Posterity (34 page)

3. At the end of each week during which John has not kept his accounts accurately and to Papa's satisfaction, the allowance for the succeeding week shall be reduced ten cents (10¢) from the week just ended.

4. During any week when there have been no receipts or expenditures to record the allowance shall continue at the same rate as in the preceding week.

5. During any week when the account has been correctly kept but the writing and figuring are not satisfactory the allowance shall continue at the same rate as in the preceding week.

6. Papa shall be the sole judge as to whether an increase or a decrease is to be made.

7. It is understood that at least Twenty Per cent (20%) of the allowance shall be used for benevolences.

8. It is understood that at least Twenty Per cent (20%) of the allowance shall be saved.

9. It is understood that every purchase or expenditure made is to be put down definitely and clearly.

10. It is understood that John will make no purchases, charging the same to Mama or Papa, without the special consent of Mama, Papa or Miss Scales.

11. It is understood that when John desires to make any purchases which the allowance does not cover, he will first gain the consent of either Mama, Papa or Miss Scales, who will give him sufficient money with which to pay for the specific purchases, the change from which, together with a memorandum showing what items have been bought and at what cost and what amount is returned, is to be given to the person advancing the money, before night of the day on which the purchases are made.

12. It is understood that no governess, companion or other person in the household is to be asked by John to pay for any items for him, other than carfare.

13. To any savings from the date in this account which John may from time to time deposit in his bank account, in excess of the twenty per cent (20%) referred to in Item No. 8, Papa will add an equal sum for deposit.

14. The allowance above set forth and the agreement under which it shall be arrived at are to continue in force until changed by mutual consent.

The above agreement approved and
entered into by
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John D. Rockefeller 3rd

May 1, 1920.

F
.
S
COTT
F
ITZGERALD TO
F
RANCES
S
COTT
“S
COTTIE
” F
ITZGERALD

“Things to worry about . . . Things not to worry about”

In the thirteen years following his smashing literary debut with
This Side of Paradise
, F. Scott Fitzgerald's work was not very well received. His subsequent novels, including
The Beautiful and the Damned
and
The Great Gatsby,
were both critical and financial disappointments.

During the summer of 1933, Fitzgerald was finishing
Tender Is the Night
in a rented house near the Johns Hopkins hospital where his wife, Zelda, was receiving treatment for mental illness. He was drinking heavily and Zelda was at home in what turned out to be only a brief respite from a life in psychiatric institutions.

Here Fitzgerald writes to his daughter and only child, twelve-year-old Scottie, away at summer camp.

La Paix, Rodgers' Forge,
Towson, Maryland,
August 8, 1933.

Dear Pie:

I feel very strongly about you doing duty. Would you give me a little more documentation about your reading in French? I am glad you are happy—but I never believe much in happiness. I never believe in misery either. Those are things you see on the stage or the screen or the printed page, they never really happen to you in life.

All I believe in in life is the rewards for virtue (according to your talents) and the
punishments
for not fulfilling your duties, which are doubly costly. If there is such a volume in the camp library, will you ask Mrs. Tyson to let you look up a sonnet of Shakespeare's in which the line occurs “
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds
.”

Have had no thoughts today, life seems composed of getting up a
Saturday Evening Post
story. I think of you, and always pleasantly; but if you call me “Pappy” again I am going to take the White Cat out and beat his bottom
hard, six times for every time you are impertinent
. Do you react to that?

I will arrange the camp bill.

Halfwit, I will conclude. Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship
Worry about . . .

Things not to worry about:

Don't worry about popular opinion
Don't worry about dolls
Don't worry about the past
Don't worry about the future
Don't worry about growing up
Don't worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don't worry about triumph
Don't worry about failures unless it comes through your own fault
Don't worry about mosquitoes
Don't worry about flies
Don't worry about insects in general
Don't worry about parents
Don't worry about boys
Don't worry about disappointments
Don't worry about pleasures
Don't worry about satisfactions

Things to think about:

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

With dearest love,

P.S. My come-back to your calling me Pappy is christening you by the word Egg, which implies that you belong to a very rudimentary state of life and that I could break you up and crack you open at my will and I think it would be a word that would hang on if I ever told it to your contemporaries. “Egg Fitzgerald.” How would you like that to go through life with “Eggie Fitzgerald” or “Bad Egg Fitzgerald” or any form that might occur to fertile minds? Try it once more and I swear to God I will hang it on you and it will be up to you to shake it off. Why borrow trouble?

Love anyhow.

E
DDIE
R
ICKENBACKER TO
W
ILLIAM
R
ICKENBACKER

“Never fail to live up to the rules of the game . . .”

Through determination and self-reliance, Eddie Rickenbacker reached acclaim in three distinct twentieth-century fields: In the early days of auto racing, Rickenbacker became a world-record-holding, Hall of Fame driver; then, under General Pershing in World War I, he was America's top fighter pilot, the “Ace of Aces,” who destroyed twenty-six enemy aircraft and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor; later, as the president and chairman of the board of Eastern Airlines, he proved to the country that an airline company could in fact be profitable without government subsidies.

In 1941 on a government tour of World War II bases, the plane in which Rickenbacker was a passenger went down in the Pacific Ocean. He and seven of the eight others aboard survived twenty-two harrowing days adrift in a rubber raft.

Here, ten years after his crash into the Pacific and thirty-three years after Armistice Day, when he flew over the battlefield at Verdun, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker sends his twenty-four-year-old adopted son, Bill, off to the United States Air Force.

January 11, 1951

My dear Son and Pal Bill:

With your departure to enter the military services of your country as a cadet in the Air Force of the United States of America, Mother and I hope that you will remember and follow a few of the simple rules of life which will be beneficial to you as time goes on:

Always remember that a million friends are worth more than a million dollars because if you have a million friends you will never need to worry about a million dollars.

Always be respectful to your superiors and elders as it is an acknowledgement of your capacity to appreciate the benefits acquired from experience.

This was evidenced by my answer to a query recently, “What advice can you give the younger generation, based on your greatest failure?” My answer was, “Failure to evaluate and understand the advice of my elders in my youth.”

Naturally, modesty on the part of one who has been blessed with so many attributes as you in your limited years is a tribute to your good judgment.

Consideration of others at all times, be they right or wrong, is an acknowledgement of your own limitations.

Appreciation of acts of kindness and thoughtfulness will always make it possible for you to reciprocate in kind.

Never worry about protecting my name or my reputation. But always remember that it is your name you must protect and live with the balance of your life, which I am sure will be a constructive one as well as one of service to your fellow man.

Never fail to live up to the rules of the game, always play it in accordance with your knowledge and appreciation of the difference between right and wrong.

Always be a
good
soldier and not just a man in uniform.

Never try to impress other people with your superiority of knowledge, the latter of which you have been blessed with abundantly.

Never fail to remember that to have a strong and healthy mind you must first have a strong and healthy body.

Protect your body by limiting the abuses that go with every day life and you will automatically protect your mentality.

To become a good pilot and remain one never forget that an airplane is like a rattlesnake, you must keep your mind and eye on it constantly or it will bite you when you least expect it which could prove fatal.

Study the design, mechanics, and operation of your plane thoroughly and in detail.

Learn the detailed functioning and limitations of your plane, its accessories and its engines, and you will never abuse them to the degree that you will be the sufferer.

Learn to know and appreciate the mechanics who work on your plane and every unit of its operation because their appreciation of you at all times may mean the difference between a successful flight and one that is not.

Take advantage at all times, without interfering with your regular duties, to benefit through wholesome outdoor exercise such as golf at which you are very proficient.

For your peace of mind and emotional stability, play the piano when you feel the desire, when time permits, and when the opportunity is available.

Be certain to let your superior officer know the necessity to favor your left shoulder for some time to come in your daily exercises.

Make arrangements with the finance officer to have your checks sent to me in care of Eastern Air Lines, and I in turn will see that they are credited to your bank account, from which you may issue checks and will keep you advised of your balance.

Never hesitate to let me know if your requirements or needs exceed your earning power or bank balance.

By remaining strong physically and mentally remember you will be helping your country to develop the greatest and strongest air power in the world which is basically the salvation of this nation and the future of its people.

Always keep in mind the men at the head of the Kremlin only respect force and power.

Realize how blessed we of this land have been in our 160 odd years of existence. We have not suffered the penalties of starvation for generations at a time as other peoples of other lands have done. Neither have we suffered destruction of our homes, institutions of learning, commerce and finance.

There have been many times when I have felt that our standard of living had grown beyond reasonable proportions because we as a people have failed to appreciate the fruits and value thereof, and have become slaves to the philosophy of getting more for less or something for nothing.

There is no doubt that this country and our civilization are on trial and the problems of the future may be God's way of making us suffer for our lack of appreciation of our way of life and the blessings bestowed on us by the Supreme Power.

While it is an axiom in life, and has been since the beginning of the world, that suffering is the greatest developer for expanding mentality, it could become a great penalty imposed on us for our faithlessness.

You are certain as the years go on to have many heartaches, headaches, trials, and tribulations but when the hour looks the darkest never lose faith in that Power Above.

With faith in the Power Above you will have faith in yourself. And because of your faith your call to God in Heaven for help if needed will never go unheeded, and will bring you back to us, your family, and your fellow man for greater service when peace among men shall reign again.

Love as always,
Daddy

B
ARBARA
B
USH TO
H
ER
C
HILDREN

“Keep trying.”

Late one night, just after the death of her brother and the birth of a grandson, and soon after leaving the White House, Barbara Bush could not sleep. She rose from her bed to write her five living children about lessons learned during her sixty-seven years. The letter was never sent, but Mrs. Bush later published her words of advice to her children in her memoir, which she dedicated “To faith, family and friends; and to George Bush, who taught me that these are the most important things in life.”

[c. May 1993]

. . . Faith, Family, and Friends.

Try—and oh boy, how hard it is—to find the good in people and not the bad. I remember many years ago that I wasted so much time worrying about my mother. I suffered so because she and I had a “chemical thing.” I loved her very much, but was hurt by her. (I am sure that I hurt her a lot, too.) Grace Walker said to me once, “Think of all the lovely things about your mother . . . all the things you love and are proud of about her.” There were so many that I couldn't count them all. I think that I expected her to be perfect. Nobody is perfect. Certainly not me. So LOOK FOR THE GOOD IN OTHERS. Forget the other.