Barn Talk - LW's Long Journey Away And Back To The Farm

Episode Date: May 14, 2021

Welcome To Barn Talk! In today’s episode, the boys tell the story of Grandpa Lawrence’s journey through The Great Depression, WWII, Flying Mustangs, Ranching, Law School and much, much more... SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c ADD US ON: INSTAGRAM ➱ https://bit.ly/3gaobdN TIKTOK ➱ https://bit.ly/3eJfftr ------------------------------- ***PLEASE NOTE*** Barn Talk is a significant break from the typical content viewers have come to expect from This’ll Do Farm. Please be advised that we will be exploring a wide variety of topics (some adult-themed) and our younger viewers (and their parents) should be advised that some topics will be for mature audiences only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon presents Laura versus Fruit Flies. Swarming your fruit and terrorizing your kitchen. These little freaks multiply at a rate that would make a rabbit say, yo. Chill. But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps. Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here. Save the Everyday with Amazon. All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms.

Farms are different in types, in size, and even in names. Welcome to Barn Talk. We're back on our Friday afternoon edition. So we got our stuff together. We got our work done. We got our beans planted. We got our corn planted. So we're right as rain.

And it's a beautiful day in southeast Iowa. I'm your host, Torque. And this is my sidekick. Sawyer and feels good to be back on Friday. It feels normal. Now we're back. I don't know. It just feels right on Friday. We're trying to get into a groove. This feels better than doing it at 8 o'clock on Sunday night because we procrastinate. One thing we did figure out about, I mean, when we did this, having this barn, it's going to get really cold in the winter. It's going to get really hot in the summer. So I think we're going to start shooting in the evening because that's the best way to approach with the summer coming up.

And right now we don't have a lot of money just to throw and completely air-conditioned this beast. So we're just going to go with that plan, I think. Yeah, it's going to take a few, it's going to take a few subscriptions to insulate this barred and put a few AC units in at like 50. I don't know. Maybe when we have guests on, I should send them a disclaimer, DM, or text and say, hey, make sure, just to forewarn you, you might sweat your ass off. Dress accordingly.

Dress accordingly. Right. Today, we're going to, we're going to talk a little bit about past generations, I guess, at this-l-do farm. So in our first episode, I guess we teased a few people a little bit about kind of how I got here, because my dad is, my dad is kind of the linchpin figure in continuing, you know, he was the next generation. It sure wasn't a given that he was going to end up farming. And he took a very, a long road away from the farm and back. And how he got here and everything that he did in between is, it's just interesting.

It's kind of an amazing story. I mean, it just really is. It's crazy because it's just crazy. It's a crazy story. Like that doesn't, young people, I feel like if people my age did what he did, and they just wouldn't be able to do it. Like I look at him and I'm like, I don't know if I could do what he did.

I don't think I could. But, I mean, that's why that generation of people, and his story, his story to us is very unique, but his story to that generation isn't that unique because if you listen to those guys and there's, there's few, very few of them anymore around, but the stories of what those guys went through and all that they did is, it's pretty, well,

it's inspirational really yeah i what i say is i use i use grandpa as kind of a big motivator because it's like all the stories he told us all stories you've told me about it it's like i just feel obligated to almost i i just i feel obligated because of the sacrifice he made and it's like he went through all that and i'm here and i don't have i'm not going to get drafted you know i mean i hope i'm i'm hoping not i don't think that's how warfare will work anymore but like I just feel like I have an obligation to fulfill what he laid the groundwork for you know what I mean yeah he kind of had he kind of like to set the bar fairly high anyway right but so we've had some questions and some comments about that and so I thought you know before we get

before we get off onto some guests and you know whatever else we might go back a little bit and we're going to talk about you know how he started where he started and where he ended up and everything that happened in between. And so Lawrence was born. My dad was born in 1919. I think you're forgetting something. What's that? The market update.

Oh, yeah. We've got to be consistent. And it's fun to give the market update. You know, I think at some point, the market update won't be as much fun as what it is right now, but it's pretty exciting. So today's market update is brought to you by nobody. Roll, please.

So I was feeling pretty good. I was full of piss and vinegar because I unloaded my corn two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. 629 was the cash bid at the local feed mill. And I thought, man, that was pretty good. But cash corn closed today. So Friday the 30th, cash corn closed. And you can get pretty much $7 anywhere around local.

And I think the river price might be 738 at the river if you want to haul it to Burlington. So I think you're winning there. You're winning no matter what you do. And I have no corn left, so I have no worse in this game. I know, I know. It's hard, though. You don't want to wait it out too long, you know. And beans are basically 15, yeah, 1570 at the river. Everything's high. hogs still over $100,

cattle over $100, I don't know, $116 and feeder cattle or I don't know, I don't know if I wrote that down. Yeah, like 133 on the board. So everything's high. Commodities are all high. It's a great day to be a farmer.

Bitcoin's coming back. Tesla's been on the skids. The earnings call, they made a lot of money off of selling solar. Well, selling carbon credits and they unloaded a little Bitcoin, and I don't think the analyst

liked that very well. So they've been getting beat up on this week, but that's okay. Long game. Got to play the long game. Time in the market. Time in the market. Anyway. Back to the Lawrence story.

Yeah. So my dad was born and he was the oldest of three kids. So he had a sister and a brother and all of them are gone now. But he was born in 1919. and I'm not going to go back. I'm not going to get off and go back too far, but it's interesting because, so his dad,

so our family farm, if you're going to talk about how we're all here and how the land came to be, you've got to talk about the meeks. The meeks are the actual, there are the people that settled this chunk of property, and that is a, that's a hell of us. Amazing.

that's a hell of a story um but so there weren't there weren't any um there weren't any meek men in that line there was two daughters and pf wistwistler was my grandpa and he came back here to the farm he was not a farmer he was actually a professor and he met my grandmother at illinois college actually i think they met at drake because he went to drake and she went to drake he became a professor and then she went over to illinois i don't know i i don't know exactly how that worked as far as i guess she went there to get some other degree or whatever but anyway there was definitely a relationship there and he came back here and looked around and decided yeah i think i'm going to farm and um i think that was kind of the to the dismay of my great-grandmother because i think all she

wanted to do was to get her daughters away off the farm she did not want them to end up being back here back here and i wonder why though because i mean back then it was kind of like everyone farmed you know yeah like every that was kind of like i don't know that wasn't that well like what wealth was like wealthy and just like having your well i'll tell you why the reason why is because her husband died so bertha was my great grandmother and um her husband died young. And she was basically left to raise those two daughters. And she did a great job because she ran the farm.

She had a hired man. She did not rent it out. She ran it. And then when P.F. married Stella, my grandmother, Bertha moved to Washington and built a house, a big house in town. And she was very, well, she was like my dad. I mean, obviously, I didn't know her, but she was really productive, clear up to the end of her days. But I think the struggle of trying to keep that farm going, she did not want her, she, in her mind,

she wanted her daughters to have an easier path and what she had. I think that's where that came from. Well, that's understandable. But anyway, so it happened that it didn't work, as we all know, the best laid plans don't always work the way you think. And so Stella ended up marrying P.F. And my dad was born in 19. And this is the time where they were doing everything with horses. And they would not have had running water in the house.

I don't know when they got, I don't know when they got power. I should know those answers, but I don't. But anyway, and all this taking place in the house that I live in today. So the house I live in today is basically The original farmhouse Yeah, the original. At least, I'm at least the fourth generation And I'm not 100% sure if five generations back

Whether that house is where Sam Meek, whether he built it or whether one of the boys... Samuel Meek is the guy that founded it. He was the person that settled the land. Yeah. But anyway, My dad grew up, you know, working here on the farm and walking to school, and he went to country school, just a half mile up the road. Living Lake School is where he went through the eighth grade, and then ninth grade, he went to the high school in town.

Was that when he upgraded to riding the horse into town, or he still had to walk? So, excuse me, my dad never could tell that story about how he had to walk uphill both ways to school, because he always bragged that they had a pony, and because he was the oldest, he got to ride a pony to work or to school, and school was only a mile from our house. So there was none of that. So he had a pretty good...

He had a pretty good gig in that time. He had a pretty good deal on that. I think he shared the pony with his sister and his little brother, though, so he did his part. So through that, you know, obviously the depression came along, and he lived through that time. And I always thought it was interesting because when anyone would ask him about the depression,

I think your experience of that part of American history is a lot different, whether you lived in a large city or rural area, and if you lived in a rural area that wasn't affected by the dust bowl. Because both of my kids, when they got to the, when they got to junior. Yeah, part to the, when we got to the part in, I don't know what, U.S. history. U.S. history in grade school, the Great Depression gets taught to us.

And then I think we had a project that you had to sit down with, you had to do some research project or something. I'm like, well, shit, our grandpa, hell, he lived through it. So I'm going to sit down with them and ask him questions. And he always would just like, well, it wasn't that bad here. It just wasn't that bad here. because they lived off the land and they grew their own crops, they had their own animals.

And I mean, it just, you had the food. The food was there and it was pretty simple living. He would always say, well, we didn't have any money, but nobody had any money. So it really wasn't much different than it had been before. But anyway, you know, they got through that. And my dad had real bad hay fever. and so like he would tell the story about what's hay fever allergies basically but he had really bad allergies and so you know they did a lot of they threshed oats and they they threw the straw up

in the barn by hand there are a lot of dust and he would be a miserable mess he would be miserable and that actually um led to why he ended up going to college in color So when he graduated high school, he, the family had some friends that lived in Boulder, Colorado. And the thought process was that he could go out there, take the train, and they would help him, you know, find some place to live, a job, whatever. And the high altitude would be better for his allergies. and he was going to go to college.

And so that's what he did. So he went to see you. So he went to the University of Colorado. And he originally was going to be a geology major. And he thought he wanted to be a geologist. And then he soon figured out that he couldn't quite hack the math is what he told me. Is that geologist? That's study of rocks.

Study of rocks. That's what I thought it was. I was like, huh. finding oil, finding minerals. I wonder if an agronomist was a major back then. Do you think it was? Well, I imagine it probably was. Because, I mean, coming from a farm background, he might have been like, oh, I'd want to maybe study the dirt, but I guess he was interested in rocks.

I don't know. I mean, Iowa State would have been running. I'm sure Iowa State would have been one of the leading. Yeah, right. Ag schools. I should know when their ag school was. But he went there and he got started in school. and he got a job working a little cafe in Boulder called the Casa Grande,

and he became friends with the owner. Bob Oren was the owner, and he ended up living, rent a room from Orens, and that relationship got him acquainted with a guy that came to the Casa Grande a lot and was a friend of Orens, and his name was Paul Cain. And Paul Cain was a rancher, and he was a big-time rancher in around the Boulder area. The original John Dutton. Shout out to Yellowstone.

Yeah. So he really kind of was. He owned a heck of a lot of the land around Boulder at that time, which today is the flat irons, which I think most of that's developed. but at that time, that was just waste country. And Paul Kane had a, I don't know how many cattle he had, I don't know how many ran, but he had enough that he had a Piper Cub airplane

that he kept at the municipal airport, and he would go up and fly around and check out. Look out all his cattle. Well, see, you know, how the pastures were, if the pastors were getting short. I mean, they still, he kept horses, and he had cowboys, he had a bunk house, all that. But anyway, he and my dad kind of hit it off,

and my dad quit working at the Casa Grande in the summertime, and in the summer, he would work for Paul Kane. And over three years, while he's going to college. While he was going to college, he got an interest in flying, and Paul basically taught him how to fly. And then...

You think Paul, like, spiked that interest? Do you think he... Oh, I mean, I think completely, I think my dad, you know, coming from... So they had a connection because my dad was a farm kid. Right. And, you know, he had a good work ethic because it had been beat into him,

like it's been beat down generation after generation. And I think Paul respected that. And they kind of had a connection. And then when, you know, I'm sure he was fascinated by the fact that him having a plane. And so he got an interest in it. There was a program going on, and I don't know what the name of it was, but there was a program going on where the government would pay for your, I don't know, your schooling or your certification if you wanted to get your private pilots license.

And so this would have been in, you know, 41, probably. Let's see, he would have gone out there. He would have gone out there, I think, in 38. I think in the first podcast I said he went out there in 39, but he was born in 19. So I think he graduated like in 37 and went out there in 38. So probably around 40 is when he probably got his pilot's license, one of those years. and I don't know if he flew much other than I think Paul let him fly.

But anyway, he got through college and the war was going on. And it was a foregone conclusion that you were going to get drafted. It was just a matter of when. And if you were in college, I don't think that they would draft you while you're in college. So what did he change? Did you talk about what he changes major to? Yeah. So after his first year, he changed just a business major because he didn't want to be a geologist.

He figured out he didn't want to be a geologist. I don't blame him there. And so he made it through. He graduated, got his degree. Got his license, pilot license. He had his private pilot's license. And he got drafted. He actually came back here because the draft board, his name never had gotten transferred to Colorado.

So the draft board basically sent him a telegraph, and he had to report to the draft board in Washington, Iowa. You think his, you think Stella sent him a letter and said, hey, you need to get back home? No, because it was a big deal because, you know, time-wise, he only had a certain amount of time to be here, and he was all the way in Colorado. And by the time they got a message to him and all ass home. Yeah, he got on the train and got back here. So what was the, like, so how did some guys, did every, because I know, I know most men got drafted, but some guys got, did they get out of it? Like, didn't have to go to the draft?

Like, how do people get out of the draft? Because there's those stories where people somehow get out of the draft. I don't think in World War II you got out of the draft. You couldn't have gotten out. I don't think you did. Vietnam, you probably could have gotten out of it a little easier, but that was the first, well, not first major. or World War, but I mean, for us, that was the biggest one.

Yeah. I think at that point, a heck of a lot, so after Pearl Harbor, a heck of a lot of people just enlisted. Yeah, they just wanted to go. But then, like, people that were in college, as they graduated, then they got drafted. Or if you were at a high school, and I think if you were out of high school and you weren't going to college, you were eligible for the draft. Somebody can correct me on that, but I think that's right.

So anyway, my dad, he waited until he had graduated. and he had to report, he went through Basic in Biloxi, Mississippi. Yeah, so he went to, so that's the other thing, Army. Yeah. We talked about this a little bit, but did everybody get drafted to go to the Army?

Well, I think you only had the Army and the Navy, because the Air Force was part of the Army. It was the Army Air Corps, and that was just in the beginning. And then the Marines, that was part of the Navy. So I think you literally, you either got drafted to the Navy or the Army.

I think that's how it went. Yeah. I don't know for sure. So you had to decide if you were going to be on a boat? Well, I don't know if you had a choice. If you had any choice. So he could have just as well gotten drafted

and gone to the Navy. But he got drafted to go to the Army. So we went through Basic in Biloxi, Mississippi, and he got through that. And then, no surprise, they were in need of tank crews and half-tracks

because the average life expectancy of somebody in a Sherman tank was not very good at that point of the war, I don't think. Did you ever see the movie Fury? Oh, yeah. Yeah. If you guys have never seen the movie Fury, that is a really good movie kind of showing you.

Was that World War I or World War II? That's World War II. Yeah, that movie is intense. It's all about tanks and guys that drove tanks in World War II and I wouldn't want that job. It's pretty gritty. So he went and that was at Fort Knox, Kentucky. So you got done in Biloxy, Mississippi, and you went to Fort Knox, Kentucky. But if you, at that point, they were getting the Army Air Corps was starting to pick up.

Starting to roll along. And the bombing campaign had started, they were flying bombers out of England. and I think right about that time is when the front in Italy had started. And I don't know what the time frame is between when they landed, when D-Day, whether or not they had established a foothold in Italy or not. I feel like they hadn't, but I don't know for sure. But anyway, so the Army Air Corps was going. And if you could pass the physical to get into the Air Corps, you could go that path. And so when you got past Basic, you think you had the option, do you want to be infantry or do you want to be a tank driver or do you want to be like how that worked?

So he told me that his whole class that went through Basic, the Army said, you're a tank driver. We need tank crews. You're going to you're going to Fort Knox, Kentucky. Now then the class that came in after them or another place where they were going through basic, all those guys might have been going to the infantry or all those guys might have been going to artillery. You just chosen. Wherever you drop, that's where you're. That's where that bunch went.

So it was really luck of the draw. Yeah. It really was. But he could pass the physical because he looked at that and said, well, let's see. One, if you went to the air core, it was going to be more training. so you weren't going to be shipping out to go right away. So that he went to Fort Knox, and then that's when the Air Corps was trying to pick up,

and then they gave people options if they wanted to. Okay. So that's when he got the option to join the Air Corps. So he did. And I don't know if there was any testing. I don't know how it worked, but if you chose that path to be a pilot, you had to be an officer.

and so they sent him to San Antonio, Texas, San Antonio, Texas, to what they called cadets. And cadets was like a condensed officer training program where it went year-round and there was two classes. So you were a junior or senior or underclassman and he said it was hell because they hazed the shit out of you. and the whole thing was they were trying to get people to quit. Because if you quit, anywhere along the way, if you quit, you went back to the army.

So you would go right back to Fort Knox. So you can't mess up. Well, yeah. And so as guys washed out, they went back to the army. And so he spent, I don't know if you spent 12 months or 18 months there. I can't remember exactly how long the training was. So there was no break in between underclassmen to all. officer. So today, I think that in the Air Force, whatever form that is, it's probably a class where

you go and then you have so much time off where you probably are doing some job in the Air Force, and then it starts up again. But they ran it. Well, because they had to. Right. I mean, they had to get people out. They had to get pilots. They were trying to get pilots. Right. So he made it through that. And then he went to primary. And primary was in Colorado Springs, which Colorado Springs today is a big Air Force. So he became an officer. He got through it. Yes. He's going to go try to become a pilot. He's going to try to become a pilot. And so ironically, through all this, and we'll talk about this in the middle in a minute, he, nobody that he's with in there has any idea that he has his private pilot's license.

He kept that a secret. Yeah, he didn't tell anybody. So he knows how to fly. That's probably smart because they would probably target him more for the in hazing if they would have knew he was a pilot. Well, and he didn't know. He honestly didn't know. He could have just as well end up, I think, being in a bomber crew. Oh, you didn't know what you were going to be. I don't think that you did.

But anyway, he made it to primary, went to. So it was primary the same way in the fact that if you didn't fly or if they didn't think you were good enough to fly, you were out? There's no more extra practice or anything. As he would say, which he used many times, if you couldn't cut the mustard, you were out on your arse and you'd go back to the army. Man, that's cut throat. Yeah. And so primary was all your ground school.

And then so it was, I want to say it was six weeks of ground school. And then it was four weeks of. What's ground school? So all the book stuff. All the aragonotics, all the controls, all the theory of flight, all that stuff. And somewhere in there, they found out that what they were, what his class was learning. Learning was to be fighter pilots. Oh, so they were just studying this stuff and they didn't know.

And then they. Well, yeah, I don't know exactly when he knew. So when he was going through cadets, they had no idea. He had no idea whether he would be a pilot, whether he'd be a bomb. deer whether he'd be a tail gunner what he'd be right didn't know but at some point they probably compared notes or compared what book the bombers guys had or they were like oh or they said any meeny money moe you know one through 16 goes here and i mean who knows there's a war going on so they're just trying to get people through there as fast they can yeah but anyway he ended up he got through that

and got to ground school and did all the book work and then the pilot training. The goal was to solo. You had so many hours of instructor training in an AT6. It was called an AT6. Well, luckily for Lawrence, an AT6 is nothing but a militarized version of a piper cup. It's basically the same plane that Paul Kane had that taught, dad how to fly on the ranch yeah i mean that's pretty much it oh my gosh but the first week that they

had their so you only got four weeks you got six weeks of on the ground training or whatever yeah books school school classroom training to get up to solo yeah because there was so many you had actually you had so many hours they gave you so many hours with an instructor they probably went in shifts so you couldn't and the the time was based on because they they made it a block of so many weeks because you didn't know what the weather. You had to account for there were going to be days they couldn't fly that it was fog. So you only had so many hours with the person teaching you how to fly. Exactly. After that, you're cut off and you got a solo. Well, after that you had to solo. And if you couldn't solo, if you couldn't cut the mustard,

you're out. You're out. So the first week that they were in, when they were with an instructor, uh, dad got ear infection. Well, if you've had ear infection, well, if you've had ear, infection, it's very painful to fly because altitude makes it worse. Right. So he was basically laying in the infirmary for, I want to say two weeks. You think he, I bet, I bet money on it. He got it and was like, oh, I'll go try. And then he went out.

And then he was like, oh, fuck, no, I'm not doing this. So here's the deal. This is the deal. So it came down that it, he got cleared. And he went to the commander of that training deal. And he said to him, he said, I want to try. And he told him, he said, Wiss, he said, you think you can, he goes, you think you can solo in a day because he goes, these guys are shipping out in three days. So he was out for like two weeks.

Yeah, he was out for two weeks. So this is the last week. So everybody, everybody in his, his crew had either solo. or washed out. Or they were getting sent back. So wait, everybody that he started with either passed or didn't? Yes. So they let him go in the class below him?

No, no, no. Everybody that was with him, by the time he got out, they had either soloed and they were just waiting to ship out to what they called secondary. Right. Or they had washed out and gone back to the army. And he said to the commander, he said, I think I can do it. And he's like, okay, go ahead.

And so this, so this instructor took him down. They got in an AT6 and he said, he said, well, you know, let's go. So he took it up and he gave my dad the controls and he didn't do too bad. And this guy said, you know, you're pretty, you're pretty, natural. Yeah, you're pretty handy on this. He goes, he goes, you think you could shoot a landing? And my dad said, well, I think I can. And he goes, well, take it in and land it.

So he did. And then he took it back off and he said, landed again. So he landed and then you still with the instructor? Yep, still with the instructor. And then the second time he landed and the instructor said, well, you think you could do this by your, he goes, you think you can do it? My dad said, well, I think I can. And he goes, all right, let me out. Time to solo.

So he did. So he soloed on his first attempt. First. And remember, the thing about this is so good is nobody knows. That he had his private license. And in fact, the guys that he went overseas with, he never told him. He never told him. That is legend.

I mean, that's kind of legendary. That would have been. He never told him that. So they thought that he was going to crash and bird. Lawrence Whistler is a natural. This guy is that. He was meant to fly. He was meant to fly.

They didn't know. that he'd had. Paul, yeah, Paul, he was with Paul King. I don't know how many hours he'd had flying with somebody else. But anyway. So he soloed. So he soloed. So he made it through.

And so then secondary was in Dover, Delaware. And this is where I think that generation, people don't give them enough credit. Well, I mean, people give them credit. But just the way, just the way World War, or two was fought, and what the guys that fought it were given and what they were expected to do is amazing. Because when they got to Delaware, they were flying P40s. P40 is what they were using, and some P47s. And that was their first, that was the first time they were around an actual, like, fighter plane and they learned about you know leading and how the guns worked and you know today if

you're a fighter pilot you use lasers and they use you know it's all it's simulated and you know if you've got a hit or not i mean i don't obviously i'm going back to my top gun top gun days i don't know how they really you don't know all the details but this is how they did target training so they had ships out in the out in the ocean off the coast of delaware and your every fifth round was a tracer round had pain in it and these ships would pull these big targets cloth tarp targets behind them like a big kite right and they would fly and you would try to you would try to hit that well now I'm no rocket scientist, but I'm sure that that target wasn't anything like a German Emmy 109.

Yeah. I mean, it's not even. But that's how they learned. That's how they learned was that. And that's crazy. I think that was only eight weeks. I think that's right, eight weeks. And then he had leave and he came home.

So he hasn't even been out in the war yet. So you just, that's a lot of, That's a lot of it. So what year was it after he got done with all of you? Learned the flying, got his, was an officer. So he spent a year in cadets. Yep. And then I don't know how much time back and forth.

I think my oldest brother would know because he's a little better on the timelines than I am. But he got to, he got to Italy. He got to Italy summer of 44 is when he got there. because he was in the 325th Air Force 318th squadron. So the checker-tail squadrons, there was a squadron that was yellow and black, red and black, and I think white. So if you were a fighter pilot, we're all, I mean, probably not,

but we're all fighter pilots flying P-51? No. So how did he end up getting, was that luck of the draw too? Yep. So here's what happened. Jeez. So back up. He got a lot of luck on his side for all that stuff.

They ship out and they were to go to Naples, Italy, is where their destination was. And they shipped out on what they called an LST, which is a surface transport ship. And it's flat bottomed. It's flat bottomed so that they basically could beach them and you could drive tanks, jeeps, whatever, off of them. So if you were going to get seasick, you're going to get really seasick on an LSD because it floats. Oh, terrible. And a bunch of those guys were. And my dad talks about or talked about how he kind of got to know one of the guys that was a, he was a lookout.

out and so he would have a shift up in the crow's nest and my dad said that he could sleep a lot better up higher up in that than he did in the ship and he would go up with that guy and he would just sleep at night in that crow's nest he made some pretty damn good connections yeah i think he might have had i think that's where you got you get your little sales salesman in you because he seemed like he could connect with people pretty pretty easily i think he could i must have a little of it. I don't know. I don't know. Well, I think anybody that watches our stuff knows that you come up with shit pretty easily on the fly. It's, it's kind of insane. I don't know how he does it. Torks one-liners is just, you could have a T-C, we could probably have 24 T-shirts

of all the one-liners that you've said. I just need one. I just need to get one of those T-shirts to make some money off of. Right. But they got over, so they get over there, but they, this LST, they screwed up their orders and instead of dropping them at Naples, they drop them in North Africa, which is across the Mediterranean. And they're sitting at this, they're sitting at this army base outside of Cairo. And they're there for like three weeks because nobody can find their orders. And I think there's 16 guys and they were the only Air Corps guys. that were on this Navy boat. And obviously, so you've got, you've got the Army and you've got the Navy,

and then within the Army you have the Air Corps. And the Air Corps was kind of treated like the bastard child of the Army because they didn't like them. It's kind of not, that's not how it is now, though. It's not how it is now. You talk to any military people now, Air Force or the, like. They get all the money. They get all the money. They come off the bus and they got all these nice buses and these nice hotels and any time they need to stay.

A buddy of mine, a buddy of mine was in the guard, and when they got shipped to go over to Iraq, they had to do live fire. And they were in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. And every morning they would get up and they would road march out to where they would have the simulation set up. And the first day, they're road marching out there, and this bus passes them. And they get there, and he says to his sergeant, he's like, who's on that bus? and he just pats him on the back and he's like, you should have gone to the Air Force. Because so they would run the simulation,

and then all of these, all of these National Guard guys, it'd be like 45 degrees, 50 degrees, you know. They're all out there shivering. Yeah, they marched all the way out there. Yeah, and then they're just waiting for them to change it. And these Air Force guys, they would be on the bus either sleeping or watching a movie,

and you could see them in there. And then when it was time for them to, run it you know they'd come off they'd run it then they'd get back on you know the buses start up so yeah the the air force it it it came it came to be yeah the number one they got the budget they got the budget but anyway wasn't like that back then yeah so there wasn't any communication there wasn't good communication between the army and the navy and then so the navy they dumped them off it's not their problem they don't care you know they couldn't find the orders they don't care somebody else let them off which was actually turned out it was fine with them because they went into Cairo my dad when we cleaned out the house he had a pair of boots that he bought in Cairo you know and they were just kind of seeing the sights they went and saw the pyramids and nobody seemed to figure out well anyway that is crazy they finally figured out what they were supposed to do and they put them back on a boat and they get to Naples and then they get in a deuce and a half and they haul them up the coat and they're supposed to do so

and their base had just moved up further. So as the front progressed up in the northern Italy, the Air Corps moved up too, because the goal was when he, before he had gotten there, before the base had moved, the bombers would come over from Britain, and then the fighters would pick them up, up and escort them into Germany.

But at the beginning of this, the fighters could not carry enough fuel to get them all the way to the bombing run. And it didn't take the Germans very long to figure out. That they couldn't. Yeah, so they would just hang out. You could, the fighters would escort them. But you wouldn't do it for so long.

Well, and you wouldn't see any Germans. Because why? Why would they, yeah. They'd just be waiting. They'd wait until they couldn't go any longer. And as soon as the fighters turned to come back, that was when all hell broke loose. But as the front moved north,

they moved the air bases further north. And so his base was in a little town on the Adriatic side, and I can't think of the name of it. I'm drawing a blank of it. I mean, it's fine if you don't know the exact town. I can't think of it. It'll come to me. But anyway, at the same time that they had moved,

So the P-51 Mustang, there wasn't, when he went through primary or secondary, there were none of them in the United States. They were shipping them over there as fast as they could build them. And the squadron that he was flying with, they had just switched over from P-40s. So has he flown any missions? None. No. No mission. So he did all this messing around. Yeah, none. He hadn't seen any combat.

And he's never even seen a P-51 Mustang. He'd trained in a P-40. and a P-47. And... To the fighting, to the shooting, the shooting training. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

And they literally get off the boat and they get picked up. They get to the base and they go along and, and because they had just moved, everybody's basically in tents. They've got these, they've got these tents. So the runways... So they, he went to, what was that town, starts with them, Naples. Naples.

And then so they got there and then they started moving their bases. Well, no. Naples was the main naval base because that's so the boat came into a naval base. And then somebody from the Air Corps comes and picks them up in a deuce and a half probably because there's all of them. I can't I can't remember if there's eight of them or 12 of them. But anyway, they take them up the coast to where the Air Force base is. And these bases, the.

runways were basically heavy corrugated steel so what they do is the the um engineers the the engineers would come in and they would level they would level a spot and then they would lay down these big sections of corrugated steel and that was what the runway was and then you'd have you'd have where they set up the you think they did that just for time sake. Yeah, right, because they didn't have time. It's a poor concrete. And then the goal was, obviously, as they were far enough behind the front that they were safe enough that they weren't going to get shelled. Right. And also they kept moving farther, so there's no point even more concrete. So that was the idea of it. Got it. So they get to the base, and they're going along, and my dad's hell never forget because

the sergeant or whoever it was, he's like Whistler, and he's like, yep, he's like, you're bunking there and somebody else with him too. And they throw their stuff down and they go to this tent. And there's four guys to a tent. And all four little areas, beds have people's stuff in it. And the sergeant or whoever, the lieutenant says, well, just throw their stuff out because they're not coming back. They're not coming back.

So those guys had flown a mission and didn't come back. Right. Welcome to it pretty much. Yeah. And they said, you know, meet down at the rampart, which is, I can't remember if that's exactly what you call. Basically where you parked the, part had the planes parked. And they got their stuff stowed and they went down there. And the commanding officer said, you know, welcome to Italy, boys.

Any of you guys ever seen a P-51? And they're like, no, none of them had. And they said, well, let's go test hot. let's go test hop them because you boys are going to Germany tomorrow. And that's literally what happened. They got their stuff stowed. It was middle of the morning. It was about noon by the time I got there.

And they were up at 4 a.m. the next morning. Fly their first mission. And they were getting their briefing to fly their first mission. So was he with the same guys from throughout everything? Like he flew missions with those guys and everything? Yeah, not all of them. Not all of them came there. right um but there was a crew of i want to say that like there was six of them that yeah he'd been

through and were all of those guys uh p 51 yeah they were all fighters so all the planes yep they were all fighter pilots none of his buddies that he went through no okay yeah they were all they were all uh p 51 pilots um so that's kind of a rush of emotions you get there they say yep just throw that crap out come down here look at this new toy we got yeah and so they're going out They all test hopped them. They all got in. They showed them how everything worked and they took off. They flew a little bit. They shot some landings. Belly rolled them. Showed them, you know, how the wing tanks were. And it's a really, I just think it's crazy because so at that time, as we said before, the P-51, that was like an F-35 today. It's the premier. It was the premier. It was the premier. But the way they

You know, it's like, here you go. I mean, just go. Right. Just go. Because, you know, war's on. There's no time for, you know, it's like, well, it's like shit or get off the pot, really. And I feel like that's kind of how all of America was, too, though, because they were. They work.

Oh, we got to get, we got to make this plane and this is the best, but we got to just, there's no trial runs. We're just going to get them built and take them out there. Yeah. Ship them out. But he could tell right away. that this was a whole different animal than what the P40 was. The power was, you know, it had a, I think, I'm not total,

the specs aren't, I think is about a 1,300 horse, either a Merlin, a Packard Merlin engine, it was a V12, and they had a range of about 450 miles with the wing tanks. So you burned, you burned a gallon a minute. So it had a It had a 300-gallon belly tank, and then you could carry 250-gallon wing tanks. So it had a 600-mile range.

If I'm right on the... It could be 150-gallon belly tank. If that was a case, it'd have a 450-mile range. But I want to say it's 300 gallons. But with the wing tanks, it wasn't very maneuverable. Do they take them off? Right. And so... Unless they were going far, then they...

Yeah. So the goal was that you would be able to escort the bombers all the way until they made their run. And then while they made their run, you would fend off the fighters. And then as soon as any enemy fighters showed up, you had to kick your wing tanks off. Because you got to, you had to go fast. You couldn't slow you down. You couldn't maneuver. So you had to kick them off. and so the Germans, you know, they knew what was going on. So their first goal was that they would want to meet you as soon as they could because if they could get you to kick those wing tanks off,

there is no way that you could stay on target until the bombers were done or else you wouldn't have enough fuel to make it back. So that was kind of a game of wits. Yeah, and that's what a lot of people don't realize. It's like, I remember watching the movie Dunkirk, and they got their stopwatches, and they're looking at their stopwatch because they know how much times they got, and they're clicking their time watch.

And it's like, you got this, you got, the enemy's trying to kill you. You got how much fool you got, and you know how much time you got. You got your stopwatch. Yeah. And it's a game of wits because the enemy's trying to outsmart you. And they would do the same thing. When the bomber started their run, they would have a stopwatch. My dad, well, he just used his watch, but you would keep track because every minute that you were circling, you're burning fuel. And so you had to do the calculations. And you got down to a point where if, you know, if things went wrong, you had to turn because otherwise you weren't going to make it back.

Right. uh it's it's this is a very hard i mean yeah this dad's had a special bond with uh you know it's his dad obviously was my grandpa and anytime we bring up war stories it's just it's it's hard because it's i don't know it's it's a proud moment it's very what those guys went through was just absolutely it's just something that i i don't think it i don't know men back then were crazy They were tough. They were tough as nails.

And what they went through versus what people in our generation, my generation, go through is just like nothing. And the story and just the fact that you can, the fact that they put their lives on the line to who essentially keep America going. I mean, fighting in World War II kind of going on a rampal here. Well, that's all right. I mean, I, you know, I get choked up about it. And it isn't even so much about, you know, my dad specifically. It's just...

It's the family and friends event at Shoppers Drug Mart. Get 20% off almost all regular-priced merchandise. Two days only. Tuesday, April 28th and Wednesday, April 29th. Open your PC optimum app to get your coupon. You know, people don't... It's like you said. And it's that way, you know, it would be that way if it was me

and I was in Iraq or whatever because it's a special I mean it's a special thing the sacrifice that they did and my dad was damn lucky that he made it back because there were a heck of a lot of guys that didn't make it back and you know there's a lot of good stories there's a lot of funny stories but there's a lot of pretty pretty shitty stories too about you know watching people go down and and near life near death experiences yeah and and and and we're not going to let this thing get too long. So one of the first things that my dad experienced was on a P-51 Mustang, there was a stop. There was a throttle stop where it's kind of like pulling out the stop on a 40-20. You don't want to go over a certain throttle, but there's more throttle there. And you figured out real quick that if a German, if an M-E-109 is on your tail, a P-51 will out-climb.

uh, measure smit, if you put it to the wood. And a lot, you know, my dad, he didn't think twice about popping that safety wire and putting it to the wood because you could climb, you could out climb, and then you could roll it and you could get in behind them. And the downside of that was that you would catch hell from your crew chief because when you got back, if, if that thing had been gone past the stop, they'd have to pull the heads off of it and make sure that everything was all right. And, you know, the crew chiefs, the crews, they didn't want to do that. Well, they had enough to do. They didn't want to have to do that. But, you know, it's the difference between bringing a plane back or not. But I'll tell you one quick story. When my dad was just, he hadn't been there

very long and he was flying on somebody's wing and the guy that he was flying on had, you know, of 25 or 30 missions under his belt. And he was a guy that as soon as they got off the mission to come home, when the bombers were on their way home, then they would kick off and come back south to Italy. And he would be looking for anything that he could shoot the hell out of. I mean... Just for fun.

Well, right. There was no use of coming back with any ammo in your wings. So a Mustang had six 30-caliber machine guns, and the wings, you know, they had belt-fed. But anyway, you know, if it was, he was looking for a railroad yard. He was looking for an ammo depot. He was looking for trucks on the road. He was looking for gasoline tanks, anything.

And they were coming south, and he was flying. There was four of them. And they were flying, you know, two and two, and he was flying on this guy's wing. And they came over a ridge, and here's a big railroad roundhouse, where it was like a depot where trains came in and they had a roundhouse where they'd switch them to send them a different way. And he was like, oh, it was like Christmas morning, you know.

And they came down just right as low as they could and they're just shooting. Lit it up. Let it up coming down the rail. And behind this, ahead of them, is this old, old growth pine forest, you know, German, Bavaria. and my dad, this is the first time he's ever been on a strafing mission, and he's just like a kid in a candy store because shit's blowing up, you know,

and he's looking over his wing. Anyway, he looks up and the guy that he's flying on his wing, he's gone because he's already pulled up, and he looks in front of him and all he can see is pine trees. And so he pulls this thing up, and he thought he was done, but he pulls up and he gets out of it, and he makes it back. And they land, and so they go to the officers club.

And he's standing the officers club. And before long, this guy comes, somebody comes up and tasks him on the shoulder. And he turns around, and it's one of the, what's with his crew chief, as crew chief drags him. Well, first, I don't know for sure. I've heard it both ways. I'm not so sure he didn't punch him in the face first. That's what you always told me.

He got decked right in the face. He always told me that he punched him in the face, and then he proceeded to drag him out of the officers club. And he brings him down to where his plane is encamped or whatever they call it. And he shows my dad the air intake. So the radiator on a 51 is on the belly side just below. There's a cowl there about halfway back under the motor. Anyway, this cowl is shuffed, clear full of like pine branches.

And this guy tells my dad, don't you ever do that to my plane because those guys considered them their planes. And my dad tried to steer clear of doing anything stupid after that. I like that again. Yeah. But he made it through. He made 52 missions over there. And he got real tight with the group of guys who's with. And you had to fly 50.

And if he flew 50, you could come home. But my dad could type. He'd been through college and he could type. And he worked at the journal when he was in high school, the little Washington Evening Journal. So he was pretty good at putting information together. So at some point over there, he became the operations officer. The guy that was the operations officer moved on. I don't know what happened. But anyway, they made my dad the operations officer. And he became a captain. He got the distinguished flying cross. And he got the air metal while he was over there. And those are some pretty good stories. But, well, you can, I mean, we got time. You can tell as you want. I mean, this is, not everybody can tell this stuff, you know. There's not a lot of them left.

So, so. So, um, he told me, you know, a lot of people would ask him, you know, if he was scared when he's over there. And I'm sure he was scared. And he said, but he would always say that what he told him. himself every day was every mission he flew he said that Uncle Sam had given him the best the best plane that had ever been built and he'd had the best training that they could give him and he figured that if anybody was going to make it out it was going to be him so that's what he

told himself and he said that really that plane was it was just an absolute joy to fly it was so much fun to fly. So when he was operations officer, any plane that had a problem, you know, they would tag it. And whatever it was, if it was a radio, if it was misfiring, if there was something happening, they would fix whatever it was. But then that plane had to be test hopped. And my dad, he loved going down to the flight line. And if there were planes that needed to be test hopped, He'd just take them because he loved flying. And they didn't care. He was kind of his own.

You know, nobody was really checking on him. And he'd take off and he'd fly around and look at this, look at that, come back, you know. And they also had a 51 that they stripped all the armor out of it. And they put a jump seat in it. And they used it like if they had to go pick somebody up down at Naples or if they had some big wig that came in that Landon, they brought him there. somebody would go pick him up. And it was a fist fight to fly that.

If you got the chance to go pick somebody up, you wanted to do it because that thing was about, oh, I don't know, it was probably 700 pounds lighter than what they flew. So it could just fly. Yeah, it was fast. I mean, it was really, I mean, it's comparable to what, the 50 ones that are round, obviously all the armor's been

stripped out. The guns have been stripped out. This one still had the guns in it, but it didn't have the armor in it. Compared to what they were flying. Yeah, I mean it was all the ass. Not only did zip, but it cornered, you know, it just did everything better. Did he ever get the chance to do it?

Yeah, he did. He loved flying. I think he got to do it a couple of times. So, what, I think what changed him, I think he would have stayed. I think he would have been one of those guys that stayed longer because I kind of got off there. But when he became the operations officer, after he'd flown his 50, he could have come home. But the commander or whatever asked him if he would stay on until they got somebody in there

because they didn't really have anybody to do it. And I don't think they probably were trying all that hard if he was willing to do it. you know right and he didn't mind because at that point once you flew your 50 you didn't have to fly all the time yeah you could just pick and choose what you yeah you could fly you i think you had to fly a couple missions a month is about all you had to do and so there was another guy over there uh when he was that had flown his 50 earlier and he actually had a he had a girlfriend down in rome and he would come up like literally he'd come up once a month and he'd fly like two or three missions then he'd just go back to rome

and he'd been over there like he'd flown like that's crazy i think he'd flown like 60 or 65 missions he might have flown more than that well right about the time that my dad had flown his 50 he came back and flew and he got shot down and he died and i think that made an impression on my dad but then the other thing that happened the 52nd mission that he flew they went at that point in the war. So this was in the spring, this would have been in the spring of 45. And the Germans were getting short on a lot of things. They flew several missions where you didn't see much for fighters. Coming to take down the bombers. And what they would do is they would move stuff around, they would hold stuff back, they would shift around until they had enough resources that they

could really mount, you know, a resistance. And my dad, at this point, they had built a two-room like house. And him and six guys lived in this house, and it had a, it had a double-barrel stove in it, and they burned, they burned 100-octane aircraft fuel in it as like, they had like an injector or something that somebody had rigged up. So it was like their furnace. And they They dug a hole underneath of it and had a bucket, and they used it as a refrigerator. You could keep your Coke or your bud. Beer in there.

It was a pretty nice setup. For whether they were at. Yeah. And so he'd gotten to know those guys real well. In fact, one of them was Torkelson. So one of the guys he flew with, his last name was Torkelson. His nickname was Torkelson. and so that's how I got my name.

I'm named after that guy. But anyway, the last mission he flew, there was, I don't know exactly how many of them, but at least two of the guys that he lived with that didn't come back. They got shot down on that mission. Those two events were pretty much him deciding, I'm done with this. Yeah, he just, he'd had enough.

And he decided that it was, time to come home. So that was the spring of 45 and he came back to Iowa. But then his brother was farming with his dad and there really wasn't a place for him. And he just, I don't think he knew what he wanted to do. And so the GI Bill was going on. So he, and he went back to, he went back to see you. He knew everybody out there and he could have work. Did he ever go and see Kane again? Yeah. So, um, after the, after he got done. Yep. So when he quit and he was ready to be done, was that right when the war was almost over? Yeah, the war was almost over. And in fact, a good story, um, when he, I don't know what Air Force base that he came.

through on his way back. But when he landed there to get to a naval base to get on a ship to come back, there, while he was waiting... There was news that...

No, there was a captured German jet. So the Germans had, they were on the cusp of perfecting a jet airplane. In fact, they had one. an M.E. I can't remember what the number was. And there was a few of them that were produced.

And they were faster than a 51. And they became a priority for the Air Force. Basically, they got the order that if you were in combat and you spotted one of those, they didn't care whether you were... Well, they didn't care if you were to the bombing run or not. Your number one priority was to kick your tanks off and try to take those planes down.

Because they knew the specs on that, plane that if the Germans would have had a little more time and they could have produced them in numbers, it would have been, it could have changed the outcome of the war. And so it became their number one priority. If you saw one of those, shoot it down. But my dad never saw one, but they, when he landed, I don't know if that was in Naples. It might have been in Naples, but when he landed there, they had one that they'd captured. And he was like, you looked that and it was like, oh man. He was like, yeah, it's probably good decision to get out. Yeah. So he did. And, you know, my dad lost touch with those guys. But when I was a teenager, like when I was

about 15, 16, he started going to the reunions. And he went to several of the reunions. And some of those guys stopped and we had them at our house. And, you know, the stories that I'm telling you, they seem, you know, it's unusual. But for that generation, all those guys went through that. I mean, it's just a, it's a crazy deal. Anytime, anytime you talk about war or anything, like, even when I watch war movies, I mean, I tear up because it's, it's the ultimate sacrifice. It really is. Like, I don't think there's probably a more honorable thing to do as a person than to fight for your country. I mean, there just really isn't. Yeah. I mean, there's, obviously jobs that regular civilians do like farming. I mean, that's a pretty fulfilling thing that we do

that, you know, helps a lot of people out being in the health care. You know, that helps a lot of people. But putting your life on the line, I mean, and watching these stories and listening to stories, it is emotional because, like, I remember watching the movie Lone Survivor. And I mean, Hollywood, you know, they, it's not, it's not as detailed right down to the story because they have to make it all Hollywood and everything. But I mean, it's still, it's like those guys, yeah, it's, it's a, it's tough. Well, that mental fortitude. And they make you feel like, you feel very inferior when you listen to those guys talk because it's like, man, I'm, I'm not, I'm not even, I don't know if I could do that. Yeah, right. And, and I think all those guys,

you know, it, it changes them. And, you know, to, to some people and to us, well, to us, that's part of what made it hard growing up with a dad like that that had been through war. And I'm sure a lot of people that had a father that went through that can identify it because when you have the amount of loss and you've seen the things that they've seen, and I'm sure, you know, him in the Air Force is a whole different deal compared to somebody that was in the infantry. Right. But even in that, the, what you see and the loss you see and the things you have to go through, what is a big deal to a 16-year-old kid doesn't probably even register on your radar as something that you need to get upset about.

Right. And so you get the story that, you know, they're very, well, they're dead inside or that, you know, they don't have any emotion or they're cold-hearted bastards or whatever. Well, I don't think that it's so much that it's just the, it's the coping. mechanism of having to deal with all that. But the other side of it is, you know, for my dad, it also, it gives you the determination that, you know, when most people would just quit, you don't quit because you're just, you're kind of callous to it. You're, you're, just because it's hard, you're not going to quit. And that's kind of how he was. I mean, yeah,

the discipline that he probably, I mean, they ingrained that in you. And, you're, and then you go through real he went through real life situations where that's that really was like when he's in a freaking gunfight you can't retreat and fall back no matter how scared you are or the story when so my grandpa lawrence is about probably the same height as dad here so dad gets his dad gets his height from grandpa but in grandpa's scenario it i don't know this is this is one of the craziest stories i think this is a near near-death experience for my grandpa. And he always, you told me this, that he was just short enough in his P-51 that he had bullets go through the seat right above his head.

Yeah, through the, through the, through the cockpit, right above his head. And if he was even an inch taller, he was a little bit taller, he would have been done for. Yeah. And I mean, that's just, that, I mean, I'm sure he was, I mean, I don't know, I'm sure he was crap in his pants, but the same time when you're in that and you've developed that mindset of like no matter what i'm going to get through this well and and when you ask him about it and this was his answer like when i was would be upset when a kid as a kid or heck when i was upset about whatever and i would tell him this he would say to me well what are you going to do about it and i would say well there's nothing you can do about it and he goes well then quit worrying about it only worry about what you can do

And his analogy of that is when you're sitting in a cockpit and bullets are going past you, or in that case, you know, you get a bullet through your canopy, what are you going to do? Because there's nowhere to go. There's no ejection seat in a P-51. And what are you going to do? There's nothing you could do. You're going to stick it out and fight it and just control the controllables? or not.

So anyway, so he comes, he made it back and he didn't know what to do. So he decided that he'd like to be a lawyer. And he went back. So the law school had been on, basically on hiatus during the war because you didn't have anybody, everybody was being drafted. And so he was part of the first class of, I would assume it was 45, maybe it was 46. and he did that, and I think it took him four years. Four years to do it.

I think that's right. And he got done. And as you can imagine, the amount of reading and the amount of writing and the amount of studying the law and studying precedent, it really took a toll on him that by the time he got done, he did pass the bar, and he actually got a job with a law firm. I think down in Denver. But a lot had happened back here at home. His parents were getting elderly.

And there was an opportunity. When he came back, he started farming with his brother. But anyway, he made the decision that he wasn't going to practice law. He really just got to the point that he hated it. He just hated the books and the hours of reading and all that. And he came back here in 49. and he always said that when he came back, he told my grandmother that right or wrong,

he wasn't going to change again, that this was going to be the last job he had. Well, yeah, and how old was he, like when he decided to come back? Well, so 49, so he was 30. He was born. Did he work a year in Denver, or did he ever say how long he actually worked there? Yeah, I don't think very long. Yeah, I don't think very long.

So he was what? So he was born in 19, 39, 49, 49, he was 30 years old, is that right? 30 years old. 19 to 29, 29, 29 to 39, 39, 39 to 49, yeah. 30. I would take my shoes off to count, but I didn't want to, I'll spare you that. Yeah, so he was 30. And then you always say that he always felt like, like in the first episode,

he always felt like he was behind because he got, he started his career off so late compared. Well, everybody kind of started their, all the men at least that made it back, kind of had to start their, well, he took a little longer because he wanted, you know, tried something and then came back and eventually got to do what it was to do. But. Yeah, and then the other thing that played into that is when he came back, he started farming with his brother. And he and his brother rented ground together and they actually bought some ground together. But then, and I don't know exactly when this all happened because it happened before I came along. but they had a falling out. And so when that happened that he ended up inheriting a one-third interest, not only did he have to start late, but then when the relationship with his brother fell apart and they split up. Everything they had together. Yeah.

He was basically starting over again. And this would have been after my brothers were born, so this would have been in the 60s. So how old was his brother? So he, how much older was grandpa? Well, I think Raymond was, so Raymond was his brother. I want to say Raymond was five years younger than me. Or younger than him.

And then Francis was his sister. His sister. She was two years? Two years younger than him. I think that's right. Yep. I'd like to ask him, but they're all gone now. So I don't know.

I can't remember. but yeah well that's um that is so then you he he he had his kids grandpa is there any more so is there how much longer do you want to go about his journey back to the farm well yeah i mean when he came here his his mother was convinced that she would never see grandchildren out of him you know because all the you know there weren't any women his age that weren't married and um he wasn't very interested in dating anybody, I don't think, because he was focused on trying to get his career, yeah, get the farm going and all that. But he had a good relationship with a lawyer from Washington that was his age, Bob Day, and he and Bob, and Bob was married, Bob and

Corny Day, and they spent a lot of time together, and Bob and Corny kind of made it their mission to try to set my dad up. And he got, they drug him to, a young people's dance at the Odd Fellows Lodge, I think is what it was called. And that's how he met my mom, Shirley. And my mom is 17 years younger than my dad. My mom's still living. She lives in a retirement home in Colonna, Iowa. But she was 17 years younger.

My dad grew up Presbyterian. My mom was a staunch Catholic. And they ended up eloping. and they ended up going to Elwood City, Pennsylvania, to get married by the minister who had been the minister at the church in Washington, but had just moved there. And my grandparents on my mom's side basically told my mother that if she married him, she would burn in hell,

and they would have nothing to do with them. And when they came home, they lived in your house, which was the hired man's house, where Sawyer lives now, used to be where I lived. And it was over a year after they were married before they accepted him back. Before they accepted him. And then it was pretty rough for a while. But my dad ended up farming my grandpa's ground for years and years.

So it ended up okay. But I mean, back then you, yeah, the good old days weren't, you talk about the strife and the problems we, have today against people with different ideas. I mean, this was, these were two groups that were Christians, but if you were a Catholic and you married a Protestant, oh boy, it was, yeah, it was a battle. So anyway, we should probably leave it for today. Yeah, I'll just, Dad did a lot of talking in this one because he knows the backstory better than I did. I mean, my grandpa, so yeah, grandpa ended up farming, had this gentleman here sitting in front of me and

thank God because now I'm here and we're just trying to do our best to carry on his legacy. And I know this might not be such a valuable episode, like giving you guys value, but we really think it's important to share his story because there's a lot of lessons in there. And there's a lot of, there's just a lot of things he went through that gives you kind of perspective on the life we live now and how good we have it now. I mean, when I always look at his life and you tell me stuff, it just really puts me in perspective for me, like, how easy I have it compared to what he had to go through. And I just want to do my best to, I don't know, fill that role and do what I can. But, yeah. I'll say this quick. So Jordan Peterson

has a great piece where he talks about all of those that came before. you how that that DNA is in you and it there is a lot we we are so blessed and we have it so easy i mean even for the strife we have we have it so easy my dad struggled and you know he went through a tough time but the generation before him he had it easy compared to the generation before him and that generation had it easier than the i mean it it gets easier and easier It does. And, I mean, we're just, the fact that we're here means somebody, for all of you, for all of you, the fact that you're here means that somewhere up the line, the generations before you put in a lot of hard work,

and they went through a lot just so you can be here. And so, you know, the odds of being alive. It's $3 trillion to $1. Yeah, Gary V. Gary B, he'll give you that. and to have the fact that you're here, it's a miracle. And you can owe it to your ancestors, whoever they are. Because the struggle that you have, while it's tough,

it's nothing compared to those that came before you. Yeah. And last week we did an episode, or two weeks ago, we did an episode, you know, how to find success in your life. And a lot of people, you know, struggle to find what they're burning, I don't know what success looks like to them or what they're striving for. A lot of people, I think a lot of people in today's society feel lost and they don't know what to do and they,

you know, it's hard to find what you want to do. But like a big, big, big motivator for me is just legacy. Like just do your best to leave a legacy for your kids and your grandkids because that's what you're, I mean, that's what your ancestors did. Without your ancestors,

they have a legacy and you might not know it fully, but without them. You're the legacy. Yeah. Without them, you're not, you know, you couldn't be doing what you're doing. So I always try to think, you know, I want to leave a legacy and I want to, we always, you always say that grandpa was the greatest generation. We all, you, that generation was the greatest generation. And they truly are. They

truly were. And I just, yeah, I said this in the beginning. I feel like it's our obligation, since you have a life to live it to your fullest and a big motivator would be trying to leave a legacy. So, well put. Well put. Yeah. If you've got an idea, something you want to hear about, if you've got an idea, somebody you'd like for us to talk to, we read all the comments, we value your comments, we just want to make this thing better. So just let us know. Give us a comment. Give us feedback. And we're out there on about every form of social media. So hit us up, DM us. All that. So thanks a lot. Have a good evening. See you guys.