Home Front: A story worth bringing home

I’ve lived in Central Wisconsin for nearly all of my life, but every once in a while a story finds you somewhere else.

During a brief trip to our place in Florida, I stopped for breakfast at my favorite local Waffle House.

That’s where I met Douglas.

Douglas is in his 90s. Other than the cane beside him giving away a little of his age, you wouldn’t necessarily know it from talking with him.

His hearing was sharp, his mind was quick, and he was simply a fun guy to sit and talk with.

Before long, a casual conversation had turned into a walk through more than nine decades of American history.

Douglas grew up near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father started a mechanic shop in 1903, and Douglas eventually took over the family business.

After selling the shop, he came to one of those crossroads in life where you have to decide what comes next.

Douglas chose the United States Army.

He served from 1959 to 1965 and went through basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Fittingly enough for someone who had grown up around a mechanic shop; he became a mechanic in the Army.

But some of the memories that interested me most came from years before Douglas ever put on a uniform.

As a boy during World War II, he remembers Civil Defense personnel walking the streets.

He also remembers his father listening to the radio as news of the attack on Pearl Harbor reached Americans at home.

For most of us, those are scenes from history books, documentaries and old photographs.
For Douglas, they are childhood memories.

That was one of the things that struck me as I listened to him.

I wasn’t reading about history or watching someone describe it on television.

I was sitting across from a man who had actually watched pieces of that history unfold around him.
Around 1977, Douglas moved to Florida and later served the Port Charlotte area as a firefighter.

His military service is still recognized in the community.

At the MISSION BBQ on Murdock Circle, an 8-by-10 Army photograph of Douglas hangs on the wall. Walk through the front door, turn to the left, and you can find him among the veterans whose service is honored there.

Douglas also shared some of the more personal parts of his life. He lost his wife in 2024.
And then there is his love of Florida weather.

Douglas doesn’t merely tolerate the heat. He loves it.

He told me he can’t understand why his children — who are now in their 70s themselves — have to run the air conditioning.

When the temperature climbs toward 100 degrees and everyone else heads inside, Douglas would just as soon go outdoors.

That little detail made me laugh, but it also told me something about the man sitting across from me.
He has lived through more than 90 years of change, but there was nothing tired about the conversation.
He laughed, remembered and told stories.

Most of all, he seemed to enjoy having someone there who was willing to listen.

I bought Douglas his coffee that morning.

Looking back, I got the better end of the deal.

For the price of a cup of coffee, I was given a glimpse into more than nine decades of one man’s life — a boy who remembered the American home front during World War II, a son who followed his father into the mechanic business, a man who later chose to serve his country as an Army mechanic and a veteran who went on to serve his Florida community as a firefighter.

As one veteran listening to another, the conversation also reminded me that there are stories like Douglas’ all around us.

Some will never make it into a history book.

Some may never be recorded at all.

Sometimes all it takes is asking a question, pulling up a chair and taking the time to listen.

I went to Florida for a few days.

I came home with a story worth bringing back to Wisconsin.

And Douglas, if our paths cross again, the next cup of coffee is on me, too.

David J. Falkosky Sr. is a U.S. Air Force Gulf War veteran who has lived in Central Wisconsin for nearly all of his life.