What follows is an excerpt from my recent book, Lessons From The Good Books, What a Reading Addiction Taught Me About America, Music & Sports ©2016. The “Lessons” are set off in bold type.
“Freedom has a taste to those that fight and almost die that the protected will never know.”
Most of the people I know I met in books. This is most likely an indictment of my social skills and friend-making abilities. Oh well. I met Frank Buckles. Frank Buckles, was the last living veteran of World War I. He died in 2011, he was 110. He lied to get into the service when he was sixteen and went to Europe on the Carpathia, the ship famous for rescuing survivors of the Titanic. Today a lot of people meet other people online or through some sort of smartphone app … You’re not gonna meet anyone like Frank Buckles on some fuckin’ app. I met Harry O’Neill and Elmer Gedeon. Harry and Elmer were the only two major leaguers to die in World War II. Harry only played in a single game; he never came to bat. I met Sergeant York. On October 8, 1918, Sgt. Alvin York single-handedly killed seventeen Germans and captured 123 more. York Avenue in NYC is his street.
