I TALKED TO A MAN TODAY

Someone posted this and I feel it is worthy to be read by all.

I hope and pray that everyone takes the time to read this and LISTEN to every word.

I talked to a man today who was 80 plus years old. I asked him if there was anything I could get him while the coronavirus scare was gripping America. He simply smiled, looked away and said:

“Let me tell you what I need! I need to believe, at some point, this country my generation fought for…I need to believe this nation we handed safely to our children and their children…I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies…that they respect what they have 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 WW11. Those were scary days. We didn’t know if we were going to be speaking English, German, or Japenese at the end of the war. There were no certainties or guarantees like Americans enjoy today.

And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down the 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 wasnt 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 and prayed. You may not hear from them in 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 in America.

And we had viruses back then 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 schools. we didn’t shut down cities. We carried on without masks, without hand sanitizer. And do you know what? 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 about sacrifice. They think sacrifice is not having coverage on their phones while they are freely driving 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 dead from war. Today’s kids rush 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 their sacrifices. We will never fully earn their sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about them..learn from them…to respect them.

This is it and I think the old man said it all. I will close with what I have said before That generation was and is the GREATEST GENERATION TO EVER LIVE and WE NEED TO KETCH UP. I can only imagine how disgusted they are when they see the conditions of this world that they gave life and blood to.