Ralph Barrale
Editor’s note…this was written in Ralph’s own words, before his death in 2018. Ralph had a group of eight friends growing up that joined the military and went to war. Ralph was the only one of the eight to come home. Ralph learned at a young age the price of FREEDOM.
Ralph is the Founder of the Mid America Veterans Museum.
In his words…
I was born at home, 7th and Biddle in St. Louis, Mo. the building no longer exists. My mother told me I weighed 12 pounds. My Godmother was so excited when I was born, she rushed me out in the cold of winter, January 22, 1924 and dashed across the street to the grocery store to weigh me. When I was about 4 years old, my brother Pete and I were playing in the living room. I fell and hit my head on the corner of the wooden arm of the couch splitting the flesh wide open across my forehead. I was rushed to the hospital. After good care I went home.
At 5 years old I remember looking out the window at the snowfall and having the sensation of rising up in the air as if the snow was not falling but I was going up. Petey and I were only 18 months apart in age. We were together all the time. My orders from my father were, “Take care of your brother, you’re the oldest so you take care of Petey”. So, as we grew up, we played together, went to school together and went home together.
One of the games we played was Indian Ball. It is played usually with 4 players on each team 2 infielders and 2 outfielders. The 2 infielders stood between 2 bases. A ball is pitched by a member of the team who was up to bat. The batter had to hit the ball between the two bases without being caught or going foul outside of either baseline it you hit the ball foul you were out. Another game we use to play was flipping baseball cards. We’d line the cards on the ground and flip a card out over them. If your card landed on top of another card you could keep both cards, if it didn’t you forfeit the one you had flipped. This was a way of rotating your inventory of baseball cards. We also made skateboards (scooters) out of wood and metal roller skates. Sometimes we would put a candle in a can and pretend it was a headlight. We had lots of fun pushing ourselves around on these, we could do this because there were not too many cars on the street in those days, in the 30’s. When my father started selling Sonny Boy Ice Cream during the depression, I would often go out with him and help him sell by yelling out “SONNY BOY ICE CREAM 5 CENTS A BAR” as we walked down the streets. My father had a heavy box filled with dry ice and ice cream bars strapped to his back. It must have been very heavy.
When we became a little older, we began looking around for ways to earn a little money. We each got a corner to sell newspapers. We shared a bicycle to get to the job site. Petey would ride on the handlebars and my job was to motivate the bicycle from our home at 2801 Howard St. to 8th and Washington in downtown St. Louis. This was quite a distance for boys of our age. There were 2 newspapers, the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the St. Louis Star Times. I was about 10.
After completing the 8th grade, I graduated from Carr School. At 16 1 started working for Guth Electric and also, I joined the I.P.C (Independent Pleasure Club). The I.P.C. participated in competitive sports with other clubs. We played soccer, softball, indoor soccer and basketball. The club had dances in their hall and that’s where I met the love of my life, Rose Marie Busalaki. In 1943 at the age of 19, I was drafted in the Army and went to Jefferson Barracks. I was transferred to Camp Maxey, Texas where I took my Basic Training. After 13 weeks I went home on leave. I proposed to Rose, and we became engaged. Later I wrote to my mother and asked her to buy an engagement ring for Rose, no matter what it cost and give it to her for Christmas. I wanted to make certain our engagement was official because I wanted to make sure that no one else got her.
My outfit went to Boston embarked on a ship and was sent to England. I was in the 3rd Army (Patton) as a Combat M.P. in the 510 M.P. Bn Company A. When we landed in France my Company became the 821st Combat M.P. Co. During my military service I served my country in the following campaigns: Rhineland Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge), Central Europe (France and Germany), and Northern France. I received a medal from the French Government for that campaign. I was awarded four Bronze Stars and the Good Conduct Medal.
Ralph was a well traveled and highly accomplished PFC. Click on the pdf for more of Ralph’s story.
Ralph’s last dream was to build a Veteran’s Museum. Though Ralph passed in October of 2018, a dedicated team of volunteers saw the project through. The museum opened on 12-Apr 2019.
Come visit the museum and read more of Ralph’s story. Because, “No One if Ever Gone, as Long as Someone Has Memories of Them.”
