Victor Davis Hanson
And then without a glitch, he said, “Leave the pickup key under the seat. I’ll find it. You go teach those classes. I’ll have it running in an hour and then you can get down here to check the crew and get back for the next class.” With my dad, it was always B-29 mission #41 (forever the next one after his completed 40 at war’s end).
Then he hung up, before I could say thanks.
What a day. I had only a few ones in my wallet and was already dirty for class by lifting the hood and examining the battery and starter—and now with students mobbed at my tardy office hours.
So, at first, I thought, “This is ridiculous. Are you five or six? How can you expect anybody to drop anything, and just drive 30 miles up here in commute traffic, spot the truck among hundreds of cars, and replace the alternator—if it is even the alternator? What was I thinking?”
But then again, I remembered he was a sort of Pike Bishop, or a Bill Holden in The Bridges at Toko-Ri, or a Jurgen Prochnau in Das Boot (or maybe a bit scarier like a John Wayne as Dunson in Red River).
Indeed, he was a highly decorated WWII veteran who once walked out over his crew’s B-29’s open bomb bay doors above Tokyo, with a screwdriver, and pried loose a burning napalm bomb before it incinerated their B-29.
Comparing great things to small, I then remembered in 1978, when a staghorn calculus cut open my ureter in Athens (four weeks in the hospital). After weeks of dope, forced water gulping, jumping up and down on stairs, antibiotics, Greek olive oil and lemon juice tonics, the wise but now bewildered doctor finally declared it beyond his powers to cut out. And he sighed after a murky X-ray showed everything had gone to hell:
“Get home in 24 hours or lose your kidney.”
In that disaster at 25 I also had called my dad at the Athens hospital’s hall phone (while on morphine) long distance (charges reversed of course). And I blurted out why it didn’t look good. He said (or rather laughed!), “Nothing’s hopeless. You’ll be fine in 48 hours. Just give me a minute and sit tight.”
And then after a two-second pause, he finished, “Telegram coming to you in two hours. Just get someone down to the Western Union office to get it. There is a Western Union in Athens there, right, right?”
In two hours, I was reading it, “Booked TWA Flight 434” followed by the departure time and ending with a brief “You get to SFO. I get you to the operating table in Fresno.”
He did just that in partnership with my mom who called urology surgeons until she found one who would operate at 5 AM on a Saturday morning (the saintly and highly skilled Dr. Schiff).
My dad met me at the SFO airport gate at 1 AM, in a now make-shift customized ambulance, disguised as his old beat-up Buick “Vista Cruiser” wagon, seats down with foam bed.
We roared off at 80 mph to the west.
Three hours later, he (6’4” 220 lbs.) carried me to the waiting wheelchair. In the dark, he and mom introduced me to this brilliant surgeon, the forementioned Dr. Schiff, who matter-of-factly muttered, “You’re getting new scans. I don’t want to see any Greek ones (the night before the Greek nurse in Athens had telegraphed their X-ray report). You go to X-ray. I get scrubbed. And we meet and we’re going under in 45 minutes.”
All I remember when I woke up was my dad smiling holding a 10-mm stone shaped like Texas longhorns and pointing to a 10-inch incision on my abdomen. And he said, “You’ll be home in 10 days and then we start putting weight back on you and getting you fixed up.”
And, of course, he did just that: huge tri-tip sandwiches, mashed potatoes, big salads, ice cream—and then mandatory 3-miles, twice-daily hikes around the ranch.
So, after our phone call, and when I got out of class over an hour later, the department secretary came to my office and handed me a phone message: It was sort of veni, vidi, vici brief:
“Alternator fixed. Key’s under seat. See you at ranch with some sandwiches for you in an hour.”
My God, you really can do anything with good men.
Discussion (21)
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I have sent this series to friends and relatives as the story of Victor's Dad reminded me of the men in their lives. To a dear friend whose husband carries on maintaining home and hearth in spite of having various types of cancer, to my sister, whose husband was a doctor, sportsman, amateur heavy equipment "landscaper," helping his sister reconfigure the topography of her yard, to my cousin, whose grandfather and my uncle, picked up a washing machine (discarded at the curb) in his 1960 Chrysler Imperial, repaired it, gave it to his daughter's family of eight, six kids. All "average" guys; all great men.
A great story written by a great man about a great man.
Dr. Jack Schiff was a close friend of our family and his office was next door to my father's, just down the street from Community Hospital. He was, as Dr. Hanson describes him, "saintly and highly skilled," and treated me as a young man as well as giving me valuable life advice. He, my Dad and others played an important part in the history of Fresno's medical community in the last half of the 20th century. Thank you for jogging a memory.
Dr Hanson, I remember reading back in the sixties as my world expanded from secondary school to the military service reading a few authors who asserted the 'Great Man' theory. Usually there were individuals who stood out in business, medicine, government, and the military. Perhaps what was the most common denominator was that many if not most of these men would not have made it to the top in their fields under normal circumstances. Who would have guessed that Henry Ford, Theodore Vail, Nathan Bedford Forest, and a great many others would have had such an influence on Hunan history and what would have been the result if they had never been in the right place at the right time? The low level view is that so many men and women are great in their own right even if their achievements are the lesser one on the world stage. Unfortunately I am of the opinion that the current generations since the boomers have had greatness bred out of them.
Dr Hanson-I’m so proud for you. You were truly blessed. RIP Mr Hanson🇺🇸
Thx for that article - you wove together yet another excellent essay. What I find most touching is to see how having someone in your corner, as a young adult, can make all the difference. It teaches the child to gin up the courage to survive, instead of just giving up. I have three daughters in their 20's. Raising them with my wife was the best accomplishment of my life. It is not over yet though. We still drop off cars,, run errands, install A/C's, help with occasional bills, just so that they know someone is in their corner. I appreciate the encouragement you have always given to the reader. It is strengthening to see how much you appreciate your own parents. They weren't fancy, but they were good Americans taking on the most important job in the world, parenting children. We don't hear this tale enough.
It seems we only recognize "Great Men" and "Great Women" after their passing. I wonder, as i did for me, if it took years before we realized how great our fathers truly were. It was after his passing that I realized 'as I got older my father got smarter'. So many Greats were looked down upon and ridiculed during their living years. It is always in retrospect we come to the understanding of how great they were. Ron DeSantis has the ability to become a great man but Donald Trump is a great man and one we may need to rise to that level again to restore the ideals that made this a great nation.
Honored Dr. Hanson. Clarity. Conviction. Courage.
Victor, my father had similar instincts as your dad (perhaps because of being a marine fighting in Korea). There were times when things our life’s were chaotic, and that was when he was at his best, putting the pieces back together get us up and running again. Thanks for the story.
Had we all such fathers to emulate, the world would be a far better place. Thank you, Victor, for this touching portrait of greatness.
Some people are larger than life. Since you got into so many difficulties, I am glad you had one in your life. Very well written Victor as always. The napalm moment may remain with me forever. I would think it was all downhill after that, including alternators and emergency surgery. There are still great men but not as many...
I married a Swedish/Fin/German in 1990. He is a hard worker at the Railroad. They all came to our country before 1895 for a better life. They felt work was their play. I love your stories about your life. From a wife of a Ballard boy. Debbie Burkhardt
Your stories with your father really hit close to home. I, too, was blessed by a dad who was a good man and had saved me on more than one occasion. Wonderful piece! Thank you Prof. Hanson.
"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." ~ Isaac Newton He seems like a giant to me. Great, heartwarming story.
Loved your tale of your dad; mine had similar characteristics. Quite a blessing for thee and me. Would that great generation qualities would take root in fathers that be, or not so much, in these turbulent days.
Do you know how lucky you were to have these great people in your life? These people are out there but you never hear about them and the world needs to hear, Thanks for sharing these personal stories.
Thank you for that, Victor.
Mr. Hanson: Your story brought a tear to my eye. It seems like nothing else mattered in the world to him, but the health, safety and welfare of his family. We should all leave such a legacy to our heirs.
Victor, your dad certainly was one of those "can do" kind of guys ! Love your stories about your dad,mom, grandpa,grandma and the assorted people associated with the farm. So nostalgic it reminds me so much of a long lost era that I wish was still here and not in my memory.....thank you for all you write and talk about,very touching!
Your stories about your father tell me why you are who you are……touched by the Greatest Generation as I was also, we were affected by their can do and make do legacies. I wonder if your father had more fear holding his firstborn child in his hands or using the screwdriver in the bomb bay over Tokyo.? I bet the former as he understood the responsibility of creating a useful human and citizen……which you prove he has done! Best $50 I’ve ever spent is this educational and entertaining website! Thankyou VDH
Yet another fascinating piece by VDH - what impressive people his father and mother seemed to be. But then that generation produced so many sturdy Americans from coast to coast - capable, humble, and moral seemed so common then and less common now.