My Role Models

[Tom_in_Mo.]

you know, why I don't know, that is when I was a kid, but of course after I got older then it really hit me. I was just a little boy and we would go to town on saturdays to get groceries and stop at the feed store. Almost every satuday there this guy would be, and every time in his left back pocket was a 1/2 pint wiskey bottle imprint. Why that amused me I have no Idea, but I asked my grandpa what that was and he said someday I will tell you the story.
This was a soldier of wII and he was a servivor of the "deathmarch". The only thing that I ever heard someone say was he promised himself that "he would never be thirsty again as long as he lived" ...........Thats a hero in my mind and always will be.

[whitepe]

VA - Sawyer,
It sounds like Mr. Sargent was quite a role model to you and you and your wife are too.  The Forestry Forum is chock full of you folks.  

Tom_in_Mo.
You gotta read the book FLYBOYS.
I my hometown of Culver, Indiana pop 1300,  My mother owned and ran the "blue plate" diner from 1956 until 1973.  There was always a fellow named Bus who hung out in the alley behind my mom's restaurant between there and the local tavern.  He never seemed to have any money and my mother always seemed to make sure that Bus had a hot plate of food nearly every day.   As a young child, I was always kind of afraid of Bus but that never seemed to bother my mother.  Mom just told me that Bus was a WWII veteran
that needed to be taken care of.   Today I understand how much freedom meant to my mother and how she too saw
Bus as a hero.

[customsawyer]

The sad thing to me in this country is that most of the kids today haven't got anyone to look up to. I give thanks every day that I was able to spend the time that I did with my kids I took them with me on many a job, planting or spraying pines down here in the south and I watched them grow up eating dirt and playing in the mud ain't hurt them yet. My role modles would be my parents and a few gentelmen that you can still call gentelmen there are very few left.

[Engineer]

Re: fame and fortune - stupidity and ignorance sure come in large doses these days.

I can't for the life of me recall any particular people that have inspired the heck out of me, and I'm not that old.  I have no interest in meeting or talking to any particular celebrity, I'm not a big sports fan (especially considering salaries these days) and the rest of the world's big shots mostly just p!ss me off.  I'd rather meet and talk to any of you folks here than some big mouth actor or athlete, or even President G.W. Shrub.   ;)  

I think the people that make the best role models are the ones who, regardless of their status, paycheck, or career, make it a point to be humble, honest, and appreciative of others.  

[FiremanEd]

My hat is tipped to Mr. Sargent, Mr. & Mrs. Va-Sawyer, Whitepe's mother and all those like them. Truer role models never existed.

Thank you one and all, I know there are many many more just like them here in our mists.