Had My Father ived He Would Have Been 100 Years Old Today
2015 Nov 25, 3:26am 1,223 views 3 comments
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MAGA
2015 Nov 25, 9:04am
One of our WWII vets at the VA recently passed on. Mr. Ray. Quite a character. I am a VA Volunteer on the weekend and work with our hospice as well as extended care and spinal cord injury.
http://porterloring.tributes.com/obituary/show/Herschell-Garrett-Ray-102988087
Tenpoundbass
2015 Nov 25, 9:15am
I was thinking this morining. How when I first moved to South Florida in 86, and got a job with my Landlord's SIL installing carpet.
Back then South Florida was the snow bird capitol, and America's permeir retirement destination.
At that time I would say 80% of the customers we would install flooring for where retired Greatest generation folks.
I was remembering, I really enjoyed almost every stop we made. Those people sure were well grounded. I actually learned alot from all of those people.
Like they were all my collective Uncle, teaching the green kid from the mountains of South Carolina about life in the big City.
Especially the old school New Yorkers and folks from Jersy. Just great outsanding people. I miss the hell out of them.
I didn't make much just starting out as a Carpet helper, but I think of those days as best job/job I've ever had. I looked forward to who I was going to meet tommorow and what wonderful stories they had to tell. And their fly on the wall narraitive of historical events that I had only read about. I miss them all.
There's no doubt that we probably took about 2 hours longer than we should have, because we would listen to their stories. Plus they were excelent tippers. And wouldn't take not one cent back. Even if they were on a fixed income. They would say "Don't insult me". Classy people for sure.
NDrLoR
2015 Nov 25, 3:23pm
Sadly he left us in January of 1976 at age 60
We lost my father, Walter Virgil Mitchell, at the same age in March, 1958, two weeks before his 60th birthday of lung cancer after surgery on January 1. I still have his dance program from a University of Texas Thanksgiving Reception at the state capitol on November 25, 1920, 95 years ago today, where he had the second dance, a one-step called Fidgety Feet with Kathleen Turner, his future sister-in-law and my aunt who would marry his 18 month younger brother Sterling Ross in 1923. He worked in banking until the second world war when he worked the security detail at Bluebonnet Ordnance plant. After the war he began selling Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs, then switched to Buick 1949. In October, '57, he went to a regional meet of Buick dealers for a preview of the '58s and when he came home he gave me the little booklet they were given to fill out called Your B-58 Log Book, which I still have. We found out how ill he was at the end of '57 and he never got out of bed after surgery. The last car he drove was a '56 Buick Special, sedan blue/white/blue with a Novi air-conditioner in the trunk. He loved snazzy cars and was always talking about Hupmobiles and Locomobiles and sometimes when we were riding in the car he'd burst out singing songs like Side by Side, My Blue Heaven and She'll Be Coming 'round the Mountain.
Had he lived, my father, Vasco L. Walters, would have been 100 years old today. Sadly he left us in January of 1976 at age 60 due to emphysema. I wondered what would happened if he came back to life to celebrate his 100th birthday. He would encounter a world with the following realities:
1) An African-American president.
2) Women fighting in combat in the military.
3) Gay marriage and gay rights.
4) A technological revolution with the internet and all of the mobile technical devices.
5) Companies that he had never dreamed of like Facebook or Google are corporate giants and ruling the information revolution.
6) The possibility of our first woman president in 2016.
7) Electric cars.
8) Private rocket companies like Space-X, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactica about to send humans into space.
Would day be in shock at all of this and sure that our world was in decline? I think not. I believe that he would have been very curious about all of the changes. I would be inundated with questions. He would pass days reading newspapers, magazines and books. He would insist that I teach him how to use the computer.
He would love Elena and spend hours talking with her and getting to understand her. He would spend a lot of time with Luah talking to her about the advertising business.
Most important is that I like to believe that he would have been very proud of me.