American Legacies Organization, Inc.

There’s a little church where we used to go.

You may recall, it was St. Joe.

“Hard Scrabble,” was a nickname, it wasn’t famous, nor held no fame.

Our mom and dad, always faithful and true,

For miles they walked, the best they could do.

With Harold, Richard, Jean, Norma and Linda too,

We went to Church, Fountain Ferry and Zoo.

The fast kind of life was not their goal.

‘Sing for your Supper’ the sign said outside of the church as Billy was making his way back to Kempston barracks one evening at Christmas time in 1946. Hearing the sound of the congregation inside the invitation was very tempting to the hungry young lad whose only concern was whether he could live up to his end of the bargain, considering that he couldn’t sing a note in tune.

Nanny and her brother Lester and his wife Ada would almost always bring Louise up to my parents house for Easter. My Mother, Myra Wagaman Riley nee Wike, would make a big Easter dinner. Mom would color eggs for baskets and make a dozen for hiding. I loved hiding eggs. We were lucky if we found 9 out of 12 eggs.

By Milton Long

A tank BN is made up of three medium and one light tank companies, a Headquarters Company and a Service Company. Service Company was responsible for the maintenance, and supply of all vehicles in the BN. In combat this would mean providing gas and ammo to the combat vehicles including anything attached to the BN. In Service Company we were divided into two groups, those with the job of supply and those with the job of maintenance.

We moved into his mother’s home in Lebanon, PA. The only modern thing were water and electricity, which was required in the city. We lived on the edge of town, so we did not have sewer for a bathroom. There was an out house at the end of the yard and any dirty water was thrown out in the backyard.

Mines were not the only thing lying around. The area was full of dead Americans, mostly very young and just off the boat. When the Bulge started everyone was shoved into action. Kids just coming over were sent into the line, I found out later that the ASTP program was closed and they were sent over. Right by our tent was a young kid lying in the snow and up the road, in a woods no one dared go in, were quite a few dead.

By Joe Mayfield

My ancestors were hunters and trappers going back to 1693, therefore it is easy to understand why all the men in the family have always had a strong desire to have well trained hunting dogs. A good hunting dog is treated differently than a house dog, hunting dogs are not pets, they have an intended purpose and the purpose, of course, is to supply game for the table, be it rabbit, squirrel, quail or deer, the most common game in Alabama.

By Joan Grimes Kowalski

She is part of my very first memory

There were so many things she could do.

The best thing of all was that she’d let me help

And find time to talk to me, too.

I’ve helped her hang paper, upholster a chair,

Garden, clean, cook, can and bake.

She made glass wind chimes, and how she could sew!

One bright morning a couple of leery-eyed young airmen knocked on the door of my room to complain they’d found bedbugs in their bunks and considered it a profane intrusion. I concurred and checked the rest of the rooms. Indeed there were bed bugs in some and whether they were imported from a G.I.s occasional trips south of the border for rest and relaxation diversions, or home grown, we couldn’t determine.

For all of us who are 50 or older — even those of you younger than 50 will appreciate the following:

No nursing home for me. I am checking into the Holiday Inn! With the average cost for a nursing home per day reaching $188.00, there is a better way when we get old & feeble.

I have already checked on reservations at the Holiday Inn. For a combined long term stay discount and senior discount, it's $49.23 per night. That leaves $138.77 a day for: Breakfast, lunch and dinner in any restaurant I want, or room service. Laundry, gratuities and special TV movies.