I 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 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 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 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.