• Often barefoot and riding a bicycle with a fishing rod on the handlebars, I, in my early teens, rode through Winter Park deciding upon a spot to cast a plug. The world beyond the St. Johns River might as well have been on Mars as far as I, as a youth, was concerned. Then came the moment when I proved to myself that I was a good risk, and that taking a chance on myself might pay off. In short, I went to Tampa and took a six-hour exam that doled out scholarships as prizes. I was 16. A few months later, a man from Harvard came to our house and talked with my parents and I around a glowing fireplace. After Christmas, shortly before my 17th birthday, I received notice that I had won a scholarship through Harvard. My high school classmates thereafter looked at me as a freak of sorts. On the way to Massachusetts, I ran straight into the great New England Hurricane of 1938, which claimed hundreds of lives. Working with survivors and the Red Cross in New Haven, Conn., I met a very friendly fellow from Greenville, Miss. He asked me why I was headed north from Florida. I told him I was going to go to Harvard on scholarship. He answered, “So am I,” and explained that he had won a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard for the little Delta Democrat-Times, the Greenville, Miss., newspaper he had founded and run for some years. His name was Hodding Carter, and he was to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1946. Hodding and I got out of the subway in Harvard Square, and soon found my room on the first floor of Weld Hall in Harvard Yard. There I met my roommate, Bob Hill, who was to remain one of my closest friends until his death a few years ago. (Bob headed for Wall Street after the war, and ended up with his own firm, and a beautiful home in Darien, Conn.) Hodding dropped in to see me several times during my freshman year, always happy that “his young friend” had not flunked out as a scary percentage of freshmen did. • “Louis, this is Tom E, and I’m phoning you from North Carolina. Seventy years ago you and I were sent back from the South Pacific to Washington, D.C., to learn about new U.S. Navy gunnery. We became good friends, and I remember our going together in Washington to the Army/Navy game to see the great Army players Blanchard and Davis, ‘Mr. Inside’ and ‘Mr. Outside.’ I have spent my civilian life as an engineer for C— Can Co. Hope you and yours have a very happy year.” What a phone call — after 70 years! • Our president, Mr. Obama, who to my knowledge has never served in uniform, seems to be autocratically pulling our forces from Afghanistan, without the victory that was logically sought by the U.S. military. Under Obama, the pride and prestige of the U.S. have suffered steadily, and he seems satisfied with a helping of American ineffectualness. A byproduct of this latest move may be to deliver to Iran – either covertly or overtly – increased power and control of the whole Middle Eastern region.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:26:45 +0000
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