Excerpts from Finished Life Story
Back to the Beginning (Homepage)
I come from a pretty good-sized family. I’d three brothers and three sisters, well actually I had four brothers, one got killed in World War II. And, you know, we lived in a railroad apartment in Brooklyn, and it was a little tight, but you know. I have one younger brother, but everyone else is older than I am. And, my father passed away when I was nine. And so, you know, it was a little hard on my mother, so at 13 I went to work—to help—so then my sisters started getting married, and I… but yeah.
You see, like I said, I had one brother that was killed in World War II. I was born October 10 of 1941, and, I never knew him, never seen him, I was too young. I probably seen him but I was too young to remember. And I had another brother that fought in Korea and was wounded, and my younger brother fought in Vietnam. And, he was a helicopter pilot, but he got out unscathed. Then my sisters, they all got married…well, I guess they were all, you know, between the ages of 20 and 23 when they got married. So, (sigh) it was… After my father passed away my older sister was already married. But I still, we still had, I had two sisters and three brothers still at home…and so, it was hard, I’ll tell ya. Because we had five rooms and that was it. So the dinning room was used, we, my mother put a, bought a, one of those, I don’t know, it’s like a couch, but it’s not a, not sofa beds they got now, it’s one of those you just pull out and it becomes a bed. But we sort of had to spill around like that but yeah (smile). I don’t know, there’s some good memories about everything…but then my sister Marie got married, and that left my younger sister (well, she’s older than I am). And, that left us working all the time, and like I said when I was 13 I got a, during the summer months, I got a full time job. Being eight weeks I was off so I never knew what a real summer vacation was after that. But, at the age of 17 when I graduated high school, I went into the service myself, but…it just so happed I was lucky I wound up between Korea and the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was just starting when I got out. But, you know, we all worked hard and tried…we were never rich or anything, well, we had food on the table, clean cloths to wear, um hum. Yeah, it was nice. (Smile).
***
[Family is] number one. Number one, above everything, everything, everything. You got one momma; you got one daddy. If you have sisters and brothers, you’ll never have anymore. See, that’s why family is first, and it’s the most important. Next to God, family is the most important thing in the world. And all these things I hear about people arguing about money, they don’t talk to each other for 10, 15 years, I say it’s stupid, stupid! You want the money, take the money! I don’t care. Just don’t go off on the deep end on me. Because see, the way we were raised… How can I say this now? That we were always close, no matter what happened, see. Every holiday, or every summer we always go together with the children, the nephews, nieces, brothers and sisters, and we always got together for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter. And like I said, a few days in the summer. And that’s the way I was brought up.
Now, I’ll admit
when I moved down here I drifted off (laughs).
But, you know, I think they sort of understood it, because to me, as good
as New York was it was best for me to get out of there.
So, I don’t feel bad about leaving.
I don’t feel bad about leaving my family up there because we still keep
in touch with each other; we e-mail each other.
But I put family above everything except God.
And, to me, if you can’t protect and help your family it’s just bad
business. That’s all it becomes.
But number one! Number one! Family, uh-huh.
That’s why I call it my family!
(laughs) Hollins University, I love it, I love it!
My family!
***
I was a waiter. I didn’t mind that. Except when the people were drunk…that’s the only time, I never did like that… But, then I worked for the post office. I enjoyed the post office. But I sort of went off the deep end with them and I quit… I, to this day I don’t know why. I’ve never figured it out. But then I had a job in a, New York has these department stores they called T.S.S. Stores. They had five big chains, well, five big department stores and four little ones and I worked in the design department and it was fun, I enjoyed that. Because, like, whenever they had, whenever Founder’s Day came, or, Thanksgiving or Easter or Christmas, well, Christmas was the big time…I’d be sent to the stores to help decorate the stores. And I enjoyed it cause I traveled around. I guess, I never did like being confined to one area. I think that’s maybe why I quit the post office, cause I had to stay in one area all the time and…I just, I don’t know how to put it I, I get fidgety, I like to move around. But, that was a great job, I enjoyed that.
But then I moved down here, and I worked for Pittser Transfer and Storage, which was a moving company, I worked for them for about four or five years, and I enjoyed that. It was hard work, but I did a lot of road traveling, and I saw a lot of the United States, and, I enjoyed that. But then, what happened with that? I forget. I really don’t remember why I left there. I think I got tired of traveling, that’s what it was. Cause I just, I’d be gone weeks at a time, and usually when you had to go someplace you had to leave on a Saturday or Sunday to be there Monday, and I think that’s what got me. I never had much time to myself to socialize… Where was I after that?
Ah, I went to a clothing manufacturer, well it’s no longer around, it was on Center Avenue before Coca-Cola took the whole area over, that was a good job. I was in charge of, a supervisor of shipping and receiving. I enjoyed that one, too, it was real fun, but… Oh, and I was a painter for a while, I owned my own contracting firm, but my legs started to give out, so… I couldn’t do no more high work, and I said well, I’m going to have to let that go…
And then I came to Hollins College (laugh) and I found my home. When I got here, when I first got here, I knew this was the place I wanted to retire from. Cause the people were so good to you, and, I don’t know, and they were friendly, and I guess, that’s, that’s what I wanted to be, and I guess that’s why I’m still here, really. But, when I came here, things were harder, really, but they seemed like they weren’t so, how can I say, hectic, as they are now. But…we’d get into situations where, you know, we’d be backed up and the pressure would be really on us, but we always came through for some reason. When I fist started here, I was actually driving a truck. Which was a lot of fun, cause I met a lot of people. And, I don’t know, I just enjoyed being around the students, and then I got to, you know, get friendly with the faculty and administrators…I say hey, I’ve got problems but they’ve got problems, too. So, let’s all work together, and you know…
I’ve always had the highest respect for the students, and I used to get so angry when things were taken away from them. And I used to tell people, (laugh) and they’d say, “Vince, you ought to get fired from here.” And I said “well, I don’t think it’s right, though, I’m not blind or anything, I’m just telling the truth. And if the truth hurts, I can’t help it.” I think that’s what I liked the most…Hollins in a way has really changed my life around.
At one point I think I was having an attitude problem, but I don’t have nothing like that no more. Na, I’m so happy around here. See, you, I things like I finally got to be an assistant supervisor and then service master came and said they didn’t an assistant supervisor. So I went to Turner and I was happy there, I had the Riding Center and I was happy there…so…the only thing I didn’t like was moving to different buildings at that time. But then they said the Theatre and Art Annex was opening up, I said, “is that an eight hour building,” they told me yes, I said, “I’ll take it!” And hey here I am (laughs!).
I love interacting with the students, it just, I don’t know, it makes me feel good. And, you know, one time a person came up to me and said “Vince, you don’t think you really keep students here, do you?” I said “nah, I’m not that naïve,” I said, I just said, “if I can make them smile for five seconds out of their day, it’s made my day.” That’s all. Or, for one minute, if I can take their mind off an exam that’s all, just one minute, to let them think of something else, that’s all. But it doesn’t take much. And, like, they’d say, “how come you talk to the students?” And I’ll say, “I don’t know, but it’s just my nature.” I figure I can say something even if it doesn’t help…I don’t know (laughs) I just talk to them, that’s what they’re there for, to say something to, I guess. And if a student doesn’t want to say hello to me I keep saying hello and eventually she will say hello. But so far I’ve never run into that, so…I thank God about that, but I really love it here, though, and I think when I retire I’m really going to miss it.
But, you know, there will be other people here, and I hope that they can be just as good to the students as I was, cause, what was it, one person told me in my own department, “you spoil them people!” What do you mean spoil them? I don’t know what you mean! And the person couldn’t answer me, neither. I don’t think I spoil people, see, I think I help them because I want to help them. It’s not because nobody tells me to help them. Because I’ll ask them if I can help them before they can even ask me to help them. And, that’s what I’m here for, that’s what I enjoy. I enjoy helping people, especially students, and you know, even the faculty here… I just get along with everybody, I don’t know why that is, I just don’t know (laughs).
And then another guy asked me, well, this was my supervisor, “how come you’re happy all the time?” I said, “well, I don’t know, I guess there’s too much sadness in the world now, why should I be sad, too?” You see, and that’s what I mean, if I can just make somebody just smile, for a while, just forget about all of this other stuff that’s going on it really makes me feel good inside. It makes me feel like I was put on this earth for something.
[I’ve been at Hollins for] 18 years. Well, it’ll be 18 years in April, the middle of April, so… And I’ve done the same thing for 18 years (laughs). I’m, I’ve always helped the students, see… When I first came here there was an elderly lady named Mrs. Whitman, she was the supervisor then, and she taught me to always take care of the students, that no matter what happened, the students always came first. And that’s the way I’ve always been (laughs). Cause even like, see I was driving the truck and somebody said, “Vince, they need some help over in the administration building to get something down the steps.” I said “I’ll give you a hand in about 20 minutes, I’ve got to go help this student over here, first.” Nobody liked it, cause they had to wait for me, but I wasn’t going to let the student go just for that. I had already made the appointment with the student; they were coming down just asking me for help. And, I don’t know, that’s what I’ve always done. It didn’t matter. I always found time for the students. If there was any way I could help them. I’m not rich, I’ll never be rich, but if there’s any other way I can help you I will. And that’s really the way I am. I’ll go out of my way to help them, but…
One time, these were the art students here, they had these big, I don’t know how this came about, they had these big cardboard things they built and they were going to show them in the Botetourt Reading Room. I see them all carting this stuff, and you know, dragging pieces across the room. “Well, what are ya’ll doing?” “Oh, bringing this up there.” I said, “you want to use my truck?” I let them use my truck, so...They’d come, “Vince, how come use your…” it’s my truck. I can let anybody use it I want to. You can’t tell me who I can let use my own truck! “Yeah, but they might scratch it!” “They can’t hurt it (laughs).” But that’s the way I am, I literally love the students here. I love this place.
It makes me so sad when I see students sad. I try to cheer them up. I know I’m not a big help, but like I keep saying, just for a little while if you can forget your problems. Cause they’re still going to be there, you just might as well take the time to smile (laughs). The problem isn’t going to go away because you stay up all night, or don’t eat, don’t do this, don’t do that. It’s still going to be there, just take the time. And, it never hurts to be nice to somebody, never. I’ll tell anybody that.
I really don’t do that much, I have two grandsons. And a lot of times we’ll go around places. You know, do some shopping…I think I told you I like to move around a lot, like, on weekends, I love to go to the stores and just walk around. I go to Best Buy, now, as many times as I’ve been in Best Buy I still go in and walk around. I go to Target, I go to Valley View and walk around… I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s because of the people around me or what (laughs) I don’t know what it is. But I enjoy it. And it doesn’t bother me if the line is 20 people deep, and there’s a little old lady up there trying to write a check and it’s taking 20 minutes, that don’t bother me a bit. Yeah, I’m just as patient as I can be about it.
And the other thing I do like is working around the house, and I do like to fix up things. And like, I just gone out and bought, well, this is a, a cumulative thing I’ve been doing over the last five years, I’ve been buying a lot of power tools, which I plan on using pretty soon. I figure why hire somebody if I can do it. So…I may not do it right the first time, but that’s how I’m going to learn to do it right the second time. But, I enjoy that, and I love working out in the yard, I trim my own trees, but I’m getting a little to old to get up there, so I usually send a grandson up there.
And then I have my computer, I mess with it a while. I used to watch television a lot, but I don’t do that much anymore. I like to read, I love to read, and I’m into computers, so I get the computer magazines and I read them front to back…and if there’s a book I want I get it and I read that front to back. I love to read. I love it…it just calms me down. And even when, like I don’t remember if I’ve had a hectic day here, I guess there were hectic days, and I’ll get in front of my computer and in no time I’m just as calm as I can be.
I never take my work home with me. Never. Anything that happens here happens here. Just like I don’t bring my home here. Anything that happens at home is…home. This is Hollins. And I’ve always been dedicated. And like right now, I’m not really married but I’ve been living with this woman for 19 years, and right now she’s not in the best of health, so…she took care of me when I wasn’t, so now it’s my turn. And there’s no reason, I don’t mind giving up my time for her or anything. But like, anything I can do to help somebody I would, if it’s within my power.
***
The neighborhood I was born in more or less, you know, I think I’ve told you that we were never rich or anything…we were poor. We were poor. Let me put it that way. So the way it worked, I don’t know, it was like I was raised on the streets, and… I was good in school, I was good in grade school and I was good in high school, too. But other than that you had to play in the streets because every time you went to the park to play football or baseball you got thrown out of the park because there were other people there and they were afraid they were going to get hit or something like that with the ball, so we’d play in the middle of the streets.
I don’t know how it would really affect me, but the neighborhood I grew in was German, Italian, Irish and Polish. And, we seemed to have gotten along because, at that time, this is like in the early, well, late forties, early fifties in there, we didn’t really know anything about discrimination or anything like that… It didn’t matter to us what color, nationality you were, if you could play ball, come on! (laughs). Yeah, and that’s the way we did it, so I guess I wasn’t raised up in a racist atmosphere, or any bias towards ethnic groups or anything like that. Because, you know, we all called each other names, like, you know, you krout, you mick, you wop or something like that, and you know… But there was nothing really meant by it. How it affected me in growing up I don’t know. I think in a way it might have given me some more camaraderie with my fellow people, you know, the people who were around me, because even when I went to high school, it was the same thing, it was all mixed, and we were all the same
Then again them gangs, I belonged to one, but you know, it wasn’t with guns or knives, we just used our fists or a stick or something…you know it wasn’t out to kill somebody, it was just something… It was stupid, anyway, now that I look back. But if you came into our turf and you weren’t supposed to be there, or if you went into somebody else’s turf and you weren’t supposed to be there, you know, so you got beat up. They wouldn’t beat you up senseless where you wound up in a hospital half-dead or something like that. They just made sure you got the point (laughs) not to come over.
So, let’s see I guess it was rough, too, but it made me a better person I think. When I was growing up, I knew in order to get something it wasn’t going to be free, see. So you had to pay for it. I guess, you know, we did all the childish tricks during Halloween and all that, but… We, we all got along, you know, for being four different nationalities, because, I think I told you I’m German… But, nobody held it against me because of the war or nothing, because, we were just all friends and we hung out together. And then when I got into high school I moved into a different group of people. That’s when I got into the gang, when I was in high school. Because, I guess it came down to, either you, I don’t know if you’ve seen movies or programs but, and it was like that. Either you joined one or you (laughs) you got beat up by everybody. So, I wasn’t really rowdy or rough. It was just that time.
And that’s the way you had to live. And you know, but I respected my elders, I think… But you know we all did. No matter how rough we were, if an older person told us to move on, we’d move on. If the police came and told us to move on, we moved on (laughs). And that’s the way it was, because, I don’t know how it is now a days. Well, I know it isn’t even like that because I never even brought my own daughter up like that. You know, if, you got in trouble with and older person, right, or you weren’t respectful to them, when you got home, for some reason Momma or Pop always found out, and you got beat up again. I went to a Catholic grammar school, and the nun used to tap tap tap on your hands or, you know, when you did something wrong, but then they’d notify your parents. And so here you’ve got it at school, and when you went home you got it again. I guess it taught me things, but I respect people; I do respect all people who are older than me. I don’t know if we’ve gotten away from it or not. Nobody’s been disrespectful to me, so I can’t say what happens with other people.
But how can I put it that, growing up in an environment like that, things were fast. And, I don’t know, it just helped me later on in life. Things did get hard for me, I think, my upbringing, and, just living in a fast-paced city. It got me through; because I knew how to handle it from my younger days. And big city living was good, too, because, if you wanted to go someplace you didn’t really need a car. You got on the subway, or a bus, and you go anyplace in the city you want. On some subways you can ride for two or three hours, just in one direction, from one side to the other. I enjoyed that, because we used to go to Canarsey, Coney Island, and, shoot. It isn’t like now, you need somebody to take you, or you had to have a car, you just said, “Mom, I’m going to Prospect Park,” and… That was a bus ride (laughs) and so, that’s all. You got on one bus, you transferred to another bus, and you went. Momma just hollered, “Don’t get in trouble, don’t get in trouble, don’t get in no fights,” so, you know. But, I think the kids in suburbia had it worse than we did you know, in the outskirts, because they did need a car or their parents to drive them places where I didn’t need that, so…
I guess you built up a sense of independence there, too. During my childhood, you know if grandma came around and you were in the middle of a punch ball game or a stick ball game and grandma says, “Vince, walk me home, walk me home!” You went off and walked her home. You got your dime! Ah, that was a lot of money back then… But, it was like, even the team you were on didn’t care if you left because then you come running back and got right back into the game again. I think that’s also where I learned that, to take time for other people, too.
I don’t know, I could say it was hard, but it didn’t seem hard, at the time. It did, it does later on in life as you think about it, but it was a rough time. But even like, when I was away for a while, then I came back and said, “Is this what I lived in?” But while I lived there… it was like a palace. We had railroad rooms; the rent was just $25 a month. You see how far back that would be…
I had a car, but I didn’t use it that much unless I was going someplace special, plus it was easier to use the bus or the train, so… Traveling was a lot easer that now. I But he main thing I learned was independence, and respect, and a camaraderie with other people. I think that’s why it’s been brought over throughout my life and into my older years. But that’s the way I felt about it… Like, when I needed help people helped me, so, I think I learned that from there.
But you see, when I came to the South and things slowed down so much, it was like a whole different life and, I don’t know… I couldn’t really cope with it because I was so used to go, go, go, go. And then everything got sort of slowed down here, and I still wanted to go, go, go. It took me awhile to make the transition. But, hey! In New York when you drove, you drove and you kept your space. You didn’t let nobody else in there. I mean it didn’t matter if somebody was trying, like a pedestrian, you beeped your horn that they weren’t supposed to be there and you kept going (laughs). But here, when I came down here you know, people stopped their vehicles and said, “go ahead, walk, walk.” And then, you know, New York you didn’t cut nobody in. And here people’ll stop, slow down, and say, “go ahead, go ahead, you can pull in now.” I wasn’t used to things like that. So then I had to change my ways down here.
I think that’s about the biggest things I got out of my young life. Cause, it was easier, and I did set values, I did get values from that type of living. I’m not saying some were all great but, how can I put it, I seemed to put the better ones forward and left the worst ones in the background. Cause event he grandkids now, “Were you in a gang? Were you in a gang?” or “Did you kill anybody?” No we didn’t kill nobody! Because, I guess the reputation of gangs now in comparison to then… I mean, like I told you, you got beat up sometimes, sometimes you go hit by a stick or a chain or something, but… They didn’t try to kill you, when you were down you were down. They’d leave you alone. You know, but now they kill you or…no, no.
***
I can remember when I was younger like you’d get your girlfriend and you’d just go for a long walk and if you got tired after that you just hopped on a bus and came back. So it didn’t matter, if you wanted to walk you walked, if you didn’t you rode the bus or the subway back. But we’d just walk on Sundays. What did we do on Saturdays? A lot of the times we just played ball. There used to be a park that had four baseball fields, but it seems like the older kids always got them before we did, so… We couldn’t do that, cause we didn’t have sense enough to reserve the field (laughs) we’d just go out there and when they’d come out you’d have to leave cause they had the field reserved. And football… We just played in the park, we didn’t have no real football field or anything… But, you know, this is when I was younger. Even in high school, I never played high school football, but we did play football a lot… And we were a pretty good team. I mean, we played other teams around the neighborhood, and we’d even travel—like I said, a whole bunch of us on the subway or the bus… People’d think we were going to try and kill them or something, but we didn’t. But the funniest part is, for our football uniforms…you know, like I said, we were poor, so like the same person would wear the same helmet and shoulder pads and… You’d just take it off, when you came out you’d give it to the next person that went in and … Everybody waited, because nobody else had it, neither. I think we had two footballs between the two teams. But it was fun…
We did a lot of things, really… We used to hang out in the candy store, and you know, listen to the jukebox and you know… But it isn’t like on Happy Days where, you know, everybody’s got all this money for hamburgers and fries and all… You maybe had a Coke and set there for three hours… (laughs) just asked for more ice… Time you’d finished with that Coke it was water really…
We hung out in the park. I guess that’s about it. We’d go to movies, go to dances, cause we had dances in them days. Them days! How do you like…! I didn’t mean to say “them days.” (laughs) But, you know, these were school-sponsored dances. So we’d really have a good time. You know we’d neck in the park, I guess that was good, too (laughs) except when the cops came, they’d throw us out of the park (laughs). We had portable radios, but you know, they were nothing like they have now, boom boxes or anything big. They weren’t even stereos. They were just old, portable radios… And they took eight batteries, and we’d listen to that and dance around in the park sometimes…
Even in the cold now we’d hang out in the park, too, so… And I guess the best thing was the macho image you had to give--that it could be cold as heck but you had to have your jacket unbuttoned a certain length… And your shirt had to be unbuttoned, too, to a certain length. No matter how cold it was out there. And sometimes you’d freeze to death (laughs). And, you know, wearing hats wasn’t it, because we had the duck tails, like they had in the ‘50’s, and they was greased down just like them and… I don’t know if you’ve seen the movies where they had these big dips down in the front, but you had to do that, you had to get it all coming down, and like, it was, I guess it was just a peer thing. It was just a fad that was all that it was… We had the peg pants, we used to get the gray pants and they used to have the pink saddle stitching down there, and that was cool (laughs).
When I look back I don’t think there’s anything I’d really want to change, because, when I look back now, like I say we weren’t real bad, we were just…keeping with the times, that’s the only way I can put it, so… We didn’t have no drugs back then… We didn’t even know what drugs were, so the oldest looking guy would go in there and used to be able to go into the bar and get quart containers of draft beer for, I think, 90 cents. And so, sometimes we’d cheat like that (laughs). You know, we’d get drunk on that one-quart and, so by the time we went home or something we’d get a beating for that (laughs). And, you know, it was fun. How can I say it was fun when you got beat up all the time, but it was.
***
I had a good time in the service! Don’t ask me why, but I did… Because I was in a supply outfit, and sometimes the work was hard, but it was just like having a job, really, because I worked eight to five, had a break for lunch. Except for you’re in the service, it was more regimented and you had orders to obey, you know. But I think my upbringing really prepared me for it… And I never felt any animosity towards anything I was told to do… Because, I figured they knew what they were doing, they knew better than me. But later on in life I found out it wasn’t so…(laughs) but that’s okay.
During basic training I was in San Antonio Texas and I got there in August and it seemed like… It was so hot there, and flat that we wore what they called these pit helmets, they looked like those safari helmets, and uh, you had to carry water and salt tablets with you every place you went. Because that was how hot it was. It used to get to 105, 110 and you’d be in this green uniform (laughs) marching, and, ah! Lord!… It’d be murder! They didn’t have no air conditioning, all you did was open the windows. There was no breeze until at night, then the breeze’d come off the desert out there. But, during the day you paid. The nights were nice…I enjoyed it.
It was another thing where I met a whole lot of different types of people. I met people from other states, I met Southern people, see… And they called me “Yankee” (laughs). Good Lord! Then I had a roommate, and he was from Missouri. He was a bigger hick than any Southerner I know (laughs) I tell you! But, he was a good man. Then we had a guy from Chicago, he was good. But we all hung out together and where we were stationed you couldn’t drink until you were 21, so… We’d build these model cars that you see now. So, we’d get five or six of us in the room and build and talk and just drink sodas. But I used to like them.
That was the first time I really met people from different walks of life. I met people that had money, people that was as poor as me, people that were, you know, middle class… Said hey, we’re all in this together. But I really enjoyed it.
I was stationed in Delaware for almost two and a half years, so I was only about 200 miles from New York City. And, you see, you can go home on weekends. If you live within a 200-mile radius, you can go home without taking any leave or any permission. But you have to let them know that you’re leaving the base and when you’ll be back. So, we’d just all pile into this old ’53 Buick Century. Ah, that thing burned so much oil (laughs). Which, it go to the point that we were buying used oil to put in it… But we used to make it… You know, and then we’d come back and a few times it’d stop on us. We used to be happy on a hill because you pushed it—it was a stick shift—so you pushed it and it started rolling down the hill and it would start again once you popped the clutch. We’d leave a big cloud of black smoke. People’d look at us like we were crazy. But I guess we didn’t know, we were young. What were we, 19? You know, we were young…
It didn’t bother us. And, uh, one of the guys, well, the guy from Chicago, he had a ’41 Mercury four-door convertible, so he had that and he brought that down. And then this other guy, he brought a ’55 Chevy. He had a, it was a Bel Air, but he a Coup. And, back then Chevy’s were the deal. So, we decided to take this big engine out of this Mercury and put it into the Chevy (laughs). So, we had a guy who lived off base and he had a garage and everything, so we went to doing it, too. Like I said, we couldn’t drink, we still weren’t 21. So, we, we just commenced to doing it… We got it in there, it was whole lot of work, though… I think it took four or five weeks of finally getting everything adapted… So, we’d get it started, so the timing was off so we’d had to go… We’re doing it all ourselves, now, so… So we go buy a timer and check the timing thing, we re-adjust it and… I don’t know nothing about cars. Mind you, I don’t, and to this day I don’t. But here we are working on it, it had a big block, an old Canadian block on it… So, we finally get it all done. Well, we get it done we can’t get the hood back on the Chevy, because the three duces, the carburetors, are all sticking so far up. So we got to leave the hood off. But we started that thing up, what a noise (laughs). It was loud, but it moved. Few times it stopped, but we fixed it up. Well, the guy, there was two guys, this guy, they guy from Chicago and the other guy that lived there, they knew about the cars so they adjusted all the carburetors on it. And that thing got to moving. Wow. And we went up the highway with that thing, oh we had good times.
Like I was telling you about this ’41 Mercury convertible, right, had this big souped up engine. But, so, I don’t know how we got involved with Winchester Virginia… Like I said we were stationed in Delaware…I forgot how it was but here we are in the wintertime, now, right? This convertible’s got no top on it (laughs). It’s a big long car, too… But we’re getting in there, all three of us are in the front seat, of course, because there’re no heater in the car, and so what heat we’re getting is whatever comes off the block cause he had a hole cut in there. But we’re getting the heat but we’re getting the fumes from it, too. But, man, we went to town! And, we did, we had a good time in Winchester. We met some people there. One time the car got stuck and we couldn’t get it started, we had to hitch hike back to Delaware (laughs). Ah, but it was fun. See I can look back on all this and it’s funny, you know… It was crazy. I mean, the things we did like I was telling you about that Buick and the tires were bald. But we were young, we didn’t care (laughs). We’d just go with it…yeah. But I forget what, this was on a main highway, I forget, in Winchester… There was this drive-in, you know where you got the hamburgers and everything… I remember it reminded me of when I’d seen Happy Days after that. That’s what, it kept reminding me of Winchester Virginia. Because the sun, I can remember on night, one day the sun had gone down like that, where it was just the sun shining on part of it. And we were standing outside the car (laughs). And we were talking with the girls. It was good. Yeah, but, it was crazy.
Now, I went to Korea, but that was nice because I got to stay two weeks in Japan before I went over there and it was beautiful there and … I mean Korea, if you want to talk about cold Korea’s cold. And hot, too. When I was there they had one paved road, everything else was mud. And I worked in supply and in their ration breakdown delivering food so… In order to get up the mountain, to the people on top, you had to crawl up and make sure nothing was coming down, cause if you meet, somebody’s got to back down. Because there was no room for two vehicles. So that was a little comedy scene sometimes… But, nah, I had a good time there, too… We did some wild things. We went to the clubs there, well, they weren’t really clubs they were dives. Oh, they were bad, they were bad places. We fell into the [rice] patties a few times (laughs). We were trying to take them as a shortcut and they have these little mounds around, you know, separating them. But when it rained they’d be so slick. So, then we’d fall in there…
I have good memories… I met some really good people in my service time. And you know like you always do, oh, we’re going to keep in touch, yeah, yeah, Joe, when I get home I’m going to look you up on my way home… And we never did it. But the memories are always there, and that’s what I enjoy.
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