Growing up Rich

In South Georgia

Growing up as a child of a sharecropper family in South Georgia paints an image of hard times but my memories are just the opposite. We ate three good meals every day and slept in a comfortable bed at night. My parents loved me and taught me a code of conduct that I still strive to live by. I was taught; dont lie, cheat, say ugly words or talk bad about your neighbors. Go to Sunday school on Sunday and stay for church. Say yes sir and no sir to your elders and do not talk with food in your mouth. I was also taught to look people in the eye when talking to them. Daddy said that people with shifty eyes were not trustworthy. When I was assigned to the White House Communications Agency as a Staff Officer during my military career, my upbringing became a source of strength that saw me though some demanding situations. I learned at a very early age that God loved me. When I became a Christian at the age of fifteen, Jesus made sure my very own angel was there to lift me out of numerous deep holes I dug for myself. This book is memories of growing up in the mid forties and fifties and my twenty-three years in the U. S Army. These were challenging times for America and I consider myself fortunate to have lived through the period. World War II was over and millions of military men and women were returning home to pick back up their lives with the same energy and determination that won the war. The world today has changed dramatically from the world I grew up in. We have improved our standard of living with technologic advancements we only dreamed about. However, the world appears to have lost its ethical compass and is digressing back to the moral decay of the Roman Empire period of time. My prayer is that America will once again find its bearing and be a principled compass for the world to follow.