Larry A. Smail's Blog

Recently I was rumbling through “stuff” in my parents’ attic. I discovered many things of my fathers that prove to be priceless to me. I located many items from WW2 that he had kept… manuals; postcards; a detailed map showing his travels, etc. I, also, found something on an  aged, folded paper. This paper yielded his valedictorian speech  from his graduation from Elderton High school in 1941. 

I read the paper upon returning home and was much surprised of his insight of the times he was living and how, eerily the writing seemed to relate to our times as well.  I copied the speech and sent it to the Leader Times. Happily, the editor felt like me and printed the speech on Friday, June 4th. The irony for me was that  the speech appeared, within the pages of the paper, on what would have been my father’s 87th birthday-June 4th.  He was born in 1923.

As I wrote to the editor, I am sure my father didn’t think while giving that speech at the podium in 1941, he would be drafted the following year and once engaged wouldn’t return home again until the fall of 1945! He was D-Day 13 during that conflict. Last evening I was thinking about things of life. I couldn’t help wondering many aspects of life. What if my father would have been killed during that war?  He would have never married Ruth Elizabeth Yount in 1953. I would not have been born in 1955. My sister Ruthie Elaine Smail would not have been born in 1958.  Thoughts of the Christmas movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life” came to mind.  What if?  Such thoughts will boggle one’s mind!!  When you think of life and the wars…the  Civil War; the World Wars and so on one can only ponder of all of the lives and great people who never were because of war’s action!

The speech, “The Legacy of America” appeared in the June 4th edition of the Leader Times. I am honored and proud of my father!!!

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Ralph Wright was my uncle. He married my dad’s sister, Cleo Smail.  Prior to  his passing, he was an active and healthy man. His passing surprised everyone although he was 97 years old. This man was always eager to laugh, quite a pleasant man to be around.

Uncle Ralph had a story which few may have known. Soldiers, often keep the horrors they witnessed inside.  He was captured in Italy during World War Two. He spent 18 months in a German prison camp. His liberation as I remember the story was not with the return of an allied troops. The war was all but over in 1945. Of course, my uncle, probably, didn’t know that. Rumors may have been circulating. The German soldiers ordered them all outside of the prison camp and began marching them down the road.  I am sure great fears were felt by he and his fellow soldiers.  As the march continued, my uncle realized that the soldiers were becoming fewer and fewer. They were easing back!  Eventually, they all knew something was dramatically happening here. THEY WERE FREE!  Starving soldiers began to search frantically for any food they could find. As my memory serves me, I believe that some died from eating too much.

What a great story of courage of men under terrible conditions. I thank the Lord that my uncle was one of the soldiers to have survived. The world would have been a much lesser place without his laugh and friendliness towards all. REST DEAR UNCLE!

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We had a busy Mother’s Day this year. Laurie decided to have both our mothers over for a meal and dessert. So the house was full with both mothers, my step-father, my sister, Ruthie and Tim, her husband; Laurie’s one brother, Chris and his girlfriend with her son.  Fattening!

At the house, we watched some Rose-breasted grosbeaks at the feeder. The ‘coons are invading my feeders.

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