Post and Courier
June 5, 2023
MY FAVORITE HAT
As my husband and I sat through two Patriotic Programs this Spoleto Weekend, I realized my Father’s story applies to both Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
My Father, Arthur Goldsmith, was drafted into the Navy and stationed in Hawaii after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After a while, my Mother became worried she hadn’t heard from him. She managed to call headquarters and find out he was alright. Without the use of a cell phones! The pictures that ultimately emerged from his service were those taken of him playing with a dog on the beach of Waikki. He came home, having suffered little more than sea sickness.
But he also came home a Veteran and a Patriot. For the next 62 years he “served” in the Jewish Veterans Association as Vice President. There were meetings and activities throughout the year. The most visible was one passing out small silk poppies on Memorial Day to cars at stoplights. They symbolized the flowers that bloom on Flanders Field and represented the servicemen who did not return home.
On one such occasion, a photographer of a local Chicago newspaper took his picture as he did his “tour of duty” on the street corner. It covered the front page. I remembered the pictures my Mother kept in shoe boxes of our family over the years. Sure enough, there was a picture of my Father, bright eyed and bushy tailed, in his Sailor’s uniform decades earlier.
Before “photoshop” existed, I managed to find someone who could make the attached composite. It won an Award and appeared in a calendar. Over time, he added pins to it. They told his life story:
One was for Oklahoma, where he was raised. Others reflected his being a Jewish War Veteran, a member of the Anti-Defamation League and C.J.S.H. Hall of Fame. There’s even a small pickle representing his career as a pickleman.
I am often asked which of my hats is my favorite. None comes close to this one. Hats off to my Father and all who serve(d) so proudly…from the Greatest Generation to the present.
Submitted by Archie Burkel, Top Hat of The Hat Ladies
