Letter to the Editor

Reader offers advice for all

Sunday, May 22, 2011

To the Editor:

I like to read "Looking Back," reminisce and history of our country. I have read incidents written about in The Times here in Clay County, and I wondered about what happened to this person or that one.

Many passed on or headed for the sunny south or out west. Many times, for their health or to be near their children.

I have lived in many parts of this country and in some foreign countries with the military. What a ride.

There is no place like Brazil, Clay County. You find good people and others. It's what you make it.

I remember one year, speaking at a local grade school on Meridian Street, Brazil. All the children gathered to hear me speak on this Veterans Day. Some of Mrs. McDonald's class and Mrs. Clark's class, names of the families: The Lutz, Michael, Krout, Miller, Pierce, Tucker, Snider and Delano, and many more excited kids trying on my helmet and passing a few items I had taken.

It gave them an experience of the "Here and Now."

That's been some 15 years ago and I wonder just what happened in their lives since.

Many said they wanted to be a fire chief, policeman, pilot, nurse, doctor, or Air Force. One question always asked and not wanted, "Did you kill a man in war?" I wonder if I made an impact upon their life?

Military life is not for everyone and an education is the most important thing right now. Not after resting up for a couple of years. I have led a long life to this point. In time, done with roaming and I am content to that "Old Sarge" being friendly with everyone, staying close to my Lord, loving my wife of 64 years, taking that road to happiness.

I pray that kids today are more prepared on leaving school, to face life with all the education they can absorb. Time is too short to put off education.

I wonder did the third-graders succeed? Did they make the most of those early years?

I have never read about any of them, but perhaps two.

Folks, "Read more about what goes on around you."

When you have something to say -- tell the person involved -- don't tell everybody else. Go straight to the source.

You may read this and agree or disagree. Or not read it at all.

Have a good day anyway.

"Old Sarge" Marion Eveland,

Knightsville