Potato Peelings

Book excerpt: Teased by his siblings for being a potato head, Andy Schroeder had been a good natured, optimistic young person. He was in college and deciding where to attend law school, when he received his draft papers. Soon, he was known as Spud by the guys in his unit in Vietnam. Even though he was the grenadier, he was of slight build. He was often called upon to be a tunnel rat, sent down dark, sabotaged, enemy tunnels to retrieve intelligence. By the time he was injured, the war had already taken a massive toll on Spud. He was no longer optimistic and doubted most of his previously held beliefs of life and God. He still loved his bride and his family, innocently believing that he could get home and go right back to the life he had left. Artillery fire changed all that. He did not return home as he had planned. Spud was an angry, bitter and frustrated person in a wheelchair. He doubted his beliefs, hated his situation and felt like a failure to everyone. He faced not only his visible wounds, but the ravages of the invisible ones. He tried not to be hateful, but not very successfully. After Vietnam, Spud felt his life was no more than a pile of useless potato peelings. He tried to put them together to get his life back, but found it a monumental task. With the help of his family, faith and friends, he began to put them back together-- one peeling at a time.