Football Flyboy: First Lt. Bill Cannon, Piloting More than His Own Aircraft

“My Brother Was an Only Child”

By Ruby Lee

From the day he was born the whole family has been “dancing to his tune.” I was the only holdout! Mother used to say he was her best child. My answer to that was “of course he was because no one ever crossed him, he had his own way about everything.”

The day he was born resulted in my displacement as the baby of the family and also caused my first real punishment.

It happened this way: Jack and I were sent to Mrs. Thompson’s because Mother was in labor. We chased the ice wagon down the street and Jack, being older, jumped on, and I didn’t make it. Of course, I fell and howled with pain and anger which brought the whole episode to attention. Mrs. Thompson made us sit on a trunk in her dining room as punishment. It seemed like forever, probably 10 minutes. We could hear celebration next door at the advent of a baby boy!

Because of my sweet, forgiving nature, I was eventually able to overcome my resentment and came to love him too, very dearly.

Most people think Bud (the name she called Dad) is a chauvinistic, right-wing, Republican. I think he’s a phony! Being non-political I don’t even know what a right wing Republican is, but I’ve heard enough to know they are unpleasant people. It occurs to me that after the disaster of the last 12 years of a Republican government that no one would claim to be a Republican unless they choose to ignore the facts.

At heart, I think Buster is a liberal Democrat and has secret respect for the Clinton’s—especially Hillary!

I do believe that he is sensitive as a result of having a liberated mother and four liberated sisters that have shaped his early life.

And by the way, the only time I was ever spanked by Mother it was “Buster’s fault.”