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That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try This from the Washington Post. I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try This. Dig in with me on practical advice for life's common challenges.
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That's greenlight.com/slash iHeart. And we continue with our American stories and now it's time for our American Dreamers series and today it's the story of a guy named George Strake Jr. My very first job was picking up newspapers during World War II in my little red wagon and taking them. Do the service station for the war effort. You didn't get paid a thing, but you got little badges and stuff.
So that was good. I can remember laying on the floor listening to General MacArthur speak on the radio. which proclaimed most proudly Of course you didn't have television, so everything was on the radio. That old soldier. Never die.
They Jumps. Fade away. I had a cousin who went over there. I had a uncle who out of London's bomb and no. Beaches at D-Day.
I remember my sister was dating a guy named Jack McConnell. He was in the Battle of the Bulge. He sent me, and I still have it. Hitler's desk set that his platoon liberated when they crossed the Rhine River. and he let one of his kids take it to school one day for a show and tell.
And on the The northeast corner and the northwest corner of the desk set, there was an ink well. And one of his kids broke this glass that the ink set in off of that thing there when he took it to school. But he was, Jack was a. Certified war hero, I mean He really went to hell in a handbasket and of course Every family had somebody that was wounded in it. I mean, everybody was committed to that.
more. It's it's so different now.
Now we're we're We're more of a divided nation than we are a united nation. I really wanted to be growing up as a rodeo cowboy. And I would rather be on the back of a horse than sitting in his chair. I loved Roundups and brandings. And then I realize it.
You needed to do a little more than just ride on a horse if you're going to have a family and business and everything. I love the Navy. I wouldn't trade any two years of my life for the time in the Navy. The Navy gave me a sense of independence.
So I'd applied. for a Pacific Theater and got assigned to an LSG. LST stands for Large Slow Target. I mean, that's not what it really is. stands for.
Right? You know, it's a landing ship tank. They had them Lots of them in D-Day. You could see pictures now. There must have been a hundred of them.
There were off-load tanks and vehicles and trucks. troops and everything. On the beach, because you can marry up to the beach on those things. It was, I mean, all of a sudden, you know, people are calling you mister. I'm going.
Who are you talking to? It was really a learning experience. Nobody knows you, you do. What you do. and either get the blame for it or credit for it.
Oh This is crazy. I gave a ring to Annette and we were supposed to get married on January 10th. And on. December sixth. One of our two engines blew up on our LST.
So we were in Yokusuka, Japan. And All these little Japanese guys, you know, they're all like this. They were down in the engine room trying to get it fixed, and I thought. God. How am I going to do this?
I've got a uh I'm getting married January 10th and I know it takes two weeks to get back from because it will only go eight knots. And so a carrier pulled in and moored up in front of us.
So I went up to them. executive officer on the carrier and I got to ask him, I said, Kevin, I'm supposed to get married January 10th. I'm on this LST behind us. We don't go very fast. Would it be possible for me to get a ride back with you on on a carrier?
So he said okay.
So I went back and I told Exact on our ship. Who could not get a full sentence in without an MF or FU or whatever.
So I said, then I talked to the exec on the carrier up there and he's gonna let me ride back with him. He said, You effing Idiot, he said, you're a watchstander, you can't just pull off whenever you want.
So I thought, oh my god, how am I gonna tell my wife and mother-in-law won't be at the wedding. The Japanese guy said we got it fixed. And so we were getting ready to take off for San Diego. And the captain said, okay, if we get north of Guam without this engine blowing up again. then we'll make it on into San Diego.
We got due north of Guam and the engine blew up again.
So we had a boatswain mate. All salty guys, cam. I got an idea. We're making about six knots right now. That LST has two holes, you know, for cargo where you drop cargo down through it.
and a canvas over it. And then we have a crane on the deck. Oh, there's bosom mates it can Let me do this. He said, I'll take the crane, put the boom up like that, take the canvas from those two holes and make sails out of it. He said, we get a prevailing westerly wind, and it ought to pick up a couple knots.
He said, okay, so that's it. And when we got in San Diego, we had helicopters flying over and the newscast was all here comes this limping boat back. But I got home. two days before we got married. I didn't have the guts to tell my mother-in-law I wouldn't be at the wedding, but I did show up.
We got back, my brother-in-law said, where are you going when you're honeymoon with? Honeymoon?
So he said he said you he ducked he said Don't don't play that one. Bleep that up. He got on the phone and called. This guy in town that had married Heddy Lamar. A famous actress in the thirties to fifties.
and called it Lamar. a hotel up there in Aspen, I think it is. He said, I got it mad. S uh my brother-in-law. here and he's getting married and doesn't two days from that doesn't know where he's going on his family.
Well make a long story short, he got his reservations at the Villa Lamar. In Aspen. And that was the honeymoon. But it was uh I was so happy to be here. I didn't even think I was supposed to plan anything.
I think she had wonders whether it would last 60 years or not. But it has been. On a LARC, I applied for Harvard Business School, and to my surprise, I got selected. I'd saved about oh, I think I'd saved about fifteen thousand dollars, which is the way I went to School. I was born into a family that had money, but I sure didn't have access to it.
We had two children up there too, which uh That was interesting. I think the first year we were up there, we went out to dinner three times.
So anyway... At Harvard you have classrooms of ninety students in a Section. And they always said that Yeah. lost about 10%. The students weren't invited back for the second year and I would sit up there in the middle of my class and I'd be looking around and I'd say, that guy's not going to make it.
And I was always about number six or seven out of the nine that they said 10% weren't invited back and I was always in my own mind number six, seven, or eight or nine. And When are we packed to come home? I told the man, I said, just Pack up all our stuff and put them in those trunks back there. And then, when I'm not invited back, we'll just send the moving company up there to send them all home to us. But my surprise, I got accepted back second year and then graduated from there, but it gave me.
you know, some stature when I came back that I had gone to Harvard Music School. George went to work with his dad at their energy company that discovered the third largest oil field in America and brought them tremendous wealth that their Catholic faith said wasn't theirs. He got more thrill in giving it away than he did in Building it up. and George is still working in the very same plane office. at his age.
And now that I've gotten a little older, I've gotten a little wiser too, and I've learned that you can get older. If you put the word only in front of your age, I like, I'm only 83. I'm 83 and I'm gonna die. We know you're gonna die. Don't worry about it.
And yeah, golly. But um Anyway, it's been a heck of a run. And he's right, put the word only in front of almost any age. and you catch yourself uh an extra ten years. Easy.
and it's just not reported enough. The generosity that so many entrepreneurs and so many people who founded companies display. George Strake Jr.'s story, his father's story in a way, and a great family story, and of course a great love story, here on Our American Story. Life's messy. We're talking spills, stains, pets, and kids.
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This is Danielle Fischel from Pod Meets World. Parents, quick question. When is the last time you won snack time? The other day, I handed my son a perfectly portioned Pinterest-level snack, and he traded it for a Mott's applesauce pouch. I'm not mad, just impressed.
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Visit his door t-mobile.com or call 1-800-T-Mobile, 1-800-T-Mobile. See details at cmobile.com. If you eat too many ultra-processed foods, you could be starving your gut microbes, and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try This from the Washington Post.
I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try This. Dig in with me on practical advice for life's common challenges. Follow Try This right now wherever you're listening. Seriously, try it.
This is an iHeart podcast.
