I have realized that "Livin' The Dream" is not just about the places I have gone and the pictures I have taken. It is about friends, old and new. It is about memories, old and new.
I would like to tell you a story. This is something that happened to me yesterday. I kind of question of whether it was meant to be or just a coincidence, though it doesn't make a lot of difference. What this story does just makes you realize just how small this world can be.
I was shopping in a local grocery story, in the produce department when an elderly gentleman (probably in his 90s) with a walker asked me if I had every tried strawberries straight from the vine. He then made the comment that they were so much better and sweeter.
We got to talking and one subject led to another. I had mentioned that I was born and raised in Southern IL and that I used to raid an old farmers strawberry patch every year. He then asked me where in IL and I told him near Cairo.
Come to find out he was born and raised in Cairo and of course he knew of Mounds. This is where the story get pretty interesting,
After graduating high school, he joined the Army Air Corps at the onset of WWII. By now I am really interested in what he has to say. I asked him just what he did during the war and he told me that he did something that a lot of people have never heard of. He asked if I had ever heard of "Flying the Hump." I'll have to admit that until recently (the past year), that I did not know much. I had heard about the men who flew the "Hump" keeping supply channels open. The "Hump" refers to flying over the Himalayas. Very, very dangerous back then.
I told him of an old family friend from Mounds that also flew the "Hump." He wanted to know who it was and I told him O. T. Wildey. Almost immediately he got a little teary eyed and said that they flew together. Neither men were pilots, they were crew members. He asked how O.T. was and I informed him that I had the honor of visiting with him last July and that he died in Aug or Sep. He then said that there weren't many left any more. That is so sad. Real but still sad.
O.T. never talked about what he did in the war. We, as the Jackson family, did not know until just a few years ago. I recently found out that O.T. was a "war hero" in every since of the word. Aside from receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross, he also received the Silver Star.
While this gentleman and were walking and talking, he said that the boss is trying to hurry him along. He smiled and pointed upward and said not that boss, but his boss of the last 60 years. I wanted to write this just to show just how small this world really is. Last summer I posted picture of O. T. I would like to re-post.
O. T. Wildey
1923 - 2013
O.T., May you Rest in Peace - I salute you
