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by Anthony E. Virag (Author)
Early years of the twentieth century were peaceful throughout Europe. Peasants, in childish innocence, harvested pastoral fields, as children played. But the Military minded; such as Otto Bismarck, planned for Empire, Kaiser Hohenzollern II, would inherit the "World's Greatest Empire", with Germany, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary as inheritors. The lives of Ilona Valko's family would suffer in these plans of "expansion". All families in Europe were rudely shaken in 1914. Geza Virag was shipped to the Italian Front, buried alive in 1917; dug out by his buddies, taken to Vienna to recuperate, and was sent back in 1918, to participate in the fatal 1918, Battle of The Piave. Christian youth were taught to kill; Priests blessed their rifles as soldiers went relentlessly to kill "God's Children". Such is the legacy Anthony would have his two sons, three grandsons and immigrant Magyars residing in North America, and elsewhere, to remember.. Anthony Virag was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to Hungarian parents that had immigrated to Canada. Raised in a Hungarian community, he learned much about his Magyar heritage from stories of "The Old Country". Inspired, he recorded them; and re-wrote the experiences of his father's Virag family, his mother's Valko family, and acquaintances. He completed public school at age 14, (1945). The family then moved to a 100 acre "garden crop" farm. They sold this one in1949, and moved onto a 260 acre dairy farm in Waterford, Ontario. Anthony, his brother John, and their father developed this into White Way dairy farm. Anthony married Bonnie, (author of The Stovepipe), in 1955; returned to Waterford Hugh School as an adult graduating in 1960. He worked as a Civil Engineer Technologist in Kitchener. Immigrating to Michigan in 1964, where they spent the next fifty-three years, he was an Industrial Engineer, (Massey Ferguson), Research & Development, (Cadillac Motors), while continuing his education and graduating with a BSc, (Mechanical Engineering), at age forty in 1971. At Ford Motor Company he wore many hats, Process Engineer, Safety Engineer and Homologation Engineer. Anthony and Bonnie now reside in The Villages, Florida.
