veterans

 by Water

Preface and Lifetime Philosophy

Preface

This writing of mixed subjects and mixed temperament has a number of worthy purposes. It is spawned partly by the normal zest for life which includes humor. Humor, experts say, provides great physical healing and therapy. It is enjoyed by nearly 100% of mankind. It is something that is not learned in school or college. It is a gift taken for granted from our great master of creation, our loving God of the universe! Therein expresses one of the major purposes of the enclosed pages: hopefully to inspire, encourage, teach, and illustrate worthwhile and Godly principles.

The book is the inspired work of Harry W. Dishon and the great typing job by my wife, Joan.

Many of the stories are life experiences of the writer; some of them are punctuated and capitalized by the hand of God. Therein is the supreme purpose of these words: to teach and inspire by example with deep humbleness, we thank God for many years of pleasant living.

Lifetime Philosophy

There are many things that influence and affect the attitude that an individual has about life. Some of those influences may be environment, culture, family size, education, talent, and gender. Please come with me as we examine the lifetime effects of a community environment upon one young man.

The young man is Harry W. Dishon, and I was a junior in high school and a member of the basketball team at a very small school. Our team was scheduled to play the team of another community that was larger than our school.

Burlington, the school we were playing, had a larger gymnasium than we had at our little Carrolton school, and the gym had built-in bleachers for spectators; on the opposite side was a large blank wall. (At that time there was no need for a huge spectator area.)

We were “warming up” before the game. I had on my basketball suit of the era, which was much skimpier than those of today.

After my turn with the basketball, I looked up at the blank wall and saw some writing. It attracted my attention because of the depth of its meaning:

The saying was,

“When that great writer comes to write upon our name, He writes not if we won or lost–but how we played the game.”

The saying inspired and intrigued me because of its great and deep meaning, and the saying applied to the “game” of life as well as to the game of basketball. I stood there in the middle of the floor like a nincompoop until I had memorized one of the most important philosophies of life. Little did I realize that it would become my philosophy for the daily walk of life for the next 70 years and would be with me still today! The honesty and integrity that is suggested therein is embedded in God’s divinity.

The force of meaning that it carries has guided me through some greatly troublesome times such as 4 ½ years of hell in WWII and the death of a beautiful and very loving wife when we had a 12-year-old daughter. The Godly philosophy also carried me through six weeks of pain and agony during an arm and hand injury. It is more meaningful today because, in my advanced senior years, God is ever present, ever real. The divinity that it carries becomes more realistic each passing week.

A true story.

 

About the Author

Harry Dishon is a retired veteran living in Howard County. He and his wife Joan recently recorded some of Harry’s recollections as a child and as a soldier, and we are honored to be able to share these memories with you. Periodically, we will post selections from Harry’s writings on our Military Appreciation page, so please come back and share some of Harry’s insights and memories.
 

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 by Water

Champions

This is a short story about a young man and two horses, illustrating, among other things, the modesty of a 17-year-old.

The name of the youth was Walter S. Dishon, who lived on a small farm in Carroll County, Indiana. The two horses were both named Fred and were considered a handsome team, as horses go. Their coloration was nearly alike: reddish brown (“bay” in horse language). Each weighed approximately 1,800 pounds, which put them in the heavyweight class. Each was nearly 10 years old—when horses are in their prime of life. The two of them were settled and disciplined in their role as faithful draft horses on the farm.

The season was summertime: long days of warm sunshine and an ideal time for county fairs. So it was in Carroll County, and Walter (well known as “Walt) was aware that at the county fair in Flora a horse-pulling contest was planned. Walt had confidence in his two Freds to compete in such an event. He therefore asked permission from our dad to enter, and received an affirmative answer, despite some negative elements. Flora, for instance, was 8 miles away from where we lived and that constituted a 2-hour constant trot to get there. Also on the 8-miles, roundtrip, there was danger of one horse becoming lame or being hit by an auto. Despite the negatives, Dad and Walt both felt optimistic and so the word was “good luck!”

On the morning of the big event, Walt was up and going early. As he placed the harness on each horse, he made sure that each and every leather strap was strong. Having hitched his beloved team to the rubber-tired wagon, he was ready to roll! He stopped by the house to say goodbye to Mom. She handed him a brown paper bag and said, “Here are a couple sandwiches for you to munch on as you travel. Good luck!” With that, he was off!

The two Freds seemed to anticipate something as they trotted along. The sunshine was bright and warm, obviously enjoyable to Walt. Soon, the outskirts of Flora hove into sight and Walt was glad that the park was on his side of town. As he entered the park, he could see two other teams already there. The officials indicated that the three teams were all that had entered, and one official said, “Let’s get started.”

They drew starting order papers—1-2-3. Walt drew #3. On the first go around, the sled was loaded fairly lightly with concrete blocks and all three teams successfully pulled it the required 30 feet. On the second effort, the sled was loaded with 5,000 lbs. more in blocks. Two teams were successful, and one was not. On the third pull, the sled was loaded with 5,000 lbs. more weight. The remaining team (besides Walt) gave it a try, but because they were not pulling together, they flunked out. That meant that if the two Freds could pull it the distance, they would be the winners.

The two horses showed some nervousness as Walt hitched them to the sled. They could anticipate a very hard pull coming up. Walt walked around to their heads and very gently talked to them and rubbed their foreheads. That seemed to quiet them down. Walt once again walked to the back, picked up the driving lines and said, “Easy, boys.” At that statement the team inched forward, thus evening and tightening the double trees—ready to go. Walt then slapped the lines on their rumps and yelped in a loud voice, “Gidd-up boys.” At that instant, both horses flexed all four leg muscles, leaning forward to one-half their normal height. It was a pretty sight to see such enormous power in such perfect coordination! The sled started to move: 3 ft., 5 ft., 10 ft. Walt slapped the lines on their rumps again. They continued onward 15 ft., 20 ft., 25 ft., 30 ft.—the required distance!

The crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle suddenly cheered and clapped! The governing official announced, “The champions are the bay team driven by Walter Dishon” and the crowd erupted in loud applause.

On the way home, Walt didn’t have to drive the team; they knew they were homeward bound. The team knew the way and it could only be described as an enthusiastic pace. When they entered the driveway at home, they trotted past the house to the barn. There, Walt was unhitching the faithful pair when Mom appeared and asked, “How did you do?” Walt looked up, smiled, and uttered two words while he continued his work: “I won.” Those two words were enough to send Mom scrambling back to the house to prepare supper.

The two faithful steeds were led to the watering tank for a cool, refreshing drink, and then into their stables where Dad had filled their manger with a good dinner of oats and freshly made tender and delectable alfalfa hay.

By that time, Mom was calling, “Supper is ready!” Walt washed the dust off before sitting down, despite the fact that a very delicious aroma of supper was calling otherwise and the air was heavily electrified. The countenance of Mom and Dad was heavy with pride and joy. It was a day of days. Their son had just won the draft horse championship for the entire county of Carroll!

Walt discovered what smelled so delicious. Mom had baked his all-time favorite dessert: black raspberry cobbler with homemade cream for topping! It was a day to be thankful for everything, to appreciate life and especially appreciate the blessing from God!

‘Nuff said!

Remembered by Harry Dishon, brother of Walt.

 

About the Author

Harry Dishon is a retired veteran living in Howard County. He and his wife Joan recently recorded some of Harry’s recollections as a child and as a soldier, and we are honored to be able to share these memories with you. Periodically, we will post selections from Harry’s writings on our Military Appreciation page, so please come back and share some of Harry’s insights and memories.
 

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 by Water

The Fifty-Cent Coin

What would be, could be, should be the primary observations of an advanced senior “kid”? Life is a smorgasbord of gladness, sadness, and everywhere in between. Not one person knows when they are youngsters what their fate shall be. Let us go traveling with one such character and find out the results.

The 10-year-old lad was normal in every way: energetic, inquisitive, full of imagination. He also had some mischief not too well hidden in his character.

His parents lived in rural Indiana where, in the summer time, the grass grows rapidly. When the neighbor lady asked if he would be interested in mowing her lawn with a reward of 50 cents, he (his name was Harry) was in “Seventh Heaven.”

At that time, the lawn mowers were reel type and had to be pushed by hand to operate, but that was “AOK.” Harry had energy to spare. The first mowing complete, he was paid a big, shiny, new 50-cent coin. He was as proud of it as he would be of a thousand-dollar bill!

What to do with it? He trusted it to his pocket until he got home and very proudly showed it to his mom and dad.

After that came playtime outside, and he still had his new 50-cent coin that was not in safekeeping. Harry thought, “If I put it in my mouth, I won’t lose it.” (Dumb as he was, he put it in his mouth!)

He went on playing for a while–until he needed to swallow. Yep, you guessed it: the big coin squeezed down his throat and lodged. It would not come up, nor was there room for it to go on down. Harry was badly scared! He went running into the house to Mom. Mom looked in his mouth and could see nothing. Then she became scared that the coin would turn sideways and choke him to death.  Mom found Dad immediately and they quickly concluded that the closest doctor was at Young America, three-and-a-half miles away. Dad ignored the speed limit getting there!

Dr. Lybrook was immediately in great sympathy with the parents. He said, “The coin is lodged in his throat edgewise. He can breathe all right now. If I go to messing with it without a good instrument to get it out, it might turn flat wise and choke him to death. We better go to the Kokomo Clinic that can handle a situation like that. You, Bill, follow me. We will go over to Road 22 and go in on that.”

With that, they were off, dust flying so thick that Dad could scarcely see. They felt safe, though, because Dad was an excellent driver: he drove buses for an automobile dealer.

They had progressed a ways on dusty S. R. 22 (22 had not yet been paved) when Harry suddenly yelled, “Mom, roll the window down; I’m sick!” She did, and none too soon. Harry’s head popped out the window and he barfed violently. He knew the guilty coin came with everything else. He yelped to Mom and Dad, “The 50-cent coin came up and out the window!”

Dad quickly analyzed the situation and said, “We’ve got to go catch and stop the Doc, and then look for the coin.” With that, the accelerator was hard against the floor and we were moving on. After a mile or so, we caught up with Doc and stopped him. He grinned and quickly replied, “Thank God! We have to find that coin. Bill, take us back where you think the coin is.”

Dad and Mom both knew approximately where to stop, and the hunt was on. All of us looked on the roadside and in the grass. Suddenly Harry yelped, “Here it is, here it is!” Sure enough, there it was! Proof that it actually was out!

Two cars of extremely thankful people went home happy, a divine answer to a loving mother’s prayer!

 

About the Author

Harry Dishon is a retired veteran living in Howard County. He and his wife Joan recently recorded some of Harry’s recollections as a child and as a soldier, and we are honored to be able to share these memories with you. Periodically, we will post selections from Harry’s writings on our Military Appreciation page, so please come back and share some of Harry’s insights and memories.
 

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