Is my perspective unique? I don’t know, maybe it is. For one thing, unlike the large percentage of those who claim to be American, my roots in North America are deep, very deep. The last of my ancestors were in this country by 1840 at least and some go back thousands of years. I have no ties to an “old country” and my ancestors were all already here long before the huge influx of Italians, Poles and Jews that came in after the “Civil” War that wasn’t really a civil war, but was really a war to prevent the states that had decided they no longer wanted to be part of a union they believed to be corrupt from seceding. Well, not to prevent them from seceding - they had already seceded - but to force them back into the Union at the point of a bayonet. My ancestors didn’t come in through Ellis Island - they were already here long before Ellis Island became a holding station for would-be immigrants. There was no Statue of Liberty and there were few Catholics when my ancestors started coming to North America (some were already here.) Some of them came to America fleeing persecution in Germany by Catholics and their Lutheran progeny. One of my ancestors left Scotland after fighting with Bonnie Prince Charlie because his father was trying to force him to become a Presbyterian (Church of Scotland) minister. He died in England but two of his sons moved to the new United States (one eventually settled in Nova Scotia.) Some may have come as indentures - I don’t know. I doubt that any of them were Cavaliers although some settled in Jamestown. None were particularly famous and none were connected that I know of. No, my ancestors were just simple people who came to America for a new life. Yes, some owned slaves - but so effing what?
Very enjoyable account of your early life. But you left me hanging! What did happen when you first confronted an Air Force training instructor in San Antonio?
It sure seems to me that you lived in a golden time in the USA. I was born in the 60s so I saw some of "old USA" but not like your generation. I would love to read your impressions of the astounding changes to our country since then, cultural, economic, demographic.
Meeting up with an Air Force training instructor meant leaving the world I had grown up in and entering an entirely new one I knew something about, but not everything. That TI, as we called them, started yelling and all I heard was yelling for about the next two weeks.
Very enjoyable account of your early life. But you left me hanging! What did happen when you first confronted an Air Force training instructor in San Antonio?
It sure seems to me that you lived in a golden time in the USA. I was born in the 60s so I saw some of "old USA" but not like your generation. I would love to read your impressions of the astounding changes to our country since then, cultural, economic, demographic.
Meeting up with an Air Force training instructor meant leaving the world I had grown up in and entering an entirely new one I knew something about, but not everything. That TI, as we called them, started yelling and all I heard was yelling for about the next two weeks.