Hst: a Tribute and Initiation

By Donald J. Richardson

When I was a boy in Missouri, I could have visited President Truman as Independence was only a few dozen miles from Utica. Yet the thought never occurred to me. Thus, the tribute is based on what might have been.
I have few positive memories of Initiation, however.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728332154

Donald J. Richardson

Although he has long been eligible to retire, Donald J. Richardson continues to (try to) teach English Composition at Phoenix College in Arizona. He defines his life through his teaching, his singing, his volunteering, and his grandchildren.

Book preview

© 2020 Donald J. Richardson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  10/17/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3216-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3217-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3215-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019916545

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

OTHER BOOKS BY DONALD J. RICHARDSON

Dust in the Wind, 2001

Rails to Light, 2005

Song of Fools, 2006

Words of Truth, 2007

The Meditation of My Heart, 2008

The Days of Darkness, 2009

The Dying of the Light, 2010

Between the Darkness and the Light, 2011

The Days of Thy Youth, 2012

Those Who Sit in Darkness¸ 2013

Just a Song at Twilight, 2014

Covered with Darkness, 2015

Behold the Sun, 2016

Approaching Alzheimer’s, 2017

Baxter’s Family, 2018

Unto the High Places, 2018

The Complete Hamlet, (Revised) 2017

The Complete Macbeth, 2013

The Complete Romeo and Juliet, 2013

The Complete King Lear, 2013

The Complete Julius Caesar, 2013

The Complete Merchant of Venice, 2013

The Complete Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2013

The Complete Much Ado About Nothing, 2013

The Complete Twelfth Night, 2014

The Complete Taming of the Shrew, 2014

The Complete Tempest, 2014

The Complete Othello, 2014

The Complete Henry IV, Part One, 2014

The Complete Antony and Cleopatra, 2014

The Complete Comedy of Errors, 2014

The Complete Henry IV, Part Two, 2014

The Complete Henry V, 2014

The Tragedy of Richard the Third, 2015

The Complete Two Gentlemen of Verona, 2015

The Complete Richard the Second, 2015

The Complete Coriolanus, 2015

The Complete As You Like It, 2015

The Complete All’s Well That Ends Well, 2015

The Complete Love’s Labor’s Lost, 2015

The Complete Measure for Measure, 2015

The Complete Winter’s Tale, 2015

The Complete Henry VIII, 2016

The Complete Troilus and Cressida, 2016

The Complete King John, 2016

The Complete Cymbaline, 2016

The Complete Titus Andronicus, 2016

The Complete Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 2016

The Complete Timon of Athens, 2017

The Complete Merry Wives of Windsor, 2017

The Complete First Part of Henry VI, 2017

The Complete Second Part of Henry VI, 2017

The Complete Third Part of Henry VI, 2018

The Complete Two Noble Gentlemen, 2018

The Complete Reign of King Edward III, 2018

The Complete Venus & Adonis; Rape of Lucrece, 2019

CONTENTS

About the Book

About the Author

HST: A Tribute

One

Two: Getting There

Three: H.S.T. at Home

Four: The Return

Harry S. Truman Chronology

Bess and Margaret

The Election

The Marshall Plan

Harry and Doug

Initiation

Intro

Sinclair

South Pacific

The Drive

The Skating Rink

Rummy

TV

Breakfast Inn

La Verne

Crossword

Christmas Eve

After Christmas

Later—Memories

ABOUT THE BOOK

When I was a boy in Missouri, I could have visited President Truman as Independence was only a few dozen miles from Utica. Yet the thought never occurred to me. Thus, the tribute is based on what might have been.

I have few positive memories of Initiation, however.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Although he has long been eligible to retire, Donald J. Richardson continues to (try to) teach English Composition at Phoenix College in Arizona. He defines his life through his teaching, his singing, his volunteering, and his grandchildren.

HST: A TRIBUTE

45289.png

ONE

I can’t remember learning about Harry S. Truman. It seems I’ve always known about President Truman. You see, in Chillicothe, Missouri, we revered his very existence. Not necessarily his presence as he didn’t show up in Chillicothe with any regularity, and it can’t be said that we revered his statesmanship–what did we know about statesmanship, anyway? But the very name Harry S. Truman caused me and my peers to sit up straighter, to be more truthful, to acknowledge that this old United States of America stood for something, by damn, and President Harry was our avatar, our representative to that great assembly in the sky or wherever they met, even Washington, D. C.

Any time we saw his name in the newspaper or heard his name on the radio, we listened with focus akin to awe. There was little else in our daily lives that evoked anything approximating awe, but Harry did. This was a man who was one of us. It was if we had been birthed from his loins, as if we were reborn in him–as if he was the very best that could possibly come out of this Show Me state we inhabited and loved, and we were inordinately proud of him. Harry was a former haberdasher, we read in various places, and when the writers spoke of him as a seller of men’s clothes in Kansas City, we could see them standing back with their noses in the air, refusing to believe that such an average man, such an almost low-life, could have been elevated to his position in life as President of the United States.

Actually, I knew very little of President Truman. When he left office, I was only ten years old, so what I knew was only hearsay and second hand, of course. I seem to remember that some folks had been critical about his actions in the White House, there was something about a steel strike, and there were comments about him and the 80th Congress not working together.

But after he left office–after Harry returned to Independence, Missouri to re-claim his position as one of us–then I began to take notice. Then I began to see that people were generally praising ex-President Truman. Now it seemed his stock had been elevated above the quotidian and was valued and valuable. Now ex-President Truman had something important to say, and when he said it, people in general listened. Not being certain about my political identity or stance, I wasn’t certain I was a Democrat, even though my father vociferously advocated the Democratic party’s stance. Yet, I sensed that Harry’s positions were mine. Wasn’t he for the downtrodden or the underdog, and wasn’t I? Didn’t I try to stand up for the weaklings and the outcasts in school? Yes, I did, not as often as I should have or as often as opportunity presented itself, but still I saw that Harry was a little man with a big identity. He stood for important matters, and I wanted to be like him.

To be from Missouri in those years was necessarily to identify with Harry S. Truman. He