GRANDPA STRAIGHT

My Great Grandpa, Francis Marion Straight, came to live with us when I was three years old and stayed until his death in 1938. He was a veteran of the Civil War, having enlisted at St. Louis, Missouri, in the 23rd Missouri Infantry, Company E, at the tender age of 17. I have vivid memories of him. He wasn’t very tall but stood ramrod straight. He had a beard and goatee. His hair was pure white. His eyesight was failing which caused him to do some funny things.
The house was lacking most of the paint and the rusty nail heads on the siding were easy to see. Grandpa would sit on the porch, raise his trusty fly swatter, Whack the nail head and exclaim, "I got ‘im"! He would also get ahold of the hoe and proceed to the garden where any thing he approached was a weed. Grandma had to replant vegetables a lot. He received a government pension for his wartime service. He chewed Sweet Mist chewing tobacco and smokee cigars. One time he sent my Sister and I downtown to get him tobacco and cigars and told us to also bring him some candy. We got the right tobacco and the right cigars but messed up by bringing him BB Bats, a candy on a stick which melted and stuck to your teeth.. He got the sucker stuck in the few teeth he had and Carolyn and I weren’t very popular with him for awhile.
As I look back, the fact that I knew and could talk to someone who was there about the Civil war was an education in itself. I can still see him, sitting in the living room, my Grandpa Abbott on the drum and my Aunt on the piano, playing Civil War songs like Marching Through Geoirgia and Tramp, Tramp,Tramp the boys are marching and others while Grandpa Straight would tap his can in time to the music.

SEGREGATION

As I watched Barack Obama take the oath to be the 44tth President of the United States, my thoughts regressed to 1948, sixty years ago when I was introduced to segregation. Having been born and raised in the state of Iowa, my interaction with black people was almost nonexistant. After joining the Air Force and being processed at Fort Sheridan in Illinois, I went aboard a troop train bound for San Antonio, Texas where I was to go through basic training.
The train stopped in Tennessee and we were allowed to get off the train. For the first time I saw signs with the words, WHITE ONLY and COLORED ONLY on the rest rooms. WHITE ONLY and COLORED ONLY on water fountains and WHITE ONLY and COLORED ONLY on two different waiting rooms, the COLORED ONLY waiting room being much smaller than the WHITE ONLH one. This was a great shock to me.
Arriving at Lackland, the training base in San Antonio, I found that even in the military there was segregation and discrimination. While the white troops had two story wooden barracks the black troope were housed at the end of the base in tar paper covered barracks. This was resolved with the integration of the armed forces.

Though there are still things that need to be addressed and acted upon. Today, we witnessed the beginning of an era that was long overdue.

REGRETS

Today, perusing my mind for something to think about, I thought of the word regret.
As I think about those things I regret the most, I guess the number one regret I have is not finishing my education by going to college. For years, I have used numerous excuses as to why I didn’t go to college, but had I had the desire, I know I could have achieved that goal.
The second thing that comes to mind is something that happened quite a while ago but I will never be able to make it right.
My Mom was in a nursing home for eleven years.
We had set up a time on every Saturday when I would call her. She had no phone in her room, so had to get in her wheel chair and go to the office and await my call. One Saturday I completely forgot about the call. When I realized it, from that time on,I have a mental picture of her waiting for my call. She forgave me but this is something I regret to this day.

I was stationed at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas in 1949 and 1950, teaching instrument flying to pilots in a C-97 Transitional Training Unit.
Two of my friends and I decided to look over the used car lots for an automobile. We found a 1939 Bluick convertible for sale. It was a beauty, black in color with lote of chrome and the interior was in fine shape. We purchased the car for $75 or $25 each. We had a glorious time driving the car around the Texas countryside.
We had the car for almost a month, when, on our way back to the base the car listed to one side in front and would not go forward. We looked under the car and found that the front coil spring had jumped out of its base which kept the spring in place.We worked and put the spring back in place and were ready to roam again. We found that the spring popping out was a rather frequent occurance.
We decided to sell the car to someone for $50 and chalked up the loss of $25 to experience.Click on photo to enlarge.

INTEGRATION OF THE ARMED FORCES

In 1948 and 1949 I was stationed on the island of Guam. It was during this time that President Truman signed Exuctive Order 9981 which entegrated the armed forces.
We were told to report en-masse to the outdoor theatre on the base. We had no inkling what was in store for us.
Our commanding General took the stage and told us, in no uncertain terms what was in store for us. He informed us that when we woke up in the morning there may be a black soldier sleeping next to you, when you go to chow there may be a black soldier eating next to you and when you go to work there may be a black soldier working next to you.
As we left the theatre I overheard the men from the south planning for a riot the next morning. I was really scared. I went to bed knowing that the next day may be my last on earth.
I awoke the next morning and anticipating mayhem, I was overjoyed to see that everything was normal with no riot.
I contend, that had there been a forewarning of integration to take place sometime in the future, things would not have gone as smooth as they did.

THE SAGA OF THE TWO HOLER

When I was a boy, living in the little town of Imogene, Iowa, our bathroom facilities were down the hill, away from the house. In the summer time, although lime was spread, it didn’t take care of the horrific smell. In the winter, it was a horse of another color. When you opened the door and gazed at the holes, you became accutely aware that jack frost was there. There was a frost ring around each hole and, in order to do the thing you came to do, you had to drop your pants and melt the frost ring and grab for the Sears and Roebuck or MontgomeryWard catalog. This a lasting memory, not only to my mind, but also to my behind.