Dan The Road Trip Guy
Join Dan the Road Trip Guy as he explores the adventures, memories, and life lessons of diverse guests from all walks of life. This podcast goes beyond the road to celebrate the journey of life by uncovering stories of passion, resilience, and the pursuit of happiness. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or simply love a good story, Dan the Road Trip Guy will leave you inspired and ready to embrace your own adventures. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!
I hope you enjoy the episodes. You can find me at https://www.dannyneal.com.
Dan The Road Trip Guy
Celebrating the Life of George Buhler, through His Stories Shared with His Grandson, Jeff Zurcher
Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now
What were the secrets to resilience during the Great Depression, and how can we apply those lessons to our lives today? Join us as we explore the incredible life of George Buhler, a World War II veteran who reached the age of 105. Through captivating stories recorded by his grandson, Jeff Zurcher, George's vivid recollections paint a poignant picture of growing up during one of America's toughest eras. From the low cost of living at that the time to the ingenuity of building scooters from orange boxes and metal wheels, George's tales offer timeless wisdom on hard work, financial prudence, and the power of family support. His reflections, especially after the loss of his father, serve as a touching reminder to cherish and document our own family histories before they fade away.
In the second half of our episode, we delve into the transformative power of simple acts of kindness and humor. We share how greeting others, cracking a joke, or just showing genuine interest in someone's well-being can turn acquaintances into friends, sometimes even surpassing the bonds we form with those we've lived near for years. George’s story of how he met his wife will warm your heart. This episode is a warm invitation to enrich your life through meaningful connections. Don't forget to follow our podcast for more stories that touch the heart and inspire the spirit to keep the conversation going.
Absolutely nothing beats windshield time, a road trip and good conversation in the car. Welcome to another episode of Dan the Road Trip Guy, where we have entertaining conversations about cars and road trips, life lessons and maybe, every now and then, a little advice. I'm your host, dan Neal Road Trip Extraordinaire, and now buckle. Now and then, a little advice. I'm your host, dan Neal Road Trip Extraordinaire, and now buckle up and enjoy the show.
Speaker 1:This past week my good friend Jeff Zirker and his family celebrated the life of his grandfather, george Buehler. Last year Jeff recorded some clips with his grandfather and I had the honor to assemble a few of these clips and share them with Jeff, and I want to share them with you, my listening audience. I believe you will be moved by Jeff's grandfather's stories. He lived a wonderful life, 104 years old, world War II vet just some great stories, and over the next few weeks I'll share a few of those stories with you. I hope they're both encouraging to you. I hope they create an urgency for you all with family still living, even friends, that you'll record some stories so that you've got them before it's too late. I am so thankful for my friend, jeff Zerker, who did just that with his grandfather. So now on to the episode.
Speaker 2:Now you were born in 1919. Yeah, and the Great Depression started 1929, 28, 29. Talk to me about what it was like, the extent that you can remember as a young boy, young man, rents.
Speaker 3:You could rent a house for $25 a month. Three bedroom, regular two-story house. Yeah, like a row house or just a no regular house in town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have to say it.
Speaker 3:You could buy a loaf of bread for five cents A half, a pound of liverwurst for a quarter. Fruit Fruit can be one or two cents apiece, whatever you want. Pairs of arms and mom used to. She went to work at a rubber mill making washes for some kind of instrument. I worked on a tree gang, yeah, and I used to be there every Friday night when I got paid I used to go downtown to the Mahican Market and meet Mom and we'd do our shopping For the week.
Speaker 3:With her paying my pay for a whole week. Yeah, and we was able to buy a whole pie for five cents. What do you think we should do? An apple pie or a pumpkin? I said, let's get a pumpkin pie, and so we take it home at night and that's it. That was the end of the pumpkin pie. Yeah, we used to walk all the time, Jeff. Yeah, we walked four or five miles every day. Didn't take nothing of it going back and forth to work and going to the market.
Speaker 2:Did you realize how tough the times were? Because you're in the middle of the Depression, or can you remember?
Speaker 3:It was tough.
Speaker 2:What made it feel tough?
Speaker 3:Well, it was right after World War I Right, and things were getting organized. Right after World War I Right, and things were getting organized and government. That's when President Roosevelt signed in the Social Security Act, which was good One thing they did good. The Social Security Act. People were very cautious of how they lived. You know, they didn't spend a while in there. They didn't use clothes, you clothes, so they could buy it. We never had no scooters or bicycles real bicycles, that's the one thing.
Speaker 3:When my dad worked for the incinerator in the furnace, he used to bring home broken bicycles, yeah, and we'd take them apart and make one good one. We can fix those brakes. No, we used to make. We'd get an orange box, a wooden orange box and a two by four, about four foot long, and we'd get a pair of old Union skates, metal wheels, and we'd break them in half and we'd make the scooter out of them, front wheels and back wheels, and we had a box and we used a tomato can for a light and two sticks for a handle. We used to fly around with those things. Yeah, but it was bad on the sole of the shoes and we didn't have we couldn't send our shoes to the shoemaker yeah, cardboard in them all the time. Yeah, put cardboard in them yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that probably was tough in the wintertime.
Speaker 3:That was another thing If you could find an old pair of galoshes. Nobody looked any too fancy in them days, they just were more or less concerned about keeping well and healthy.
Speaker 2:How do you think growing up in that era, especially losing your father so young, how do you think that shaped you into the man you would become later in life?
Speaker 3:It made me realize what a dollar is worth. Yeah, it made me realize, in order to live, how you had to work and know well, I can't do this. You had to do it to work. And no, well, I can't do this, you had to do it to exist. And you never had a decent pair of brand new clothes. You always had used overalls or something. My mother used to take suits and stuff from people, cut them down. She was terrific and she'd make pants and stuff for us. We thought we were a million bucks. That's how we lived. We never had.
Speaker 2:Did you ever recall feeling like you got the raw end of the deal because you had to work for your brothers and your father passed away? Did you ever resent any of that, or is it just what it was?
Speaker 3:No, I never did, Jeff, because I knew somebody had to do it and I knew they couldn't do it because they were school-age. Yeah, and I knew my mother couldn't do it alone. She was willing to work and so I went to work, I just did it. I come home some nice frozen stiffum and so finally on the job. Every morning we get on the bus. We have to be there. It's At 6.30, we'd get on the bus and take an hour's ride to where we worked.
Speaker 2:Were there any other boys your age, working or?
Speaker 3:pretty much, men. No, it was all old men.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what did you learn from them? Just hard work and how to provide for your family.
Speaker 3:Well, I learned what work meant yeah. I learned what you had to do and no excuse. My brothers always appreciated, always thanked me for making them finish school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Did those men on that crew or other men you might have worked? Did they kind of take you in eventually because you were younger and kind of look out for you.
Speaker 3:No, they never bothered me. No, everybody was on their own in them days.
Speaker 2:So there wasn't a lot of camaraderie or togetherness.
Speaker 3:No, it was on your own boy. You had to make your own living.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so nobody there was teaching you the ropes or looking out for you.
Speaker 3:No, no deals, no nothing. If you couldn't make it, you couldn't make it, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I know you've told me this and we know this, but I just want to have this on record how you and Grandma Rose first met and then when you first laid eyes on me.
Speaker 3:Well, when I came out of service, I used to skate around for racing. I used to wear jackets and pants and everything that was your prizes for winning like roller derby type of speed skating.
Speaker 2:No roller skate racing In a rink or on the street Racing.
Speaker 3:The big tracks. We used to go to different skating rinks Camden these were indoor. Yeah, I used to win all my prizes racing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'd go like a sucker on two front wheels, never mind four. And so one night I said to my mother you know, I don't know where to go anymore. I got no friends now, you know.
Speaker 2:This was after the war.
Speaker 3:Yes, I think I'll try roller skating. That's before I started roller skating. I got a roller skate rink and I had one.
Speaker 3:Well, I did skating because I won clothes. I had this jacket on, yeah. And I'm sitting there looking around and I saw I'm watching this gal and this guy and they're fancy, yeah, man. I said, oh boy, I didn't even dare to mention talking to her because, you know, and I'm sitting there thinking about something, all of a sudden there she comes, flying across the street. She says do you mind if I talk to you a minute? I said well, come on over and talk. You could talk a whole hour if you want. And she said no.
Speaker 3:She said I just wanted to know if you look familiar. I just wanted to know if you knew a certain friend by the name. I said, well, I don't think. So I wish I did. But I said I don't know. But I said I sure like to know you, you know. And well, she'll talk about that. She says we'll talk about that and off she went. So before she went home that night I said hey, I'd like to see you again. She said, well, we'll see you when I come back. So the next time she came I had the car. I had Al's car. I said I'll go. Whose car, stepfather?
Speaker 2:Al oh yeah Zaki.
Speaker 3:Well, I had a car and.
Speaker 3:I thought, man, I'm going to have somebody in that car with me. So we started talking and I said, hey, now that we know each other and we know each other's name, I said I'd like to take you home sometime. She said, well, we'll talk about that too. So it didn't work. But the next time it worked. So I don't know whether she was thinking I better say yes before he's gone or else, but anyhow it worked out and we had a good, oh good, relationship with Grandma and she was just like my Grandma Zaki. She helped everybody. She still was until the day she died. She turned out to be the best friend of all of them. Boy, they all liked Grandma. She turned out to be the best friend of all of them. Boy, yeah, they all like Grandma.
Speaker 2:So to clarify, she saw you sitting there and she approached you first.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, she came to me, so I know that was better than me going after her.
Speaker 2:Was that common at all back in that time?
Speaker 3:No, it wasn't common. She just thought I was a friend of somebody and she had her eye on me. That's what. Yeah, that was what it was. She had her eye on me and she knew how to pull the trick.
Speaker 2:So you were sitting there in your skating jacket, which people knew.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when you weren't skating in those. You had a tie and a shirt on. Yeah, no fooling around.
Speaker 2:But you had the attire that says you had won some races and things by then.
Speaker 3:Huh.
Speaker 2:You had won some skating races and things by then, right?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And so were you wearing that that day, so that she knew that, hey, this guy must be.
Speaker 3:She knew I was racing too. But this night I went, I said to my mother I have no friends now I don't now, because you were back from the war and things were different. Well, from the army, and then she came over. She said you don't think God don't work in mysterious ways?
Speaker 2:Yes, sir. So do you remember how that interaction went the first time Grandma Rose met your? Mom Like that they clicked they, my God, they clicked.
Speaker 3:They were always together. Well, I told my mom. I said, mom, I think we're going to get married, we've got to find a place. She said well, there's three empty rooms upstairs bedrooms. Let's see, maybe we can make a kitchen.
Speaker 2:So we did it yeah.
Speaker 3:We did all that work ourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you talked about how, especially during that time, grandma was 100% Italian, you were German and Dutch, right, but how was talk just in general, the relationships between different ethnicities?
Speaker 3:Everybody got together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't a lot of problems between.
Speaker 3:Irish and Italians. We had Irish and Italians and Polish and Holland and blacks.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We played with Buddy Coulter. He was one of our friends there. We used to play day in and day out together. Never thought anything about he's black and you're white, right, just kid in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2:It's just what do you say? What would you say? I mean, you talk about God's goodness, which we know that's. You've always given credit to him. But what else would you attest to your longevity?
Speaker 3:It was him. He took care of everything, and when I had to go this way, they already had a direction for me. Or how did I ever know that I'd meet your grandmother, right, yeah, he sent her over there. Yeah, nobody else.
Speaker 2:He just made you fast on roller skates.
Speaker 3:He just kind of told me what to say. That's right. Yeah, oh, I loved her Grandma. She was like my mother. She would do it out to see another person smile and to be happy. Yeah, and what was hers was hers, brother, don't try to take it away. And she enjoyed seeing you and your dad and your brothers all sitting around that table eating her spaghetti.
Speaker 2:Do you think about having more now at 103 than you did at, let's say, 93 or 83 or 13?
Speaker 3:I don't think about nothing now when I put my head around the pillow and say, God, if this is it, this is it. Yeah, I had to have the privilege to say.
Speaker 2:God, if this is it, this is it, yeah, so.
Speaker 3:I had my life. Yeah, I had my life. I saw my grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so death or dying is not a thing.
Speaker 3:No, that's no problem to me. If I have to go to Mars, just say well, there it is.
Speaker 2:Is there anything else you still want to do in life?
Speaker 3:You know, there's things, jeff, that I want to do but I can't do.
Speaker 2:But if you could, what would those be?
Speaker 3:If I could, I'd do what I'm doing now, what I'm doing downstairs painting pumpkins and drawing. I got a whole book down there pictures for the little ones Drawing dogs and cats and birds and all kinds of stuff. And then I draw for Jet. I got a picture of when he was born, a little boy, and then he's drinking a bottle of milk and he's growing up in a diaper and then he's finally walking, and so they put him in frames on a wall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Creating, right Creating still at 103 years old.
Speaker 3:And you know what? I made more friends here than people that lived here all their life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because of.
Speaker 3:I'd say hello, how are you. And if they say something, I'd crack a little joke if I know how, and they'd laugh. And hey, where are you Next day? Where were you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just engaging with people, yeah.
Speaker 3:I love people. I like Rosie Sure. You know what, when you can make people laugh, you got it made, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you think about Grandma often.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, but I don't, you know what. There's no worry, right, I know I'll see her again.
Speaker 1:Until we meet up again. You can find me on the internet at dantheroadtripguycom. I hope you will follow this podcast so that you don't miss any upcoming episodes and share it with your family and friends so they can enjoy the stories of my guests also. Until we meet again on a future episode, keep having conversations with each other and keep driving.
