Former WWII POW had Dreams of a Better Life

My dad was born in a small town in Arkansas in the 1920s.
Never had much. Rural living mostly.
His mom and dad couldn’t offer him much and didn’t make much money.
But he had dreams that would take him out of Arkansas.

He hitchhiked to Shreveport, LA in the early 40s.
He had 50 cents in his pocket.
But he had dreams that he could have a better life.

He got a job taking photographs of people in the downtown area.
This was popular back then.  Take their photo, go inside a
a store and develop it, then sell it to the person whose picture you took.
He met my mom doing this. [Oh, later in life he became a part-time professional
photographer and even took pictures of Gene Autry and Annie Oakley and others.]

They were married about the time he got drafted into the Army Air Force.
He had dreams but Uncle Sam came calling for a tour of duty.


As World War II progressed he was sent to England to fly
bombing missions over Germany in a B-17 with the 306th Bomb Group, 369th Squadron.
He was the belly gunner.

On his last mission the plane was shot and damaged and the Captain made everyone bail out.

So, my dad jumped, or was pushed and landed in a body of water,  3 March 1944, crashing at Hausleiten, Austria.

The village people and soldiers were not happy with him, since the Americans had been bombing their town.

He was arrested and to make a long story short, was a Prisoner of War for about 18 months. [I could write more about this in another blog] He was held at one time at Stalag Luft 4.

My mom got a telegram that he was killed in action.  She was given a Purple Heart.


A few weeks or months later Mom received a letter from the Red Cross from my dad.
Can you imagine?  Thinking your husband was dead, but he’s alive?

They continued to write. He dropped down to 117 pounds or so. He was part of the Death March.
My dad had dreams and aspirations when he got out of Hitler's POW camp.

Former WWII POW had Dreams of a Better Life

After he was discharged from the service he settled in Shreveport and
they started a family there.

He worked various jobs, and took wedding photographs, and such.
Then he was hired by Sunray DX Oil Company. Ultimately this meant
a relocation of the family to Texas in 3 different towns.

And thirty something years later Dad retired from Sun Oil.

But what about my dad that has inspired this blog?

It was this:

Dad was always on the lookout for something that would
improve his “status” in life, provide a better living for
his family, and give him the satisfaction of knowing he
was improving as a person.

These are some of the things he did as I was growing up:

• He was the ice cream man on the bicycle. He had a cold
  box on the handle bars and would sell ice cream treats to
  the kids and people of our small town.
• He took photographs of weddings, ball teams, churches and
  even made oil portraits from photographs.
• He joined Amway and bought and sold their products.
• He took the Dale Carnegie Course for self improvement and
  public speaking. He even went to Miami, Florida in a public
  speaking contest.
• He sold and distributed greeting cards in stores.
• He and Mom opened up a thrift store in our garage. There was
  a lot of junk in there and it might have been the name of the store.
• He read books like Think and Grow Rich, See You at the Top, and
  other books for self improvement.  He listened to Earl Nightingale and
  Paul Harvey and Zig Ziglar.
• He went to college part-time to learn how to work on air conditioning
  for cars and homes.
• He had a dream of owning 10 rent houses.  He achieved that goal and
  had residual income from real estate.
• He gave away 20% of his income each month to his church and other charities.

Is there any wonder that I have a lot of the same traits as my Dad?

I’m always looking for the next thing….to be better…to make more money…to bless
others…to make a difference.

I have tried different MLM and affiliate marketing companies.

I have settled on this Viral Blogging System from Empower Network.

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And it is only going to get better with the launch of env2 in September, 2013.

My advice to you would be for you to do what my dad did.  He took action and
didn’t just sit around watching TV all the time. He was in a constant state of
trying to improve himself and his income, to leave a better life for his family.
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Former WWII POW had Dreams of a Better Life