102 Years Ago

 January 22, 2023

On this day one hundred and two years ago an event occurred that changed history. Well to be honest, it didn’t change the history of the world. Eight years later, the stock market crashed, plunging the country into the Great Depression, and another twelve years after that, we found ourselves in the middle of a second World War. January 22, 1921 was all but forgotten except by a very few whose lives were forever changed by that event.

Ward Russell Bailey was born to Harry and Elsie Zweigle Bailey on that cold January morning, the only child who grew up to become my father. History was changed that day. Great world events were happening then as they are now, passing by this baby boy, ignoring him as most baby boys are ignored by history. But it is these unremarkable and forgotten baby boys who one by one, change their world forever. Politicians get us into wars, generals plan them, but it’s the ordinary boys who do the fighting and dying. 

Hospitals, schools, factories, and homes are built by unnamed ordinary men like my father. My father wasn’t a big man; 5’10” and maybe 150 lbs, but he made a huge impact in the lives of many. I’ve lost count of the grandchildren and great grandchildren he had, every single one of them impacted by his genes, but even more by his character. He taught me patience, integrity, faithfulness, attention to detail, and so much more, as much by his example as by his words. 

If I have had any positive impact on anyone’s life, it’s in part the impact of my father, whose influence now spans three generations. It’s a ripple effect that has no shore to stop it. Yes, the world was changed that day, and much like another (fictional) Bailey named George of Bedford Falls, NY, this world would have been a poorer place had he never been born. I hope that twenty nine years from now, it can be said of me that the world was a better place because I was born into it.