Who’s Audie Murphy?

I did a locksmith job at one of my regular car dealerships and had one of their newer used car managers sign off in order to obtain a purchase order. That has always mystified me to some degree, wouldn’t you think they’d issue a purchase order and then I’d make them a key? That’s not what I wanted to write about today; I looked at the young man and was immediately reminded of Audie Murphy, close enough to where I asked if he were related in any way.

“Who’s Audie Murphy?”, a total blank. ( link provided in title bar )

“You’re kidding, right; you never heard of Audie Murphy, awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and the most decorated war hero of WWII?” His expression left me wondering what had his generation been taught. Another salesman came up to the desk to have some paperwork checked and I asked him the same question; got the same response. This went on three more times; none of them had ever heard of Audie Murphy, the war hero or the movie star.

The first young fellow had access to the internet and at least showed some interest in finding out who Audie Murphy was through a Google search, call it vanity or interest about a historical figure. I bet they all know who Kid Rock, Seinfeld and Barry Bonds are.

I have the movie, Yankee Doodle Dandy, with James Cagney on DVD. There’s a scene towards the end of the show where he thinks he’s supposed to be retired, doing nothing but lounging on a hammock in the country. A car load of youngsters pulls up along side where he’s reading the Variety pages, their car needing water for the radiator. The kids made fun of the theatrical talk printed in the headline while asking permission to borrow some water. He explained the strange use of language used in Variety to the young people and introduced himself, “I’m George Cohan”. They’d never heard of him or any of his work.

Well, I hope all these kids can play Nintendo, X-Box or what ever the heck it is they think is really important ‘cause they sure are missing out on some interesting history. Let’s go blow up something, watch it burn, splatter that video blood all over the shadows in the third level of Doom.

Maybe I should become a History teacher, do something to help link these chowder heads to their past. It would be a shame for a whole generation, maybe two generations to forget why we’re supposed to have strong feelings when Veteran’s Day, Independence Day, D-Day or any number of important thought provoking opportunities to fall by the wayside; to be looked forward to simply because Target and Macy’s had a special Memorial Day Sale where the entire stock of Game Boy Gear was fifty percent off.