Posted on 03/24/2020 4:46:37 PM PDT by foundedonpurpose
I talked with a man today, an 80+ year old man. I asked him if there was anything I can get him while this 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'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 battle front 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 a 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 who's husbands were either at war or 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 the sacrifices. We will never fully earn their sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about them..learn from them...to respect them.
And then he told me to get off his lawn.
definitely 110% MAGA
You should not have criticized him for speaking without paragraph
Yeah...no 80 year old wrote that.
UGH!! Facebook! Sounds like a great story. But me no do facebook.
Never stated that a 80 year old did write that.
“Yeah...no 80 year old wrote that.”
My immediate thought as well.
You are bullshit. I am 81 and I agree 110% with this gentleman. Get a life snowflake. MAGA!!!!!
I hate it. We have a combo account, my wife’s name and mine.
I need it for business. Wish that was not the case.
My bad. Disregard my comment.
If you, or anyone could talk to 120-year-old man today he would tell you about the 675,000 Americans that died in the 1918 Spanish flu. He would tell you that there was no government relief. He would tell you that there was little to no medical treatment.
He would tell you that you were on your own. You got sick. You died. He would also tell you America was a much greater country 102 years ago. Without trillions and trillions of dollars to spend on pointless liberal causes.
But we should work harder to learn about them..learn from them...to respect
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not an enjoyable read as all of the sacrifice going on right now is primarily for the elderly. Don’t get me wrong. I agree that it should be going on. I just would hope it’s appreciated
And that's the way it was and we liked it!
I talked with a man today, an 80+ year old man.
I asked him if there was anything I can get him while this 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’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 battle front 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 a 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 who’s husbands were either at war or 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 the sacrifices. We will never fully earn their sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about them..learn from them...to respect them.
I’m not on it but after I clicked the proper buttons I was able to read the whole story. Thank You, it was a good one.
My dad is 83 and was in Vietnam not WWII...but I agree 100% with what he said!
The evolution, particularly over these past 3 or 4 decades, into a Soviet-style communist police state has been astounding... Almost no person under the age of 60 has the slightest understanding of the real freedoms we once had... Freedoms we as a Nation willingly gave away through inattention to the internal threats the Nation faced...
The brilliant communist strategy of starting or engaging us in regional wars around the globe that masked their true objectives within the United States was one of the greatest rope-a-dopes in history...
Now here we are, the CPUSA's subsidiary, the democrat party, has come completely and proudly out of the closet, hell-bent on hammering the final nails into freedom's coffin...
In the long run, it is too late for the ballot box to restore even a semblance of the Founders original intent of a Constitutional Republic...
The tree awaits...
Yeah...could you have written that? With your obvious grasp of the language, the only way that’s coming out of your brain is if you copied it. And that would take you a week.
Go eat your prunes, pop.
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