If you enjoyed the 1994 fictitious movie Forrest Gump, you'll love Roy Story, the remarkable, rags-to-riches true account of the colorful, comical and quick-witted Roy Bucek, who succeeded beyond his wildest dreams on the football field, the battlefield and in numerous business fields with a combination of a tremendously strong backbone and an incomparable funny bone. Bucek came from such poverty that he and his family barely noticed the so-called "Great Depression" His athleticism earned him a college scholarship, where he became the first official track and field All-American in Texas A&M history and helped the 1939 Aggies win the football national championship. Bucek lost his eye in the historic Battle of the Bulge in World War II, but he became a man of remarkable entrepreneurial vision. He built so many successful businesses in Schulenburg, Texas that he resided in a sprawling home he built just south of Interstate-10 and at the end of . . . Bucek Street. His fascinating stories are guaranteed to mesmerize you and motivate you to pursue your own dreams, no matter how far-fetched they may seem. Roy Story is a captivating read that will take you back in time and challenge you to build a brighter future.

Roy Story

The amazing and true rags-to-riches account of an Aggie legend, WWII hero and entrepreneur extraordinaireBy Roy Bucek Rusty Burson

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Roy Bucek with Rusty Burson
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-1171-7

Contents

Prologue.............................................................................................ixIntroduction.........................................................................................xviiChapter 1: Winning the game of life is all about perspective.........................................1Chapter 2: Humble beginnings ... Really humble.......................................................15Chapter 3: Give thanks to your trespassers...........................................................28Chapter 4: Winning a national title ... and not really caring........................................43Chapter 5: Bowling for dollars: An important lesson learned..........................................84Chapter 6: When life knocks you on your backside it's time to act; not overreact.....................100Chapter 7: Making a name for myself in the business world............................................120Chapter 8: Giving thanks for all my many blessings...................................................142

Chapter One

Winning the game of life is all about perspective

Ever since the 1940s, I've had a party trick—an ice-breaker of sorts—that has always made a lasting impression on people I meet. I'd like to think that it's my dazzling personality that makes me so damned memorable, but just to make sure that people find me unforgettable, I've been known—especially in my more ornery days—to remove my left eye from the socket and to drop it into somebody's drink when they are not paying attention.

You should see the way people look at me—and each other—when I announce at a party or gathering: "Excuse me, folks. I seem to have misplaced my eye. Before you crunch into your ice cubes, could everybody please check their glasses to see if my eye shows up?"

I bet you just winced, didn't you?

That prank has been guaranteed to leave an indelible impression on people since I received my first plastic eye back in the 1940s. I lost the left eye I was born with while serving in World War II. I was about a month shy of my twenty-fifth birthday when—on January 19, 1945—a sharp-edged, rusted piece of German metal, roughly seven-eighths of an inch long, ricocheted off a tree and sliced my left eye in two. Like you might cut a tomato in half with a kitchen knife. (You just winced again, right?)

The metal didn't stop at my eye, however, as it continued to travel behind my nose and lodged permanently in my right cheek. I'll never forget the initial fear, the pain, the horror and the shock of it all. I lost vision instantly as blood poured from my face, and my eyeball dangled in pieces from the socket. Strangely, I even lost my sense of taste.

To add insult to injury, I later developed spinal meningitis from the rusted shrapnel. Those damned Germans did everything in their power to make sure that we—the Allied soldiers—died in the most agonizing and gruesome manner, either by the immediate wound of the explosive or the long-term infection the corroded metal would later cause. Losing an eye stunned me, but it was the meningitis that nearly killed me.

Every January since 1945, I have awoken on the nineteenth day of the month, pausing for reflection, recalling the loss of my eye, recalculating my steps that day and thanking God in heaven for allowing me to experience the single GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!

That's right. January 19, 1945 was the single best day of my life, because the events of that day allowed me to experience so many other great moments in my life: the day I was married, the joy of sex (I was a virgin until I was twenty-six), the births of my two daughters, opening and growing many businesses (at least twenty-five different types) that have taken me beyond my wildest financial dreams, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so forth. In all likelihood, I wouldn't have experienced any of those monumental events in my life if I had been an inch to the left or right on January 19, 1945.

As a member of the United States infantry, I was told when we were being shipped from England to France—and into battle—that one of three things would likely happen to me:

1. I'd be killed.

2. I'd be so tormented by the inhumanities of warfare that I'd lose my mind.

3. I'd be wounded and shipped back home.

Considering those three options, I was one helluva lucky guy. Sure I lost my eye; sure, I nearly died after spending eleven days in a coma at a hospital in France; and sure, I have never been able to walk through an airport metal detector without being accosted by the security guards like I am some sort of Muslim terrorist. But at least I kept my mind and kept breathing.

According to various reports, roughly 600,000 Americans were involved in the Battle of the Bulge, and 81,000 of them never made it home alive. The Germans also suffered heavy casualties, as 100,000 Nazis were killed, wounded or captured. The surgeons who worked on me told me that I came ever-so-close to being one of the members of the "Bulge bodybag club." If the shrapnel had entered my head slightly to the left or above my eye socket, it would have entered my brain. If that had been the case, it would have been instant death. Good-night, Irene. So long, Roy.

But God spared me. And He provided me with something that has been so extremely valuable to my successes in this life: Perspective. It's a little thing that makes all the difference between success and failure in practically anything. I lost my ability to see out of one eye on January 19, 1945, but God actually expanded my vision in the aftermath of that battle wound. I eventually realized that I didn't need both eyes to be a visionary in terms of my perspective on life.

Think about it. Most people you encounter have eyes and can see. But how many visionaries do you know? Real vision involves a person's point of view—his attitude—more than the clarity of what he sees in front of him. Virtually any man with decent eyesight can see obstacles in front of him, but a person of real vision can see beyond the obstacles ... toward the possibilities that exist past life's hurdles.

That's been one of my greatest attributes in life. I truly understand that life is a game of inches, where hundredths of a second and other miniscule measurements of distance, time and space can separate the successful from the run-of-the-mill. A handshake can lead a man from rags to riches or vice-versa. A wrong turn can lead to the right "chance" meeting. A missed traffic light can prevent a tragic automobile accident. Even something as arbitrary as the thoughts you continually think or the words that you casually utter to yourself can make the difference between fulfilling dreams and failing to ever realize them.

I'm not a philosopher or even a particularly deep-thinker. Nor am I an essayist, novelist or journalist. On the contrary, I'm a pretty simplistic, straight-shooting man. But because of my background as an impoverished farm boy, a world-class athlete, a World War II Purple Heart recipient, a naive businessman-turned-aggressive entrepreneur, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a widower and ultimately a millionaire, I can tell you that it's your attitude that will dictate everything you achieve or fail to accomplish in your own life....