As a veteran myself, I've never been too invested in the military aspect of this weekend's holiday. My service in Vietnam was in a relatively safe corner of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
I've always had real heroes close enough to touch. They made the real estate we sell into the free land we enjoy.
One is my older brother-in-law, Harold L. Olsen, a survivor of the battle for Okinawa toward the end of World War II and part of the occupation of Japan. He's in a memory care unit now. Then he was in a platoon from which only a handful made it home. He helped make The Greatest Generation truly great. Today, I can celebrate by visiting him.
Another is his son, Larry C. Olsen, of Springfield (Jasper, really) Oregon, who is a mild-mannered engineer at Johnson Crushers International. He designs parts of rock crushers sold all over the world. When I was in Vietnam (supervising people sending teletype messages in an air conditioned building surrounded by thousands of friendly forces), he was down the country a few clicks leading sweating infantrymen into harms way. The Army gave him a Bronze Star with-a-V, for valor out there with the "grunts". He is a hero to me. I can celebrate by calling him today.
One is Don R. Johnson, of Myrtle Creek, also my brother-in-law and a long-time lumberman who has employed people all over Oregon for decades. He employs some nurses now -- to care for his needs 24/7. But during World War II he also served our country -- in the Merchant Marine: making sure the right stuff made it to the right places. I can celebrate today by calling his wife and encouraging her.
Another of my heroes never went to war. But she did go to Seattle to make bombers. She was a real Rosie the Riveter. Today's Eugene Register-Guard carried an article about local women who worked in the factories demanded by the WWII defense effort. There were millions of them. But only a few were really Rosie the Riveter. I celebrated by posting the following reply to the newspaper's web version of the Rosie article:
You missed another real Rosie the Riveter from Lane County: Rose Eidson of Eugene.
Then Rosie Breedon (a sister to her more locally famous Breedon Brothers) she was tiny enough to be assigned at Seattle to rivet inside the nose cones of combat aircraft.
Later a public school teacher here, she abandoned the ordinary classroom to learn the Montessori teaching method.
Then she started her own pre-school in her converted two-car garage. She operated that school for more than a generation, proving in the process that children can be taught to read and do math at a fifth grade level -- before kindergarten age.
She ran that school long enough that former students started bringing their own children to her.
She riveted the Montessori method for learning counting and math to the phonics approach to learning reading. She ran a tight ship. She expected effort. She expected success. She expected performance. And she got all three.
Her kids knew the flag. They knew every state and its capital. They could read, work and behave. They knew they could do. They were not yet five.
Most of all they knew Miss Rose cared about learning...and about them.
She never made much money, charging a low fee so poor kids were not excluded.
Miss Rose, the Riveter. The teacher. A true American hero.
I HOPE YOUR HOLIDAY IS AS FUN AS MINE. Give a Happy Memorial Day.
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