Harold Joseph O’Grady, from the 1941 edition of the Seminole yearbook.
Behold The Colonel, before he was a colonel, or even a pilot.
Harold Joseph O’Grady of Foley, Florida, was a freshman at the University of Florida in 1941. By February of ’42, he was a private in the U.S. Army Air Corps, having enlisted at MacDill Field “for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law.”
He stayed on a little longer than that. The old man retired as a full bird in 1972, when I was a freshman at Adams State College in Alamosa, getting grades that were even worse than his had been. And mind you, I was taking stoner classes, not elementary physics, organic chemistry, and motorized artillery.
I didn’t last long in college, either, but not because I was going to war to save the world from fascism. I was going to be a push-broom pilot, saving banks from stanks.
Oh, well. As Will Rogers observed, “We can’t all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.”
Mad Blog Media 
November 11, 2020 at 5:00 pm |
Quite the resemblance, O’G
November 11, 2020 at 5:02 pm |
Yeah, except for the part where he was good-looking and I was (and am) not.
We did, however, both favor the pinstriped suit.
November 11, 2020 at 5:39 pm |
I burned all my high school and college yearbook pictures. Except for copies of the ones my friends are holding for possible blackmail purposes.
November 11, 2020 at 6:30 pm |
Agree on the resemblance!!
November 11, 2020 at 7:09 pm |
There’s some of Mom lurking in that hippie mug too. Though Dad and I both had that triangular head thing going on.
One shot of me as a kid, you’d swear I had just beamed aboard the USS Enterprise from some alien craft. Or maybe I was the inspiration for the Star Child in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” I ain’t digging that one out, it scares me.
November 11, 2020 at 7:28 pm |
What did they do to deserve the likes of us?
November 11, 2020 at 7:32 pm |
I don’t know about your parents, Paddy me lad, but judging from how my parents were made to suffer in this life, I figure that in the previous go-round they must have been serial killers, kiddy pornographers, or Republican lawyers.
November 12, 2020 at 4:39 am |
I think I am mostly my own fault. I left the nest at 20, drafted by my friends and neighbors, and did not return except for two short stints which reminded my why I should stay away. Black sheep of the clan? You bet. But, it turned out really nice. It is amazing to me how people can build their own prisons.
November 12, 2020 at 6:47 am |
O, for sure I’m mostly my own creation, for better and for worse. The folks gave me three hots and a cot, more education than I could use, and not nearly enough beatings.
Their one fatal error was insisting that I think for myself. I think they thought that meant, “Think like we do.” But they had another think coming.
November 13, 2020 at 11:06 am |
You are right! You are a true mix!
November 14, 2020 at 6:34 am |
Skeery, innit? Especially on those rare occasions when I hear my old man’s voice coming out of my mouth. Yikes, etc.
November 11, 2020 at 7:31 pm |
loser.com
November 11, 2020 at 8:18 pm |
Someone has a sense of humor I admire. President Bonespurs indeed is a real piece of work.
November 12, 2020 at 4:42 am |
I actually read that Wikipedia entry this morning. I concluded it was mostly true, and it describes someone who should never be president.
November 12, 2020 at 7:53 am |
“We can’t all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” My grandfather thought Will Rodgers was one of the greatest men who ever lived. Thank you for this quote which greatly illuminates that opinion.