My father was a true piece of work. Even though he was a die hard Republican, they broke the mold after him. When he was 9 (in the summer of 1934), his father brought home a handfull of instruments and instructed the entire family (4 boys and one girl), that they were to learn to play so that they could help make money to put bread on the table.
It was only 4 years after their debut on a snowy sidewalk in Thayer, MO., that they were performing regularly on stage at the Grand Ole Opry (where they were all too soon run off because of child labor laws....but that is another story).
When he was 18 he was drafted, sent to Germany, and after 8 weeks of duty he was wounded and would spend the next 4 years in and out of VA hospitals. His right knee was gone, with the bones fused together, but I never heard him complain...even though his only dream was to be a professional baseball player.
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