| Show through the Years With Ernie Pyle Py Ernies Ernie's Father Lost Out i In Jn 1932 Though He HeRan HeRan HeRan Ran With Roosevelt DANA Ind Perhaps you have heard of my father He is the man who put oil on his 1 brakes when they got to squeakIng squeak- squeak Ing kg then drove to town tow and ran over o the curb and through a 8 i plate date glass window and right into a dry goods store My y father ath r is also the man who I ran with Roosevelt Roose in 1932 He Heran Heran Heran ran for county assessor was the only Democrat in the county who lost last and was probably the happiest happiest happiest hap hap- man who listened to election election elec elec- tion Urn tion returns that night He couldn't think of anything worse than b being county assessor And the reason he lost was that all aU the people figured that if he was county assessor he wouldn't have time to put roofs on their houses and paint their barns lams and paper their dining rooms and fix their chimneys and do a a. thousand and one other things for or them I guess when my father is gone this whole neighborhood will just sort of ot fall fill down My f father ther has never lived anywhere any- any vi here where but on a 8 farm and yet 1 I dont don't think he ever did like the farm fum very well wen He has been happiest I think since the war He started renting the farm out then and ever since he has been carpentering and man handy-man- ring jung all about the neighborhood He is a wizard with tools where other people are clumsy 1 He He e is a carpenter at heart My father did set out to see seethe seethe seethe the world once when he was a ayoung ayoung ayoung young man He went to Iowa to cut broom corn but broke his leg and nd had to come home He never went anywhere again until he was 55 when he went to California to see his brother He sat up all the way in a 8 day coach Since then he has been to New York so now he has hasteen teen seen both oceans My father is a 8 very quiet man He has never said a great deal dealto to me all his life and yet I feel that we have been very good friends He never gave me much advice or told me to do this or that or not to But he didn't spare pare m me either I worked like a horse from the time I was nine My father never shows much emotion He has never seen a abig abig big league ball game Yet my my- mother came home one afternoon afternoon after after- noon during a world series and caught him sitting in front of ot the radio all by himself clapping clapping clapping clap clap- ping and yelling for all he was worth My father used to work as a hired hand way over on on the theother theother theother other side of the Wabash river When en lie he was was courting my mother every very Sunday he would Voul drive a horse six miles miles' to the river row a 8 boat across and then ride a bicycle 10 miles tomy tomy to tomy my mothers mother's house At midnight he started the same process goIng going going go go- ing home Mother figured figure 1 he either loved her or else was foolIsh foolish fool fool- I ish and needed somebody to look after him so she married him My father is now getting a a. little Lille deaf Mother says he can always hear what he isn't supposed supposed supposed sup sup- posed to hear If my father doesn't like people people people peo peo- he never says anything about it If he does like people he never says much about that either He is very even tem tem- If he has an enemy in inthis inthis inthis this whole country I have yet yetto yetto yetto to hear about it He bought me a 8 Ford roadster when I was about 16 and when I wrecked it a couple of weeks later he never said a word My father doesn't swear or drink or smoke He is holiest in letter and in spirit He is a good man without being at all repulsive about it He used to smoke cigars but he quit the Fourth of July that Johnson fought Jeffries in Reno Reno Reno-I I think it was 1908 The event didn't have anything to do with it His holiday cigar simply made him sicker than usual that day Iso so he quit When my father was in Washington Washington Washington Wash Wash- ington he kept butting his head against those big glass cases that hold exhibits in the Smithsonian Smithsonian Smithsonian Smith Smith- institute The glass was polished so clean he couldn't see it We all thought if iE i was awfully awfully aw aw- fully funy funny He got a splitting headache from it We got our first automobile in 1914 We kept it up in the northend north northend northend end of the wagon shed right behind the wagon At the south southend southend southend end of the wagon shed there wasa was a big gravel pit pitOne pitOne One day we came home from town my mother and I got out at the house and father went to put the car away We saw him make the circle in the and then drive into the northend northend north northend end of the shed The next in instant instant instant in- in stant the south end of the shed simply burst open a wagon came leaping out and with one great bound was over the cliff and down in the gravel pit My father said he never did know exactly what happened |
