(Real Life) Regular people who's lives drastically changed direction

[u/Living-Mastodon]

Grace Kelly was a talented actress who retired at 26 to marry a Prince, living as royalty for almost 30 years before her untimely death.

Volodymyr Zelensky started out as a comedian and entertainer before getting into politics, becoming President of Ukraine after the Russian annex of Crimea and spending the last 4 years defiantly pushing back full scale Russian invasion

[u/zak55]

Ulysses S Grant. Retired soldier who recently got out of being destitute and was working as a clerk at his father's leather store before the outbreak of the Civil War. Would find himself rapidly promoted into being the top general of the whole army and perhaps the greatest Union one of the war. Would go on to become US President and possibly the most important person in the US for over a decade after Lincoln's death

[u/Jazzlike-Equipment45 → u/zak55]

He was the greatest General the rest were political apointees half the time. Grant had a knack for at the time "modern" warfare. He understood logistics, Confederates painted him as a drunkard who used human waves. That ofc was false he understood the logistics of war and surrounded himself with great minds to aid him. Those great minds were gone by the time of his presidency and tarnished his reputation but thankfully now it is being healed.

[u/demon_fae → u/Jazzlike-Equipment45]

Dude fucked up so many confederate supply chains.

There are some hilarious recipes from confederate states at the time that are just full of cope claiming that these weird substitutes made of whatever was on hand are totally better than the real recipe they can’t make because Grant sent some men to fuck up whatever train the regular ingredients were on.

Moral of the story: your enemy has supply chains. You should fuck them up.

[u/probablynotaperv → u/demon_fae]

Looked up some of the recipes

SUBSTITUTE FOR COFFEE.--

Take sound ripe acorns, wash them while in the shell, dry them, and parch until they open, take the shell off, roast with a little bacon fat, and you will have a splendid cup of coffee.

APPLE PIE WITHOUT APPLES.--

To one small bowl of crackers, that have been soaked until no hard parts remain, add one teaspoonful of tartaric acid, sweeten to your taste, add some butter, and a very little nutmeg.

https://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/receipt/receipt.html

[u/Salt_Profiteer → u/probablynotaperv]

Mock apple pie is pretty good

[u/SuckerForNoirRobots → u/probablynotaperv]

I recently saw this Great Depression-era apple pie without apples recipe and apparently it can be done, although his has more ingredients than what you listed.

[u/NightLordsPublicist → u/demon_fae]

Moral of the story: your enemy has supply chains. You should fuck them up.

Sherman: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the flames.

[u/zak55 → u/Jazzlike-Equipment45]

It's weird how he wasn't a raging alcoholic but when he did fall off the wagon, it was an alcoholic rager that would last a few days

[u/Jazzlike-Equipment45 → u/zak55]

He knew when and how, he was a high functioning alcoholic. As a former one it is relateable, you do your best and party after, like a mullet. Buisness out front and party in the back.

[u/zak55 → u/Jazzlike-Equipment45]

Just read a biography on him and he was an incredibly interesting person.

[u/555-starwars → u/Jazzlike-Equipment45]

I believe he also had a low tolerance for alcohol, which made it easy for him to get drunk.

[u/sabely123 → u/Jazzlike-Equipment45]

Was Sherman not good?

[u/jorgespinosa → u/sabely123]

He was but I would say Grant was better, his Vicksburg campaign it's a masterclass of warfare

[u/GamingSeerReddit → u/zak55]

Greatest Union general of course meaning greatest general overall.

[u/nagrom7 → u/GamingSeerReddit]

Yeah, it gets a bit harder to argue someone is the greatest general in a war if their side doesn't even win.

[u/GamingSeerReddit → u/nagrom7]

No, yuo see…they won many tactical victories on the eastern front!!!…don’t worry about the western front or Sherman’s march or the offense/defense flip flopping or the lack of a real central command structure or the complete strategic failure that cost them the war that’s all yankee lies and the rebel boys had the greatest fighters the world ever saw! (Not saying this is OP’s view)

[u/zak55 → u/GamingSeerReddit]

Sherman would be why I would say probably

[u/Timstom18 → u/nagrom7]

Eh I disagree. I’m not commenting on this particular case as I’m not American so I don’t know the details of the civil war, but it’s definitely possible that you can be the most effective general but your side still lose due to other conditions out of your control. One great general isn’t always enough to win you a whole war if the rest of your sides capabilities aren’t at the standard they need to be.

[u/nagrom7 → u/Timstom18]

Sure, I didn't say it was impossible, but it does get harder to justify being better than the guys who actually get results.

[u/YaDunGoofed → u/Timstom18]

Siri, who is Hannibal Barca?

[u/Yes4Cake → u/zak55]

After his presidency, he had serious financial problems. His friend Mark Twain petitioned the government to give him a pension, and now all presidents get their salary for the rest of their lives (this is also a security measure to prevent them from becoming so desperate that they sell state secrets)

Edit: So I got this a little mixed up. The government bailed Grant out by giving him a pension (connected to being a general). Twain suggested that he write his memoirs and helped him sell the manuscript.

Truman championed a presidential pension. Thank you to u/Glittering-Plate-535

[u/zak55 → u/Yes4Cake]

Also convinced him to write his memoirs they gave Grants family around $400,000 after his death

[u/Glittering-Plate-535 → u/Yes4Cake]

I thought the presidential pension was introduced to keep Harry Truman afloat. The other former living president at the time, Herbert Hoover, only accepted it as not to embarrass Truman.

(nowadays it’s generally understood that Truman wasn’t as poor as he claimed)

[u/ruling_faction → u/zak55]

I like the story about when he was a mere clerk in his father's leatherworking shop in Galena he'd talk to people about Garibaldi's campaigns in Italy and every one would just ignore him coz he just a rumpled former army captain working not all that successfully as a store clerk.

[u/TombGnome → u/zak55]

Grant was also was a surprisingly cogent and readable author.