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The Ron Paul I Know
Carol Paul
Lew
Rockwell.com
Friday December 14, 2007
The story of our family would have to start with
the man Ron Paul, who saw the American Dream and decided that
it could be his – and now he wants it to be yours if you
so choose.
Ron's grandfather came from Germany at the age of 14 with his
father. After just six months in this country, his father died
and he had to make his way in a new country with a new language.
He became a truck farmer in a small town in Pennsylvania. He eventually
married, and had four sons and one daughter. The second son was
Howard Paul, Ron's father.
Howard Paul, along with two of his brothers, continued to run
the dairy that his father started from the basement garage of
their home. They had horse-drawn delivery wagons. Howard was able,
with an 8th-grade education, to build a dairy with 20 refrigerated
trucks and a modern dairy building. Ron's mother kept the books
and raised five sons, who were all born within seven years during
the 1930's.
Ron was the third son of Howard and Margaret Paul, and was brought
up with the ethic that you worked six days a week and went to
church on the seventh. Ron's first job at age 5 was to watch his
uncle wash the bottles and put them on a conveyer belt. He got
a penny for every dirty bottle that he found. He was serious about
his job and was very proud that he could help.
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Ron delivered newspapers in grade school early in the morning.
He had to put the newspapers inside the screen doors and not just
throw them in the yard. And speaking of yards, he mowed a lot
of lawns, and he didn't have a self-propelled lawnmower. He paid
for his first year of college with newspaper and lawn-mowing money.
During high school, Ron worked in a drug store – his brothers
said he worked there so he could eat ice cream whenever he wanted
it – but he learned a lot about business and pharmacy that
helped in years to come. He also had a part-time job painting
the school in the summer and delivering furniture for a local
store. In college, he delivered laundry, and he even delivered
mail during the Christmas holidays.
I came into the picture about 1952 when Ron was my escort to
my 16th birthday party. Don't tell anyone – but I asked
him... actually my birthday is February 29th and it was a Sadie
Hawkins-type party where the girls asked the boys... and I asked
him.
Ron was a track star in high school, winning state as a junior
in the 220-yard dash and in the 440. He ran the 100 in 9.8, and
that was pretty fast for the early 1950s. He was also on the wrestling
team. He was president of the student council and an honor student
while working and participating in sports.
A serious knee injury took him out of major track (he beat one
young man who went to the Olympics), but he added swimming for
therapy and soon became a member of the college swim team. He
was offered a full college scholarship to run track but did not
accept it, feeling he might not be able to regain his speed. To
this day he exercises with bicycle riding, walking, and swimming,
and feels lucky that he can do these sports.
We went away to college (different colleges in different states),
but always kept in touch. On February 1, 1957, we married in a
beautiful ceremony with the bridesmaids carrying armloads of red
roses. The flower girl wore a white dress and sprinkled rose petals
down the aisle. A fraternity brother of Ron's sang "The Wedding
Prayer" and the "Lord's Prayer." Of course, both
are very special to us today.
We spent his last semester in college married, and living on
the third floor of an old home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I
worked as secretary to the faculty and attended some evening classes
with Ron. For one year Ron was manager of the college coffee shop
called "The Bullet Hole." He worked as steward and house
manager for his fraternity, and had a small scholastic scholarship
to help finance his way through college.
After college, we headed to Durham, North Carolina, where Ron
attended Duke University School of Medicine. I worked as a medical
secretary, and our first two children were born at Duke. We had
a tiny little blue frame house that my grandmother called the
"Doll House." We thought it was wonderful.
We were able to buy a registered collie for our big backyard,
and she helped raise our first two children. Actually, she got
us home one Thanksgiving because she had a litter of puppies –
and we were able to sell one for $35, which gave us enough money
for gas to drive home so the family could see our two beautiful
children.
After medical school, we lived in Detroit, Michigan, where Ron
did an internship and one year of an Internal Medicine Residency.
I ran a dancing school in the basement of our home and taught
ballet and tap dancing and baton twirling. Just to tell you what
kind of budget we were on, the dancing school paid for the newspaper
and for extra expenses we had when a month had five weeks!
When the Cuban Crisis came, Ron answered his country's call and
became a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force. We received
orders to move to San Antonio, Texas. On our way to Texas, we
stopped in Pennsylvania long enough to have our third child delivered.
Then we gathered up our kids and dogs and took off for Texas.
Arriving with three children from ages 4 to 3 weeks old, we loved
Texas immediately. Finding out we didn't have to bother with snowsuits,
mittens, and boots was an extra gift.
Even when Ron was in the military, we kept working. I learned
to cake decorate, which I have put to good use over the past years.
And Ron learned to fly a plane, and he worked extra emergency-room
duty. They were fun-filled years.
We spent Ron's tour of duty in San Antonio. When his tour was
up, he completed his OB/GYN medical training, but he did stay
in the Air National Guard for several years. He always believed
that America should be ready to defend her borders.
Then in 1968, on July 3rd we arrived in Brazoria County, Texas,
and that has been our home since that day. Ron has delivered more
than 4,000 babies, and we have been married for more than 50 years.
We've raised a family of five children, and they have given us
eighteen beautiful grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. We
have friends all over the State of Texas as well as friends throughout
the United States who believe in limited government. That in itself
is a testimony to a great and humble man.
So the American Dream came true for a boy who delivered newspapers,
a teen-ager who mowed lawns, delivered milk, delivered furniture,
delivered laundry, and delivered mail, and for a man who then
delivered babies. Now that dream continues with a man who is trying
to deliver the message that freedom works and that true patriotism
must not grow weak in the hearts of Americans, so that we can
hang on to our Republic, for which the Founders gave their last,
full measure of devotion.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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