Milton Long Wedding
Preparing Children for the Future
From Milton Long
We grew up very fast, but my folks had done a good job of providing me with the things I needed to survive. My daddy made certain I knew how to use Fire Arms and to move in the woods. He made me join the Boy Scouts and learn how to take care of myself. His advice on how to survive in cold weather was a big help. All of these things didn’t cost any money but were very important in my later years. When people think about what they should teach their children, they should consider what they might need to survive at some point in their later life. I am sure my dad didn’t think he was training me for WWII, but for my adult life.
I was small and for that reason, I couldn’t do a lot of things the bigger boys could. But I could do a lot of things they couldn’t do. In the Army, at 20 years of age, I could march further and shoot better than the big guys. I could read maps and travel cross country with ease.
It is never to early to train children for the future, because the future might be tomorrow.
It was 60 years ago that the Battle of the Bulge took place. This tested the men on their ability to survive. Some could do nothing about the situation they found themselves in, but others found they could do more then they thought they could and under the worst possible conditions.
Published in U S Legacies Magazine February 2005
WW I
From Sherry Opperheim
I am in possession of information given to me by my grandmother about my grandfathers WW I service, which I cannot verify. My mother destroyed all his records, and I have written for copies, but don’t know what they will show.
What my grandmother told me years ago, was very specific. She told me that grandpa served in the US Expeditionary Force in Russia, specifically Siberia. She said that he was with a little-known group that was sent to rescue the Czar and his family, and that they were only 7 miles from the farmhouse when they heard the fatal shots across the frozen Stepps.
I cannot find any information on-line that would support this, but I know he was there. Nanny showed me a series of post cards (among the trash Mother tossed) that when put together was an Arial photo of pre-war Moscow. He had written in a sort of simple code, not to throw out his cards, as they came as they would be all she would have if he never returned. This was his way of telling her that the cards were important, and indeed they were.
It was a capital offense, not only to be in possession of this set, but to send it anywhere, in the event that they fell into enemy hands. They were quite clear and with simple magnification gave a lot of layout history of the city. Nanny did not give me this stuff, but I am sure that she wanted it kept, for obvious reasons. Do you have ANY knowledge of this Force and if so can you point me in the right direction to research it?
I have my own feelings about the incident. I think that if what Nanny told me was even remotely true, then the Communists must have had information that the USEF was near and that may have precipitated the slaughter of the Czars family. Just a thought on my part.
Published in U S Legacies Magazine February 2005
A Meeting That Lasted 74 Years
By Ruthann Wike nee Held
I recently went to the funeral home to see a long time friend of my parents, Harold and Helen Held. In fact the deceased, Bernard Snyder, 1913-2005, graduated with my father from Grandview, Indiana High School in 1932.
In talking to his widow, Wilma, I found out that they had been married for 72 years. Even more than that, they dated for 2 years before they were married. I asked her how they had met.
She was a junior in high school, and was out in her front yard. Bernard worked wherever he could to make money, holding many different jobs. That particular time, he was helping a farmer gather his corn. They were going down the road with a wagon load of corn and Bernard was riding on the back of the wagon.
As they went by the house where Wilma lived, Bernard saw her, reached down, picked up an ear of corn and threw it at her. They already knew each other, but that simple typical boyish act, led to a meeting that lasted 74 happy years together.
Published in U S Legacies Magazine February 2005
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