|
Reflections
By Bob Rhoades
Memorial Day is usually thought of as a day of reflection.
What better place for reflection than our own Bear’s Mill. The
mill in operation since 1850 has watched from the side of the road as
young citizens marched off to war in so many places. Millard
Fillmore was President when the mill opened its doors. Two years
before that, the Mexican American War had ended in 1848. It would
be 11 more years of peace until the Civil War started, and the mill
surely saw the young boys walking into Greenville or Gettysburg to
board the train and sadly the mill didn’t see some of them come
back. Next in 1898 a short lived war, the Spanish American War
started but didn’t last a year. We were much more fortunate this
time as only 332 casualties were recorded.
WW I started 16 years later in 1914 and once again the old mill watched
the boys leave. In this war we lost 53,402 lives. We won,
we were still free and the free world was still free. It was over
in 1918 but what an expense. Recently the last known US veteran
of WW I passed away in February of 2011 and the last known Combat
Veteran, a British born Australian passed away in May of 2011. He
was 110 years old. When he was asked about his longevity, Claude
Choules he said to “keep on breathing”. Since these last two
passed away since last Memorial Day, perhaps we should focus on them
this year. Thanks guys!
The next war, the war to end all wars was WWII. It started in
1941 and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. As before, old
Bears Mill now almost 90 years old saw the same progression of you
Darke Countians heading to the train stations where they headed for
basic training in the Army, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard.
The Air Force had yet to be created. All those fly boys went to
the Army too. Many had joined the British Air Corps for a chance
just to fly. There are still a number of veterans from WWII
around. As a young boy in 1955 the local contingencies of
veterans from the VFW, American Legion and others was sizable and the
Memorial Day parade was something to remember each year. This war
changed a lot of people’s lives as it did mine. I visited my
Dad’s grave this year again. He’s been gone for 66 years this
year. President Lincoln provided the epitaph on my dad’s
grave: That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain. I second that Mr. Lincoln.
No memorial day would be complete without a turn around the circle in
downtown Greenville, which sort of says it all.
|
