When customers got their first look at the inside of the Freddy’s Frozen Custard on Friday morning, they were greeted by a man whose photo adorns the company’s walls. Freddy Simon’s sons actually created and run the Freddy’s Frozen Custard franchises, based out of Wichita. Freddy serves as a goodwill ambassador. And, in a case of life is better than fiction, he helps provide a restaurant persona that his sons could never have found a public relations agency good enough to create. Freddy attends events such as the opening of the new restaurant in Derby, charity events and makes the rounds of the Wichita restaurants about every other week. He hands out Freddy Bucks, visits with customers and shakes a lot of hands. Randy Simon said when he and his brother created the restaurant image they knew 1950s diner themes were popular. They tried to take the idea back to its roots in the 1930s and ‘40s – to a time which their dad remembers well. Randy admits to some “literary license” with the stories on Freddy, but the premise also is based on his real life. He did grow up in Colwich; he did graduate from Wichita State and played basketball with the Shockers; and he did make the now famous steakburgers for his family. The theme for the restaurant is punctuated with humor and Freddy fits that bill, too. He said he didn’t think those homemade steakburgers would be what his son would use to create his livelihood. “I was trying to teach him to play baseball,” Freddy said. World War II was breaking out as Freddy reached adulthood and he and several friends tried to join the Navy Air Corps. Freddy’s slight color blindness kept him out of that and the Army Air Corps. So he entered the Army and basic training at Fort Riley and then served with the 1st Cavalry Division. Soon he found himself in the South Pacific and with a landing crew in New Guinea. “I was going to whip the Japanese Army all by myself,” he said. As soon as he hit the ground, war’s realities struck. “I wanted to go home,” he said. “I was scared to death.” He stayed. He was the sixth man on the ground in the first wave of the taking of the Philippines. As he and members of his platoon helped secure the Manila hotel, which later became MacArthur’s command post, they cleared the building and walked into the street and an enemy attack. Eight men were killed. Freddy and two others were wounded and Freddy later received the Purple Heart. At that time, his leg was bandaged and he was sent back to the fighting. Freddy returned home from the war to marry, raise a family and have a 56-year career in the wholesale liquor business. Friday in Derby he gave the impression that opening the new restaurant was the best experience of his life. “I’m the luckiest guy in the room,” he said. “It’s adding years to my life.”