Commentary: Daddy always warned us. . .

By Stan Tiner, Editor | Biloxi Sun Herald

God willing, Daddy will be 100 on Nov. 8, and as he approaches that significant milestone the nightmare of a 1929-like event is playing out again on the national stage.

The Great Depression was his defining moment, a catastrophic period that to some large degree set the tone for how he lived his life socially, fiscally and philosophically.

The Depression forced him out of his home in Tyro, Ark. (one less mouth to feed at home) and as a 21-year-old he and a friend hit the road on an odyssey across the heartland working in wheat fields and laying pipeline. They rode the rails, lived in hobo jungles, and sometimes were reduced to begging for meals.