This year we will celebrate the 250^th anniversary of the founding of our country. This has been a sorrowful year for our democracy, and it got me to thinking of some of the trials and tribulations our nation has faced. In my thinking, I finally got to WWII and the Greatest Generation. Everyone gave support to the war effort, and, for many, that included their children. I was only five when the war started and almost nine when it ended, but I knew many friends and neighbors and townspeople who had sent their sons to war.

We lived at 19 Cliff Drive in Augusta, Kansas in our small town of 5,000 folks. Two doors south of us lived Harold and Martha Guest. Martha, who was known as “Mattie,” was the sister of my great aunt by marriage, Rachel (Wright)Peebler. Rachel was the wife of my uncle, Dave Peebler, and the two ladies were sisters of Johnny Wright.

Harold and Mattie certainly contributed to the war effort. Their son, Ed, went to the army, and their sons Bill and Jack went into the Navy. Their daughter, Jean, was going with a man named Wayne Porter who was in the Army, and their daughter, Jane, was going with Charlie Fennell who was in the Air Force. When Harold and Mattie or the girls received mail, the whole neighborhood knew due to the whoops and hollers emanating from their house.

Fortunately, all of the guys made it home after the war. I don’t remember what the other guys did, but Jack, who had quit high school to enlist, reentered Augusta High to finish up and get his degree. Jack was more interested in chasing girls and having fun than going to school. Everyone left for work before Jack had to get up, so I was hired as a “waker-upper” to go to the house and wake him up and to stay and nag him until he finally got up.

In later years, Harold, Mattie, Ed, Jack, and Wayne all moved to Los Angeles where the guys helped to build the massive 405 freeway.

This was a family that gave big in both war and peace.

Dave Thomas

1/22/2026