This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports, and from business to history, and everything in between, including your stories. Send them to OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. Today, our regular contributor, Bill Bryke, brings us a fascinating story about the day British troops finally left American soil after the end of the Revolutionary War.
Here's Bill. The British Army held New York City for two years after Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. The city's population had fallen below 10,000. Most of the residents were loyalist refugees from revolutionary terrorism. Accident, disaster, and the war had disrupted civic life. The Great Fire of September 21, 1776, had burned everything between Whitehall and Broad Streets, as far up Broadway as Rector Street, and as far up Broadway as Beaver Street. Rents had risen 400% within the first year of occupation.
The price of food and other goods and services, 800%. The provincial assembly, city council, and courts were dormant, although nothing indicates the politicians had stopped drawing their salaries. The city was governed by the British Army, and its government, in the absence of a free press, had become corrupt. Some New Yorkers made fortunes. Mr. Joshua Loring, who had pimped his blonde wife to General Sir William Howe to gain appointment as commissary of prisoners, became wealthy by selling provisions meant for prisoners of war on the black market. Others cloaked their sadism in the red coat. Captain William Cunningham, the Provo Marshal, commanded the jails and prison ships holding American prisoners of war. The Sons of Liberty had roughed him up before the war. He repaid the debt with interest. He enjoyed torturing people. According to Burroughs and Wallace's Gotham, Cunningham admitted to murdering as many as 2,000 American prisoners by starvation, hanging, or poisoning their flower rations with arsenic.
At night, he swaggered through his domains, wearing the red coat with silver lace and epaulettes, the cocked hat, the powdered wig, and the tall glossy boots and spurs, with a whip in his hand, sending his prisoners to bed, shouting, Kennel ye sons of b****, kennel g**** me. On November 30, 1782, the American and British delegates signed preliminary articles of peace. The first article reads, His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States to be free and independent states.
The articles were proclaimed in the King's name from the steps of the City Hall on Wall Street. The Loyalists were horrified. William Smith, a long-time resident merchant and fervent Loyalist, wrote, That the news shocks me as much as the loss of all I had in the world and my family with it. Thousands sold everything furniture, houses, land, goods at fire sale prices and prepared to leave. A few committed suicide. A few were confident of their ability to survive any change of regime. James Riker recorded that a New Yorker said to his tailor, How does business go? Not very well, the tailor replied.
My customers have all learned how to turn their own coats. Sir Guy Carleton, Commander in Chief of His Majesty's forces in North America, began organizing his command's withdrawal from the city in April 1783. Concerned about personal reprisals against the Loyalists, he held out until every Tory who wanted to get out had left. In the meantime, his staff arranged transportation, settled accounts, paid bills and auctioned off huge quantities of Army surplus. The first 5,000 Loyalists left New York for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on April 27, 1783.
Thousands more followed. With them were numerous African Americans, former slaves, freed by the British military government for their services in the King's armies. On September 3, 1783, Americans, British, French and Spanish signed the Treaty of Paris. The news reached New York in early November. On November 21, 1783, Carleton ordered all British forces to withdraw from Long Island and Upper Manhattan. That morning, George Washington met George Clinton, the Governor of New York at Tarrytown. They rode south through Yonkers to Harlem where they stopped at a tavern near what is now Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 126th Street. The day chosen for the evacuation was Tuesday, November 25, 1783.
It dawned cold with a bitter northwest wind. During the morning, A. Mrs. Day ran up the stars and stripes over her tavern and boarding house on Murray Street, its first appearance in the city since September 1776. Captain Cunningham, resplendent in red coat and white wig, pounded on the door. Take in that flag, he roared.
The city is ours until noon. He then tried to pull it down. She belted him full in the face with her broomstick, bloodying his nose and then dealt the captain such lusty blows as made the powder fly in clouds from his wig and forced him to beat a retreat. Washington had chosen General Henry Knox to command the American troops marching from McGowan's Pass in what is now Northeastern Central Park into the city. Knox had been a bookseller, a dumpy, bespectacled little man who had read every book in his stock. The war transformed his theoretical passion for artillery, after all, he'd read all the books about it, into practical experience.
Behind the glasses and the big belly was the soul of a lion. And you're listening to Bill Bryke tell the story of the British troops finally leaving New York. The British had come to win. And my goodness, the battle inside this country, the loyalists taking one side, that was one third of the country siding with the crown, one third with the Patriots, and one third hiding under their desks, hoping for it to pass over. And New York City, chaos, people fleeing, it was an exodus. The town had 27,000 people.
At certain points, it got down to 8,000. When we come back, more of this remarkable story, the British finally leaving America once and for all, that story here on our American stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture, and faith, are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you if they're free and terrific online courses.
Go to hillsdale.edu to learn more. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop. But for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot.
And I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious. And there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done.
I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try All-Free Clear Mega Packs. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs. Which my family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that All-Free Clear Mega Packs, they have your back.
Purchase All-Free Clear Mega Packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance? Of course you would. And when it comes to great rates on insurance, Geico can help. Like with insurance for your car, truck, motorcycle, boat and RV. Even help with homeowners or renters coverage. Plus add an easy to use mobile app, available 24 hour roadside assistance and more and Geico is an easy choice. Switch today and see all the ways you could save. It's easy.
Simply go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today. And we're back with our American stories and the story of Evacuation Day, the now forgotten holiday which celebrated the 25th of November in 1783. On that day, the British armies finally left the now free United States after the Revolutionary War. When we last left off, Bill Bright was telling us how General Washington had chosen a bookseller turned general to take over as the British left our new country. Here's Bill to tell us more about General Henry Knox. In 1775, in the dead of winter, he inspired continentals and militiamen to drag the cannon seized at Ticonderoga in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress to Albany and across the Berkshires to Washington's army at Boston. And he had marched with them.
As a boy, I noticed a monument near my family's home in Latham, New York. It read through this place past General Henry Knox in the winter of 1775 1776 to deliver to General George Washington at Cambridge, the train of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga used to force the British army to evacuate Boston. Knox set out early from McGown's Pass heading a column of some 800 foot dragoons and artillery. He paused at the Bowery and Third Avenue near today's Cooper Union until 1pm, chatting with the British officers commanding the Redcoats standing a block or so before him.
The last British attachments now received orders to move. They moved down the Bowery and Chatham Street, picking up their outposts as they passed and wheeling into Pearl Street, marched to the East River wards where they were rode to the fleet. Knox followed the British down Chatham Street and then turned onto Broadway. He marched south to Cape's Tavern, a little below Trinity Church, and formally took possession of New York City in the name of the United States.
On receiving a message from Knox that he had done so, Washington swung into the saddle and rode downtown, Governor Clinton at his side. At the new jail, at the northeast corner of today's City Hall Park, Captain Cunningham paraded the Provo Guard for the last time. Accompanied by the hangman in his yellow jacket, Cunningham's command passed between a platoon of British troops which fell in behind them as they marched down Broadway. They and the City Hall's main guard thus became the last enemy forces in history to occupy New York City. Washington rode down Pearl Street to Wall Street and then went on wall to Broadway.
At Cape's Tavern, a group of citizens welcomed the commander in chief. An eyewitness said, the troops just leaving us were as if equipped for show and with their scarlet uniforms and burnished arms made a brilliant display. The troops that marched in, on the contrary, were ill-clad and weather-beaten and made a forlorn appearance.
But then they were our troops, and as I looked at them and thought upon all they had done for us, my heart and eyes were full, and I admired and gloried in them the more because they were weather-beaten and forlorn. The British had left the Union flag flying over Fort George on the battery. The halyards, the lines for raising and lowering the flag, were gone. The banner had been nailed to the staff. And the pole was greased, heel to truck, to prevent or hinder the removal of the emblem of royalty and the raising of the stars and stripes.
The grease rebuffed all efforts to climb the staff. In the crowd was Captain John Van Arsdale, a New Yorker, Revolutionary soldier and peacetime sailor. Recalling Peter Goulet's hardware store about 10 minutes away in Hanover Square, he sprinted across town and liberated a saw, hatchet, cleats, rope and nails. He began nailing the cleats into the greasy pole. He climbed a little, drove in more cleats and climbed farther. Bit by bit, he ascended the pole. He reached the top. He ripped down the British flag and flung it to the cheering crowd. Then he attached new halyards and scrambled down the pole as the stars and stripes ran up it. General Knox's field guns began a 13-gun salute.
As the colors went up and the cannon roared, the British weighed anchor and made for the open sea. That night, Washington and his officers met with General Clinton in France's tavern at Broad and Pearl Street for a feast of reason and a flow of soul. They offered 13 toasts to allies, friends, comrades living and dead, their hopes for their new country and certain immutable principles. The next nine days were marked by what one observer called good humor, hilarity and mirth. Thus, at Governor Clinton's dinner for the French ambassador on Tuesday, December 2nd, 1783, his 120 guests consumed 135 bottles of Madeira, described as, it may not look like much, but it can fell an elephant, 36 bottles of port, 60 bottles of beer and 30 bowls of punch, while breaking 60 wine glasses and eight cut glass decanters.
On Thursday, December 4th, Washington breakfasted with his officers in the long room on the second floor of France's tavern. Then the commander in chief rose to his feet and there was silence. Most intelligent warriors who have written of their experiences from Xenophon to William Manchester admit that they fought not for king, flag or country, but for the guys they were with.
The revolutionaries were no exception. Washington said, with a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your later days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.
Then he could say no more. General Knox stepped forward, embraced him and both men wept. At last, composure regained. The commander in chief went down the stairs, popped on his cocked hat and strode into Pearl Street. The infantryman snapped to present arms. He acknowledged the salute. Then he walked west. Orders were barked. The column moved out behind him. Near the battery at the foot of Whitehall Street, a barge waited to take him to Paulus Hook on the New Jersey Shore.
From there, he traveled to Philadelphia, where he resigned his commission to Congress and returned to private life. November 25th was celebrated as Evacuation Day in New York for more than a century. But Evacuation Day was gradually overwhelmed by R. H. Macy's aggressive promotion of Thanksgiving, a rival end of November holiday.
From the beginning of the First World War, it faded away. Yet in 1983, through the support of Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein, New York City commemorated the bicentennial of the evacuation. A parade marched down Broadway to the Battery, featuring hundreds of reenactors in the uniforms of the British and Continental forces. The British Union flag was flying from the staff of Castle Clinton. Then Harry van Arsdale, the union leader and direct descendant of Captain van Arsdale, stepped forward to lower the British colors, which were presented to Her Majesty's Consul General, who kissed them.
Van Arsdale clipped the stars and stripes to the lanyards and ran it up the pole. A dozen brass muzzleloader cannon along the Battery began firing a salute and the crowd cheered wildly. On August 16th, 1824, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert de Montier, Marquis de Lafayette, the last living general of the Revolution, the hero of two worlds, landed at the Battery to begin his tour of the United States. Tens of thousands were awaiting him.
Among them was a company of veterans of the Revolution. The Marquis insisted on inspecting them and slowly walked down the line, greeting and shaking hands with each man. Lafayette took a second look at the last man. Then he smiled. Van Arsdale, he said, I remember you.
Then the captain who had ascended the flagpole and the Marquis, who had been a major general at 19, embraced. And we thank Bill Bright for that beautiful storytelling. And my goodness, well, that's why we do what we do here at Our American Stories. What we've lived through as a country, what George Washington did. Evacuation Day, the day the British troops finally leave America in 1783. Put that on your celebration calendar, folks. What a great day, especially if you're New Yorkers.
This is Our American Stories. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop. But for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot.
And I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too. So they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious. And there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done.
I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try all free clear mega packs. All free clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All free clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs, which my family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that all free clear mega packs, they have your back.
Purchase all free clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. And we continue with our American stories. And now it's time for our American Dreamers series, which is sponsored by the great folks at the Job Creators Network.
And they work hard to help small businesses grow into bigger ones by fighting for public policies that effectuate such things. And today, we bring you the story of someone who likely, his name you don't know, and his name is Kemmons Wilson, but you definitely know the iconic brand that he brought us. Here's his son, Kemmons Wilson Jr. with the story. In 1951, we took a family vacation to Washington DC and we had a big station wagon and my father was going up there. I think, you know, again, this is a dual family vacation business trip. My two brothers, two sisters, all piled in the car, no air condition.
And what a funny story, we had a luggage rack on top and part way through the trip, a suitcase flew off. And my brother, Bob, said, hey, dad, he said, don't bother me. I'm driving. And dad, be quiet. And they just kept driving.
Hey, dad, I need to be quiet. So we get to some, I guess the next gasoline station. And he looked up and like, what is wrong?
Where is this? So my brother Bob said, well, I was trying to tell you that the suitcase fell off. So we drove back and our clothes were all over the road. They had tar all over them. Back in those days, you know, the road, they had a lot of tar. And so we basically had to throw them away and buy some movies. But the real story there was that back in those days, they were mostly sole proprietor and mom and pop motel, cabana cabin owners that had motel type rooms.
Now the big cities had the aristocratic downtown hotels that were very expensive. So you would, the situation was such that you actually had to go in and inspect a room before you agreed to stay there. And that was for a lot of reasons. You know, you wanted to see how big it was. Was it clean? I remember I was six at the time sitting in the car. My dad would walk up to the little office and then he and the manager may walk out to see a cabana and then many times he just walked straight back to the car and said, hey, it's, it wasn't big enough.
It was too dirty. And we're going to have to just keep driving. And you know, back in those days, you didn't know how far the next place was. So anyway, we finally got to a place and of course as children, we all wanted to stay at one, had a swimming pool because it was a summer. It was hot, but we got to this one property and my dad went and looked at the room, came back and said, okay kids, this is good. So we all piled into one single room and my brothers and sisters, we had sleeping bags.
So we slept in the sleeping bags. And the deal he had made with the hotel owner was the room would cost $6. So the next morning he goes to check out and the guy charged him $16. And he said, wait a minute.
Now we, you know, we agreed yesterday. It's $6. Well, why is it 16? He said, well, I charged $2 extra for every child. And of course there were five of us.
So the $6 turns into 16. And that was the spark that was in my father's head when he said, you know, this is just not fair. We didn't use any more water or towels or linens or, and the guy said, well, buddy, that's the way it is. And he realized at that moment that this was a huge untapped market. And he made a determination then that he was going to come back to Memphis and build a chain of hotels.
And he told my mother that day that he was going back to Memphis to build 400 hotels across the country, mostly a day's drive from one another. And he said, furthermore, they're all going to have some standardization. They're all going to be the same size.
They're all going to be clean. We're going to have a restaurant in every one. We're going to have a lounge in every one.
We have a swimming pool in every one. We're going to have a get in Bible in every one. You know, we're going to have a pastor on call. We're going to have a doctor on call because he felt like I'm just a normal guy.
And if I like this, I think everybody ought to like this. And so my mother laughed at it and obviously that gave him great incentive to prove her wrong. So sure enough, he came back to Memphis and he started, he was a frustrated architect. He loved drawing. So he went to a guy named Eddie Bluestein. He was a draftsman, not technically an architect.
And my father knew exactly what he wanted in a hotel. And one of the reasons for that was he had the background in construction. So he knew that lumber comes in 12 foot lengths and carpet comes in 12 foot lengths of west. So it's not surprising that the room that he designed was 12 foot in width, because that was the lumber. You didn't have to cut the lumber. You know, if it was 13 feet, you'd have to add some.
If it was 11, you'd have to subtract something. And really even today, that's still the standard size room. You'll find some a little bigger, some a little smaller, but he really set that in motion. So Eddie Bluestein drew the plan that my dad told him.
And you know, all architectural plans on the bottom left or bottom right, they have the name of the project. And it just so happens that he had watched the movie Holiday Inn the night before. And so he drew on the plans Holiday Inn. And he brought them to my dad the next day and my dad said, this is great.
I like it. He said, what in the world was this on the plans? He said, well, I don't know.
He said, it was just, I saw the movie. I liked the name. And he said, you know, Eddie, I liked that too.
And so sure enough, that's how it happened. And one of the things that really kind of has always impressed me in a sense was, it may tell you a little bit about my dad's ego that Mr. Hilton called his Hilton ends, Hilton's and Mr. Marriott calls his Marriott's. And dad, he was happy with Holiday Inn's. And, you know, probably 30 years later, after the company was sold, they became the Promise Company, P-R-O-N-U-S, was how they pronounced it. And dad had long since retired.
And we found out that they paid a half a million dollars for some think tank to come up with that name. And here Eddie Bluestein, you know, gives him an iconic name. And you're listening to Kemmons Wilson Jr. tell the story of his dad.
And by the way, so many of our American Dreamers stories are just this story. An ordinary guy trying to solve a problem. Here he is checking in a hotel and not even knowing what he's going to get. And then he finally picks one he likes on this trip and finds out he's being charged 10 extra bucks. $2 an extra kid meant something. And he said that's not fair. And then he went home and he designed a business to solve a problem. Standardization, same size, same cleanliness, a pool in everyone, a Bible in everyone, a pastor on call, a doctor on call.
In other words, what he'd want for his own family. When we come back, more of this remarkable American story and American Dreamers story, the story of Holiday Inn and the story of one guy trying to solve a problem for his family and families, particularly working class families across this great country. Our story continues here on Our American Stories. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious. And there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done.
I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try all free clear mega packs. All free clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All free clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs, which my family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that all free clear mega packs, they have your back.
Purchase all free clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. And we continue with our American stories and with the story of Holiday Inn and its founder, Hemmings Wilson. And by the way, this is a Memphis story too and a great southern story.
And we broadcast here in Oxford, Mississippi, just an hour south of Memphis in a beautiful small college town. Let's return to his son, Hemmings Wilson Jr. on the story of his dad and the iconic brand he created called Holiday Inn. Somebody asked my dad one time, why did you decide on sort of the market for Holiday Inn's, which is really moderate priced family rather than be upscale or whatever.
And my dad would always say there's more people in the middle than there are at the top. One of the interesting things that my father wanted to do too was to make a statement with the sign. And he had a friend named Harold Bolton who was in the sign business and he and Harold designed this what some would call iconic, some would call gaudy, huge neon sign with an arrow pointing to wherever the hotel was. And my dad felt that that was important. If you could see the sign, you knew what it was. And the sign had a little marquee on it where you could change the message out every day, you know, like buffet tonight or kids stay free. And that was one of the gifts that my dad said he wanted to give to the industry.
And that is that kids stay free if they stay in the same room with their parents. And he sort of forced all the other hotel chains to kind of do that at the time. But y'all, you've certainly seen, and especially back in those days, just about every hotel and motel had a vacancy, no vacancy sign.
He did not want that. He wanted that totally eliminated because he wanted a person to stop, to actually get out of the car, come in to the hotel. And if they didn't have a room at that particular hotel, the desk clerk was to call around to all the other hotels and find that person a room because he felt that he could win while he may lose a customer for that night, he may win a customer for the rest of his life. So he builds this one successful hotel in Memphis, and he went and built three more. Now this was way before the interstate system. So he built them on the north, south, east and west entries into town. So if you were coming to Memphis, Tennessee, you had to pass a holiday in.
And they were all doing very well. And so he went to build number five and the banker said, hey, you're tapped out. You know, you're out of credit. We can't lend you any more money. And so his dream of the hotels across the country was jeopardized. I cannot even build the fifth holiday in, much less the four hundredth.
What are we going to do? And that's when he sat down and came up with the theory of franchising where they would license a person and that person had to adhere to a certain set of standards. And if you didn't, they could take your license away. So he started the franchise business. And today, you know, it's about 80 percent franchise and about 20 percent company owned, so to speak. You know, one of the things he was most proud of and all of his life was, he said, that he's created a lot of millionaires. And he really had. I mean, at one time in the 60s, they were building a hotel, was opening every two and a half days. And I think a room was open every 20 minutes or so. So it was incredibly explosive. And then when the interstate system hit, you know, the timing was, you know, perfect and right. And my father probably personally inspected every Holiday Inn site.
I don't know, maybe the first 500 of them. Well, one of the funny things was early on in Holiday Inn, they didn't have much representation in the West Coast. It was mostly in the south.
When it started growing, it went northeast and a little Midwest, but not much on the coast, so to speak. And so dad got a call from Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's. And McDonald's was flourishing at the time.
They were still young. He had bought it from McDonald brothers and he had visions of, you know, how do I expand that business? And Holiday Inn was already actively in the franchise business. So dad was really excited when Ray Kroc said, I'd like to come to Memphis and talk to you about getting a Holiday Inn franchise. And so he did. And of course they, you know, pulled out the red carpet, you know, gave him all the franchise agreements, explained everything to him about the ins and outs of it. And of course they would say, look, you know, we sure hope you got some sites out there that, you know, I mean, he talked about I can build a Holiday Inn here and put a McDonald's here.
And so they thought, look, we may have hit the jackpot. And so he goes back to California and it just goes silent and there's no dialogue, no nothing. He never calls back. My father calls him and everybody in the organization is trying to get ahold of him. And they literally found out really all he wanted was the actual franchise agreement so they could, I mean, I'm sure they didn't copy it verbatim, but you know, they get wiped out to Holiday Inn and put McDonald's in there. But obviously we know the history of that. So we, we joke around and we say, well, my dad gave Ray Crock his start.
Where's he come from? And, and, you know, jumping back, you know, the, the biggest success for Holiday Inn in my mind was the standardization that nobody until that time, everything, every hotel room place was different. By standardizing this and as you expand, people knew exactly what to expect when they went to Holiday Inn. They didn't have to go in and look at the room. You know, they just went in, checked in, went to their room and there was a great advertisement years ago.
They said the best surprise is no surprise to stay at Holiday Inn. And that was really, to me, captured the essence of what he did. Well, you know, I think about the, he told us one day, long after this, we were quizzing him about kind of growing up and stuff. And he said he and his mother ate bread and beans for an entire year back during the deep, deep depression.
Her husband, my dad's father died when he was nine months old. So he was completely raised by his mother. She got a job as a bookkeeper just to kind of, you know, have some money to come in. But, well, you know, he had to drop out of high school when he was in his senior year. And he had to drop out because his mother had gotten, terminated her job. So he was basically the breadwinner.
He had to go hustle. But what she did, she was his biggest encourager, his Barnabus. She told him there was nothing in the world he couldn't do. I mean, she absolutely adored him.
He could do no wrong. And again, I mean, you know, she was, she was the one whispering in his ear, you know, you can do it when the world says, no way you can do this. And really her, her life, you know, became his life.
And, you know, today we would call her a helicopter mom, right? That she was just all over him. But I, you know, I'm sure she saw in him, a leader, someone who can make things happen, someone who's aggressive and can be successful. So she just undermined that with daily, you can do it, hang in there.
There's nothing you can't do. So it was, that springboarded him into his life of having confidence and being able to just be successful. And the, the, the thought of not even graduating from high school and going on to be the founder and CEO of one of the largest iconic companies in the world is just amazing to me. And great job as always to Alex for all the work he does on these pieces and a special thanks to Kemmons Wilson Jr. for sharing the story of his father and what a story it is. And by the way, for more of this great American story, make sure to pick up Kemmons' book Half Luck and Half Brains, the Kemmons Wilson holiday and story, a father-son story, a family story, and a working class family turning well, hard work into success here on Our American News.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-16 22:43:38 / 2023-02-16 22:58:30 / 15
