Over the weekend, I ran into one of the local "old bucks" who gave me a sheet of paper that was a copy of something a fellow recruit gave him upon entering the US Army in 1942. He said, "I’ve kept it ever since, and with all the talk lately about FDR, I went and found it and, well, just read it…"
REJECTED
A stranger stood at the Gates of hell
And the Devil himself answered the bell.
He looked him over from head to toe
And said: My friend, I’d like to know
What you have done in the line of sin
To entitle you to come within?Then Franklin D, with his usual guile
Stepped forth with his toothy smile and said:"When I took charge in ’33
A nations faith was mine," said he
"I promised them this and I promised them that
And I calmed them down with a fireside chat.
I spent their money in fishing trips
And fished from the decks of their battleships.
I gave them jobs in the WPA
Then raised their taxes and took it away.
I raised their wages and closed their shops
I killed their pigs and buried their crops
I double-crossed both old and young
And still the folks my praises sung.
I brought back beer, and what do you think?
I taxed it so high they couldn’t drink.
I furnished ’em money with Government loans
When they missed a payment I took their homes.
When I wanted to punish the folks, you know
I’d put my wife on the radio.I paid them to let their farms lie still
And imported foodstuffs from Brazil.
I curtailed crops when I felt real mean
And shipped in crops from the Argentine.
When they started to worry, stew and fret
I got them to chant the alphabet
With the AAA and the NLB
The WPA and the CCC.
With these many units I got their goats
And still I crammed it down their throats.
My workers worked with the speed of snails
While the taxpayers chewed their fingernails.
When the organization needed dough
I closed their plants with the CIO.
I ruined jobs, I ruined health
And I put the screws on the rich man’s wealth.
And some who couldn’t stand the gaff
Would call on me and how I’d laugh.
When they got too strong on certain things
I’d pack and head for "Ole Warm Springs."
I ruined their country, their homes and then
I placed the blame on "Nine Old Men."Now Franklin talked both long and loud
And the devil stood and his head he bowed.
At last he said: "Lets make it clear
You’ll have to move, you can’t stay here
For once you mingle with this mob,
I’ll have to find myself a job."
Hmm. Why do you suppose his memory’s been jogged? A long time ago, I learned to always be on the alert for especially inciteful observations from the "old bucks", as they’ve been around a while and seen many things. I then couple that with the belief that in life, there’s really nothing new under the sun. Only the names and dates change.
Oh, and one last thing– My Uncle Mike was a 7th & 8th grade history teacher back home in Rhode Island. I remember flipping through a photo book of pictures from World War 2, and when some focused on Roosevelt, he told me, "You know, when he was president, it was the closest the country ever came to becoming communist." Of course, we were at the height of the Cold War, and this was most likely during the Carter years. Uncle Mike never seemed overtly political, although he sported the long hair in vogue at the time. I always wondered about that point he had made, though. Of course, I’ve come to understand what he meant since. Uh-oh!
