a long time ago, thought it seems like it was just yesterday, i was young and stupid. my father ─ joseph rogers ─ served in the 1ˢᵗ batallion, 26ˢᵗ infantry during the great war. he took a bullet during the push for soissons. one of the original blue spaders. i wanted nothing more than to enlist in his regiment. i don't remember much about him. he laughed alot, i seem to recall. and he smelled like applesauce. he died of influenza in 1926 at the age of thirty-three. a few years later the depression hit, i remember one day our landlord put all of our possessions onto the street. some members of the local communist party came by and helped my mother bring all of our furniture back inside. in those days, landlords didn't have the resources to evict people twice. it made me realize something : that compassion can come from anywhere and anyone. even from communists. but very rarely from dougie huggins, who lived in the basement apartment two doors down. he blacked my eye everyday, and twice on fridays. i was always too small and skinny to fight back. i got sick alot, and it often seemed like there was no running away from that place except in pages of a fantasy novel. momma had no such escape. she worked two jobs just to make ends meet. we'd sit indoors as she scrubbed, listening to the radio. i'd draw pictures for her, just to make her smile. but she never did smile. she just faded away.
' oh, stevie, ' she said. ' i want you to remember. always be proud of who you are and where you came from. never forget the people who helped you get to where you're going. '
never forget. that was the last thing she said to me before she died.
it's tempting to want to live in the past. it's familiar. it's comfortable. but it's where fossils come from. my job is to make tomorrow's world better. always has been. once, long ago, i asked bucky what purpose captain america served outside of combat. it was a foolish question. there'll always be something to fight for. and i'll always be a soldier.
multi - ship , semi literate & sometimes illiterate steve rogers anon est. 2016. portrayed by josh.