Just Living the American Dream

Webb Farm near Colmesneil, Texas

After spending a Saturday at one of my friends  annual BBQ,  I was reminded of a line from an old Eddie Arnold song.

"I've got a hump-backed mule, a plow and a tater patch and eggs that are gonna hatch some day... I'm the luckiest man in the world"  It really doesn't take a lot to be successful if you are comfortable in your own skin.  Each year Don's family assembles at the old farm house for a couple of weeks.  They cut fire wood,  fix up things, hunt deer and hogs and play copious amounts of dominos. 

One weekend they invite friends and other family members up for some washers, bean bag toss,  BBQ and some good country eatin'.  We usually make it up for the Big BBQ day.

While I was looking at some of the pictures I took, I realized that any of us could have been Eddie Arnold.  Analyzing the picture I noticed that there were doctors, lawyers, engineers, educators and many other succussful folks.  These were just hard working people from humble roots that were living the American Dream.

I noticed that we had several Vietnam Era Veterans.  There was also a recent Army vet that had just been discharged after several years of tough combat in Afghanastan.  But the most amazing attendee was a WWII Vet with two combat jumps under his belt as a member of the 11th Airborne in the Pacific.  One of those jumps was into the POW camp of Los Banos near Manila to free civilians and prisoners before the Japanexe  excecuted them. 

A collection of Americans enjoying the simple things of life.