELL SAID! --- Totally agree cause todays people are nuts!- well and WIMPS!! No wonder the third world terrorists have taken over AMERICA ! Dont be surprised if you see our flag come down and theirs go up in the near future!
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