Interviewed by Rachel Wu
I was in a foster home for 10 years. Most of it was alright, but the last couple of years were bad. People, the foster parents, were not nice. I grew up in Pennsylvania. It’s alright. I went to the Navy in 1963, stationed in Virginia on a ship called the U.S.S. Newport News. It was a heavy cruiser. It was scrapped in 1974. It was during the beginning of the Vietnam Era and I didn’t want to go into the army. I went to the Navy recruiters and signed up. I just wanted to get out of Pennsylvania. I went to boot camp in Illinois. I was there for about eight weeks. The boot camp was easy, it was mostly studying, very little physical. I was a seaman recruit when I got on, then when I got off I was a seaman. That’s three steps up from that. I was discharged before my birthday in 1966. And we went overseas a couple times: Spain, France, Italy.
I was in the Navy in the 60s, during the Civil Rights era. On my ship, I had two black friends. Back then, that’s what they called ‘em, Black. We used to go downtown and sit in restaurants and make people angry. They would never serve us because it was two blacks. They wouldn’t serve blacks in the restaurant. We used to sit there for a couple of hours and leave. That was just to make them angry. Which it did. They would never come near us, we were just sitting there.
So then I went home, stayed with my mother for a while in Pennsylvania. Then I moved and stayed in the Salvation Army Men’s Center. When I was there, I started to work for Conway Amusement, setting up rides and everything. Stayed for a while there, then moved back. That’s where I met my wife during a carnival.
Her name is Brenda. We saw each other, and it was, like they say, love at first sight. I was there for a week and she kept coming to my ride. That was 1970, so it was 50 years. I was putting the rides up, in the summertime it was hot, and I had my shirt off. You could see all my muscles. And she used to come around and watch us. She was nineteen. In March of ’71, I took her to Maryland and got married. Now going on forty-nine years. It’s not easy, but we’re still there.
I have three children. Two sons, Kenneth and Christopher, and one daughter, Michelle. Our daughter lives near us in New Jersey, just a few blocks away. We live in senior housing. My two sons were both in the Marines. They joined when they were eighteen. They got tired of living in Pennsylvania. They both live in Idaho now. I have five grandchildren. They’re all girls. They all live in Idaho. And one great-granddaughter. She just turned two. We went out to see them for the first time this past July and we stayed there for a week in Idaho.
My father had my brother, two sisters, and one step-sister. They’re all gone now. My sister Martha she died in 2010 of cancer. My father died in October 1964 of a heart attack, the sixth one he’d had. He died taking my brother back to the Navy. He died right there in the airport. My mother died in 2003. She was 90 when she passed away.
Me and my brother are the only ones left out of the six of us. I’m the oldest by 5 minutes. My brother, who lives in California, is my twin, unidentical. He was in the Navy, too. He was a seaman in California, all his life practically. He stayed in California. We don’t see him too much, the last time he was here was in 2014. We talk on the phone every now and then, but not that often. Our family isn’t much for, you know, interaction with family. Never have been. Me and my brother were in foster homes for 10 years. My mother was ill when were three months old so we went into foster homes until we were about nine and a half. They took us back in the Summer of ’56. When you’re in a foster home for ten years, your parents are like strangers. We were never close.
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I hitchhiked across the country, back and forth. One time to California. Got arrested twice in Arizona for hitchhiking. I used to like to travel, but not anymore. I like California, but I wouldn’t move there. I’m a Jersey person now. And my kids moved to Idaho, but I’m not going to Idaho. In the wintertime? No. I’m staying in Jersey. I’ve been here 19 years, I’m not going anywhere. I’ve been to 22 states. I lived in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, Illinois. I lived in Houston, Texas for a while. I worked at a Burger King in Texas. Used to call me Yankee all the time. I was there for a year and a half, then went back to Pennsylvania. It’s hard traveling now.
And then I had this thing here with my foot, so I came to the VA hospital. I’ve been coming here since 2009, off and on. Now I’m on home care. I had a heart bypass ten years ago. Still here.