To the jerk with the phony Fort Myers address who chose to mail Sgt. Hook a packet of patronizing
fliers at his "Operation Shoe Fly" address:
Couldn't you have included a little pair of shoes?
A six-year-old Austrian orphan hugging a new pair of shoes sent by the American Junior Red Cross,
1946.
(Via e-mail from Cindy.)
Posted by floridacracker at July 1, 2004 12:08 AMThere were kids without shoes in Western Europe right until the late 60s, in Naples.
That's a wonderful photograph.
Posted by: Harry Hutton at July 3, 2004 01:24 PMYes, it's lovely. It's a famous one. It was taken by Gerald Walker and can be seen on page 190 in the book "The Best of Life".
I searched all over, but could only find one tiny version online, so I had to double it in size.
Posted by: Donnah at July 3, 2004 03:39 PMWhat a precious photograph! My father got medals for participating in the Berlin Air Drop. Hope that kid didn't grow up to join Baader-Meinhoff or become, say, Joschka Fischer.
Posted by: Sean at July 3, 2004 04:51 PMYour father must be so proud! At the Rhein-Main Airbase there's a giant sculpture- a half of a bridge with jaggedy edges. The other half is at the Berlin airbase. I used to get chills looking at it.
I've wondered about the boy myself- if he realized he was in such a famous photograph. As he's Austrian and not German, surely he would have had enough good sense to stay clear of any further German inducements to nonsense.
Posted by: Donnah at July 3, 2004 05:48 PM