When you’ve lived a long life, experienced so much, and learned a few things along the way, your wisdom and knowledge should be shared. Here are some words from one of those people, my Dad. His younger days weren’t always easy, as was the case for most people during that time so long ago. But it helped to shape the man we know and appreciate today.
Here is his story, in his own words…
INTRODUCTION
When my daughter Kimberly suggested that I write something for her website I must admit I had no idea what to write about. Several things came to mind so I decided to write about a number of things. I do not pretend to be an accomplished writer, but after 81 years living on this earth, 61 years of marriage and being the father of three daughters, I think I have learned a few things of interest to others. I should also mention here that I traveled in my jobs my entire career as a Construction Safety Consultant – and that alone taught me a lot. In this writing, I will share some of those things.
FAMILY TIES
My wife of 61 years and I have known each other forever having grown up in a small town in Missouri, attended the same schools, were in the same class in school, graduated together, and knew each other’s families as well. My father’s parents lived across the street from us until they passed on in the late 1950’s. My aunt, Ruth Wheeler Jensen lived near and was a teacher in our high school and my aunt Hazel Wheeler Blauth, also a teacher lived about 3 hours away but visited several times each year. My wife’s family lived near as well.
EARLY SCHOOL YEARS
As I mentioned earlier my wife and I attended the same school which was about a block from our home. The school was built in 1931 according to the school records at a cost of $40,000. This building included the elementary grades 1 through 8 as well as the high school grades 9 through 12 until the district was reorganized in 1952 and several small schools in the area were combined. Of course, there was a gym for basketball and volleyball games with other schools. I played both as far back as I can remember as those were the only sports offered.
GRANDFATHER’S FARM
My grandfather kept a team of horses at the farm and during WW2 he brought them into town in the spring to plow gardens for those who had no way to do it. The horses (Pat and Sam) were smart and knew when they saw my grandfather with a bridle in his hand, they were going to have to work, so they avoided getting close to him in the pasture or near the barn. They were very gentle horses so my brothers and I could walk up to the horses with an apple, an ear of corn or some other “goodie” and they would come to us easily. We could hold them by the mane as my grandfather gently placed the bridle over their head. I think they enjoyed this game of “catch me if you can”.
THE WORLD WAR 2 YEARS
During WW2, my father James Wheeler, Sr. was drafted at age 36 into the U. S. Navy, leaving my mother to handle things at home with three boys ages 7, 9 and 11. He was gone about two years (1944-1946).
Read more about his service here: Part 2
My maternal grandmother, Mary Miles Lewis was a widow and lived on a small, farm about 12 miles away with her unmarried son Jim Ben Lewis– and he was also drafted into the Navy, leaving his mother on the farm alone. Her other son Clement Lewis, was a career Chief Petty Officer in the U. S. Coast Guard and had his own family in Iowa. So my elderly grandmother came to live with us in town until my uncle Jim Ben Lewis, her son, could return home.
THE WAR ENDS
I was 10 years old in 1946 when peace was declared and service men and women started returning home and trying to regain the life they had known before the war. Rationing was lifted and we could then buy new tires for the cars. They were “synthetic rubber” and not very good quality, but we “made do”. Today we are extremely blessed with about anything we can imagine – just look at the aisles of any supermarket and you will see that we have far more than we really “need”.
Read more about rationing here: Part 3
I will never forget how the entire community rallied around to watch out for families of service men and women. We all had hardships, medical issues, money problems, concern for loved ones called to service and all the other stressful things created by wartime. We truly believed that our country would be taken over by others if we didn’t win this war. The possibility of losing was very real. We all helped each other and forged friendships that lasted a lifetime.
–John
Read more: Part 2
Marilyn,
There is nothing written on the back of this picture. Dad had it in a file with the pictures labeled “Estes Family”. Other pictures in that folder are of Able Lewis and his wife and a few other unmarked pictures. They were parents of Alabama Estes Lewis. “Bam” Estes was my Grandma Grace’s Grandma. One picture with her looks much older – appears to be Bam with her brothers and sisters, quite a bit younger.
This may be some of that family, but faces aren’t clear enough to be sure. I’m new at this process – how do you go about identifying a picture like this?
Trying to identify people in old pictures is often very difficult – especially when anyone who may have known them have already passed on or their minds and/or eye sight prohibits them from helping. When my husband’s father passed away, Bill’s aunt gave us a book of old photos. Some were identified and others were total mysteries. I was able to figure out a couple by going through old documents and matching the people to the time period, place, etc. After getting a large box of old photos from my maternal grandmother, we could identify only about 1/3. That taught me a valuable lesson as I began taking pictures of our growing family – ALWAYS WRITE THE NAMES OF THE PEOPLE, DATES AND PLACES ON THE BACK OF THE PHOTO WITH PHOTO SAFE PENS. As time allows, I am trying to make scrapbooks using the best of the photos I have collected.
I have never seen the picture you posted with this piece your dad wrote. Is it a family picture and can you identify the people in it?
Thanks, Marilyn Jean