LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: AND THE LIST GOES ON...

Dear Editor,

I would like to thank Peter Kinder for the tribute to Will Hunter. It was a privilege to have known Will at Central High. I graduated in 1936; he in 1937. We were members of "Red Dagger" and other organizations. Will grew tall, physically, very fast and experienced some of the awkwardness that accompanies rapid growth. Will was always courteous and was a super musician. A member of the band and orchestra of Central and was selected to the all state orchestra.

Will even had the summer experience of picking peaches for Mr. Ochs of Pioneer Orchards. Pay was 10 cents per hour. That was my pay when I started summer work a couple of years earlier with Mr. Ochs.

When I returned from my Army service, I learned that Will had given his life for his country. I often wondered how it happened, but I never knew the details until I read Peter's tribute.

You may be acquainted with "Reminisce" and "Reminisce Extra" published by Reiman publications. The material is supplied by the readers of the magazines. People enjoy relating and reading about the earlier years of the century. I believe tributes to individuals killed in World War II would be well received by Missourian readers during the remaining years of the 50th anniversary. There was Joe DeLassus, who was too old to qualify for pilot training, but still could qualify as a glider pilot. He gave his life in Europe. Weldon Propst, who originally enlisted in the Canadian Air Force, was killed on a raid of the Ploesti oil fields of Rumania. Dr. Victor Karpass, a doctor with an office in Unnerstall's Drug Store, was killed in North Africa. There were Dick Donnewald, Kenneth Colmar, the Clores, Lester Hobbs and the list goes on.

As I reminisce about the past 50 years, I am firmly convinced that D-Day was America's finest hour. Never again will we be able to attain such greatness in so brief a time.

It was my privilege to have had Miss Eloise McLain as an English Literature teacher at Central. She had the ability to create interest in the students. We memorized (a no-no today) passages that I cherish to this day.

One of the passages, from Oliver Goldsmith's (1725-1774) "The Deserted Village," certainly befits America this half of the century:

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates and men decay;

Princes and Lords may flourish, or may fade;

A breath can make them, as a breath has made;

But a bold peasantry, their country's pride;

When once destroyed, can never be supplied.

WILVER WESSEL

Cape Girardeau