Many of you know Doug Berlin. Even if you are shaking your head and don’t recognize his name, you’ve probably seen him at one time or other raising funds for the Shriners. His favorite spot was in front of Winn-Dixie in Franklinton. He would sit for hours facing the store with an umbrella over his chair as he gave out Shriners pens for donations. There is no telling how much money he raised over the years for the Shriners and their crippled children’s hospitals. The Shrine Hospitals have helped so many children over the years, both locally and nationally, including my own granddaughter. 

If you stopped to talk to him at all during this time, you would know instantly he wasn’t “born and raised” around here. He is a native of Ironwood, Mich.

Unfortunately, Doug isn’t around here anymore. He and his wife Glenn moved to Waxahachie, Texas, a few months ago to be near their daughter and family. They hated to leave their home and friends in Bogalusa. They had resided here since 1975 when he came as a forester with Gaylord or Crown-Zellerbach or whatever it was known as at that time.

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I see this happening all the time as people age. They are no longer able to be so far away from their children, who can contribute valuable help to aging parents. So they move to be near the children. 

Doug celebrated his 88th birthday on Monday, Oct. 19 in Texas with his family. He had a really good time and said he was actually born on his own father’s birthday. Since writing a feature story about Doug’s World War II adventures a few years back, he has been one of my frequent e-mail buddies. 

Actually, I and countless other local friends had a brief e-mail message telling us that he and Glenn were moving to Texas and giving us their address and phone number. Then the e-mails quit coming. It worried me a little because if you ever get on Doug’s e-mail list…let’s just say you get plenty of e-mail. He likes to send along e-mails he finds interesting.

He also really enjoys his computer and sometimes when he can’t sleep he stays up half the night surfing the Internet where he finds all kinds of interesting subjects and information. He then shares many of his finds with most everybody on his e-mail list, which is apparently quite considerable.

So I sent him an e-mail asking if he was okay and got one right back. During the move my e-mail address had been lost.

Now you will have to admit that you don’t know very many 88-year-olds who do e-mails…a few maybe… much less go on the Internet and research all sorts of fascinating things, things as variable as the price of gold or the price of gas or the price of anything, probing odd things such as the possibility of aliens from other planets and anything concerning the military…to name a few. He has quite a wide field of interest.

Doug remembers his World War II adventures very vividly. He actually was there in late March of 1945 when the U.S. Third Army, under Gen. George Patton, began its famous bridging and crossing operations over the Rhine River. He loves to tell the story of Gen. Patton making good on a promise he made of what he would do as he crossed the Rhine. I think he even has a photo of the event.

He also stays actively interested in what is going on in the military today. He is intensely proud of being one of the “Hell Cats” of the 12th Armored Division during World War II and has attended their reunions regularly in the past. There’s even a Hell Cats museum in Texas which Doug promotes every chance he gets.    

“This part of Texas has boomed for 10 years,” he writes of their new home. “With Federal matching funds, four and six-lane highways have been spread all over the state.”

His daughter and son-in-law live in Ennis, Texas, which is 26 miles away. They are happy to have the Berlins living close by.

Doug and Glenn are residing in a really nice apartment, which he said is looking more like home every day as photos and other homey things have been added, making it uniquely theirs. They are quite happy there, but they do miss their friends in Bogalusa. Their house here is for sale. It can’t be easy to pull up stakes and move away after one has reached a certain age.

Doug struggles every day with Parkinson’s, but usually manages to type out a few words in each of his e-mails. He and Glenn like to keep in touch with family and friends.

In case you want to send them a card, I’m sure they would be pleased to know their friends miss them. It really isn’t too late to send Doug a birthday card.

Their new address is: Doug and Glenn Berlin, Buffalo Creek Apt. 104, 1329 Brown Street, Waxahachie, Texas 75165. E-mails can be sent to deberlin@yahoo.com.