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  One Day in My Life-A Story of WWII, by Paul & Lowell Sell By  Karen  in  Sell ,  Train Wreck at Valery-en-Caux ,  Veterans Day ,  World War II Today, on the eve of Veterans Day, I am pleased to share this WWII story about a local WWII soldier, Sgt. Lowell Sell. A big thank you to Dr. Jerry and Connie Sell for sharing this story that involved Jerry’s uncle Lowell Sell in January 1945, shortly after Lowell arrived in France to begin his service in the war. Lowell Sell told the story to his brother Paul and Paul wrote the narrative in 1999. Four Sell brothers grew up on 707 south of Rockford. Three of the Sell brothers, Lowell, Paul, and Carl, and their cousin Otis “Leroy” Sell, all served in WWII. In addition to Lowell Sell’s story, their cousin Leroy’s father, Charles Dillon Sell, wrote a poem about sixteen Rockford-area men who served in WWII. His poem,  The Otterbein Sixteen , appears here, after Lowell’s story. Otterbein United Brethren in Christ Church, aka Stringtown United B

We were at the Cleveland Clinic a few weeks ago. I stopped at McDonalds for a couple senior coffees for the road. Two old black guys were behind me, waiting for their order. I noticed the one guy had an Ohio State hat. I turned around and asked him if he was a Buckeye fan? He was hesitant, we were in a black area of Cleveland......I was the only white person in the whole place. He responded that indeed....he was a fan. I reached in my pocket and handed him a buckeye nut. I told him I always carried one for luck and wanted him to have it. You would have thought I had given him a hundred bucks. “I have never seen a buckeye” he said, and gave me a heartfelt thanks. I told him the buckeyes always brought me luck and I hoped it did the same for him, I keep spares at home. We parted ways friends.