During the 1960's, many good things begin to happen in our family. As already mentioned, I was selected to serve as an Elder at church. Cindy arrived in 1961 increasing our family to six. My job was exciting with new challenges every day. I became a charter member of the Sylvan Hills Kiwanis club and also worked with the Boy Scouts. In 1960, while living on Farris Ave. I found a house i liked located on 35th street in North Little Rock. The house had a full size basement in addition to three bedrooms on the upper level. We decided to buy it since it would be much closer to my work and schools. Larry was in Elementary and George was in Jr. Hi. We sold the house on Farris and moved. For the next 10 months, we were most miserable and missed the Sylvan Hills area. I think Kathleen cried everyday and i know the boys were not happy at school. We even drove past the Levy Congregation going back to church at S. H. every Sunday and Wednesday. I did not want to leave our congregation. It was then that we met with Lawrence Hindman, a contractor and made the decision to move back where we belonged. Our house plans were for the same type house with a full basement. We located a lot on Barber St. in Sylvan Hills and Mr Hindman started construction. Our agreement was for me to do all the finish work like painting and finishing the basement inside. The house and lot would cost us $13.000. Before we left N.L.R. my Mom died in Louisiana. She had been in the hospital a few days and was going home that day. She had just finished breakfast and was sitting on the bed when she died suddenly. I had planned to go to see her the day before but my sister called and said the roads were iced over and i should wait. This made the situation worse since i was not there to see her before she died.
We moved to Barber St in early 1962 and have been here ever since. This old house has seen all our kids grow up and has survived a lot of remodeling over the years. Speaking of kids, it was in the latter part of 1967 when we found out another was on the way. We both were at the 40 year old age and was kinda shocked. Leslie Scott Freeman arrived on June 21st, 1968, giving us a total of four sons and a daughter. I told folks we had a quartet called Four Hits and a Miss, or better yet, Four Jacks and a Jill. Anyway, Scott was a welcomed blessing and would bring us a lot of joy in the years to come.
In the mid 60's I was promoted to Shift Supervisor along with two other men. We would help Supervisors in all Departments in the plant when help was needed. On the off shifts we would be in charge whenever a crisis or problem arose. This eliminated the need to call someone at home at night. The three of us rotated and reported to the plant manager. In early 1969, I went to the new plant in Benson North Carolina and assisted in the start up of that operation. It was in 1969, when i received my promotion to a Manager level. I would become the manager of the Finishing and Converting operation. At that time there were about 80 plus in the Dept. This was the first and i believe the only promotion to a manager level of a non college degreed person in the Company. Again, there has always been someone who has been willing to let me use my self taught talents and apparently felt I could achieve. I have always tried to do my best. There is so much that i could write about but it would probably be boring. A lot has taken place in our lives and I thank the Lord for his blessings that i know i don't deserve. 

This picture should have been on my last post. This is our Daughter Cynthia Kathleen(Cindy) born January `14th 1961.

Moving along in the late 50,s into 1960, everything at home and work was going extremely well. I had actually purchased my first new vehicle. It was a 1958 Chevrolet station wagon. I thought it would make the ideal family vehicle. Actually, i had bought it in 1958. It proved to be a good buy and worked well for the family. Little did i know as we entered 1960 that another addition would become a part of the family. In mid 1960, i was ask to serve as an Elder at church. At that time there were only two Elders, Wilbur Arnold and Buck Pierce. When they approached me and ask me to serve i hesitated and ask for time to think it over. After a week or so and my seeking others advice, i agreed to serve. As i recall i was 34 years old at the time but had been very active and was serving as a Deacon. These two men became my mentors and we had a working relationship that was perfect. It was about this time that we knew that another child was on the way. On January 14th. 1961, we were blessed with the arrival of Cynthia Kathleen. I recall the nurse coming out and telling me we had a baby girl. I told her that after having three boys i wanted to be sure it was a girl and she politely showed me. She added another dimension to our life style that we welcomed with open arms.
At church we had had two full time ministers, Walter Calvert and Worley Ferguson. Both had moved on to other locations and we were in the process of looking for someone. We had been using Al Jolly who was working for Dr. Dale Alford on a part time basis. We convinced him to accept the full time position at Sylvan Hills. This was one of the first major decisions that i was involved in as an Elder. Incidently, he and Mary had two girls, Cynthia and Kathleen. We did not know this when we named our Cindy. Al was a great worker and a lot of fun to be with. He even got me intrested in playing golf. As i reflect back on times past i often wonder why everything went so well for me considering my early childhood hardships. It has to be because of someone above looking out for me and all of those here that had enough faith in me and give me many chances to succeed and along with a wonderful family to give me the encouragement i needed. I'm not finished yet.

Now we have three growing boys and established in a new home. Life is going along well and my job becomes more intresting every day. Working shift work makes things difficult since i can,t be home in the evenings every three months. My shift rotates monthly therefore when i'm working the 3 to 11 shift i don't get to spend much time with them.
Things at church are moving along well and we are growing. We have appointed Elders, and i am now serving as a deacon.
We have relocated the Finishing operation at the plant and have added Chux Disposable Diapers. We are currently the only company producing disposable diapers. We kinda have a saying within the plant that We Cover The Waterfront. Another major product line is the facing for Modess Sanitary Napkins as well as other type disposables for the health care industry.
As a supervisor, i am on salary rather than hourly which makes things better for me.
George had ask if i was goint to tell about my tonsil ordeal. It was just prior to Visking selling the operation to Chicopee that i decided to have my tonsils removed. The doctor had found a spot on my lung and suggested i go to Booneville, Ar. the the TB hospital and be checked out. I was there two weeks being tested everyday for tuberculosis. It was decided the spot on my lung was from Pneumonia i had as a child. Anyway, before going back to work i decided to let Dr. Ritchie take my tonsils out since he thought i needed to. I go into his office and he sits me in a white metal chair and sits down in front of me with a syringe and a water glass of novacaine. He started the process and evertime he tried to give me a shot i would gag. Finally after about 15 minutes he felt i had enough to deaden my tonsils. He started the removal process and everytime he tried i would still gag. It took him about an hour to finally get them out, (i suppose) He was covered in blood all over his white coat, face and the light reflector he wore on his head. I remember him saying that if he ever done it again he would put me in the hospital. I told him he would never do mine again. His expertise was from the army where he had done a lot of them just sitting in a chair. For three weeks i thought i had been ruined for life and had gone through box after box of aspergum. But i eventually got over that ordeal and back on the job. 

As we move along in the early 50s, everything is moving along rather well for us. Larry and George are growing and beginning to keep us on our toes. We never knew what they would get into next but they typical boys and we enjoyed them. I was still in the Guard and working shift work at the plant. I was called up to assist in the tornado that destroyed Judsonia in the early 50s. My unit arrived there about midnight but had to wait until daylight to start looking through the destruction for individuals. The entire town was destroyed. Kathleen got a job just a short distance from the house. She worked at Wirges dairy testing milk for Central Arkansas Milk Producers Association. Farmers would bring their milk to the dairy and she would test for butter fat and other test. She would alter her schedule weekly and the farmers would never know when she would be there. This was to prevent farmers from watering down the milk. The price they got for their milk was dependent on the butter fat content. I was able to get at this time to get a larger automobile since the boys were getting older.
In 1955 we decided to purchase a larger house since we were about to have our third child. We moved out on Farris Ave in Sylvan Hills that year. Our home was new and it gave us an extra bedroom. We were closer to school and church. We had grown enough at church to purchase land and build our first building in 1953. Early in 1956, i was supprised at work to learn that Visking was selling their operation to The Chicopee Manufacturing Co. a company owned by Johnson and Johnson. My time with Visking would be carried over to Chicopee and would allow me to enter into their Retirement plan. The new Company reorganization would give me the benefit of being the first to move into a Supervisory role. I was moved to the Finishing Department which handled the sheeting, folding, packaging and shipping operations. We would have a lot to learn in the coming months because of the increased volume and various new product lines that would be added. It was a great experience and little did i know at the time that it would come as a great blessing to me and my family. More to come later. 

On the last post I mentioned buying a house a couple of doors from Kathleen's parents. We settled in there and started to fix the little house up as well as we could afford. I fenced in the back of our lot and started raising chickens. At this time in the early 50's this was about the same as living in the country even though this was a post war housing developement of what was called crackerbox houses. When we first moved here in 1949, there were 8 or 9 families that started having church services in homes. We became a part of what would be the beginning of the Sylvan Hills church of Christ. Sylvan Hills was a part of Pulaski County and Sherwood would become incorporated. The first mayor of Sherwood was Dennis Duran who worked at the plant where I worked. We have been a part of the church in Sylvan Hills ever since it began in 1949.
After starting to work at Visking, i purchased a 1941 Ford Coupe. It had two small fold down seats behind the front seat. Boy, i was proud of that car. Incidently, Visking Corp, may be a company that many don't know anything about. Visking made sausage casings and a series of products used in the meat industry. Visking developed the skinless weiner process using a celulose casing that was peeled off before packaging. Their venture into manufacturing non woven fabrics in North Little Rock was an off shoot of their knowledge in the making of Viscose that could be used in the bonding of fiber together instead of weaving. The non woven fabric industry would soon become a major industry for several different fields.
I started to work at Visking in 1950 at 93 cents an hour. I was there a week when everyone got a 6 cent raise. My job was the middle man on a production line. A cardman would run the cards that made the rayon or cotton fiber into a web. I would take the web through the bonding process over dry cans and then through a acid then water process and dried again. The acid and water dips removed the viscose from the material and left it bonded together like fabric. I know you don't want to read all of this but i threw it in at no extra cost. Oh the third man would take the rolls of material and slit it to various widths and yards per roll for various customers. We mainly sold to other manufacturers.
Life was good and everything was set for the starting of our family.

As I mentioned in the previous post, i had been turned down for a job with the Visking Corp. because 0f being in the National Guard and the Korean War going on. That same afternoon i went to the Arkansas State Capitol and to the office of the state Adjutant General's Office. I spoke with General Morris and told him i needed a discharge from the Guard or a job with the State. He ask why and i explained that no one would hire me because i was in the Guard. He ask where i had been to apply and i told him of my recent visit to Visking. He told me to have them call him and he would talk to them. I went to a pay phone and called Bob Weathers at Visking and told him that Gen. Morris wanted him to call. By the time i got home Visking had called and wanted me to come back the next morning. I went to the Personnel Office and Mr. Weathers said that it would not be a good situation if they did not hire me. I was sent that day to the Company Doctor for a physical. Dr. Church was the doctor they used and he happened to be our Doctor. In fact he had delivered George. Dr. Church explained also that he had to give me a Color Blindness test because the Co. required it. I did not know the colors but he coached me through it with hints. I would find out later why this was required because the job i was put on, you had to test the PH range of the fabric using indicators. We tested for the acid and alkaline range during the manufacturing process. Anyway, i started working there in November of 1950. Only the Lord knows how i made it through the color process but apparently i had done well.
The pictures were taken at the two places we lived in in Sherwood in the early years. The bottom picture was at the house The Rileys bought and we lived in for a short time. The top picture was two houses away that we bought. I recall paying $200.00 down and $39.00 per month. The bottom picture shows my Model A and me breaking up concrete the builders left piled in the driveway.
On June 6th, 1951, our second Son Larry was born. He was also delivered by Dr. Church. Everything was going along good and i was working and still in the National Guard.

In regard to the previous post, there were a coupleof things i had intended to mention. In November of 1948, our first child was born. It was Nov. 19th when George finally arrived after about 24 hours of waiting at the hospital.
My first car was a 1931 Ford Model A that i bought from The Kendricks cross the street from where we lived on 22nd st. As i recall i paid $100.00 for it. I won't forget having to hand crank that car.
We moved out to Sherwood in 1949 in one of the little 2 bed room houses that were built in the late 40's.

The job at the grocery store continued to go very well. It was a neighborhood grocery and Mr. and Mrs. Moore were great to work for. We had a butcher, stocker, myself and Mr Moore who ran the operation. I did all the deliveries and collecting initially but later, i got out of doing all the deliveries. When i started to work there, i did not know how to drive. There was a fellow that had worked there and just prior to leaving taught taught me how. His name was James Smith and wore glasses as thick as the bottom of coke bottles. While teaching me he would stop sometimes in the middle of a block and i would ask if this was where a customer lived and he would say no its a stop sign. I don't know how he made it but in those days there was not much traffic. One of our customers who lived by the store worked at the city hall and she got my driver's license for me so i didn't have to pass any test etc. Mr Moore bought a new Studebaker truck and i really enjoyed driving it.
Our butcher, Harold Franks ask me to go with him to join the National Guard. I agreed and we went to Camp Robinson and took our physical. He was not accepted due to high blood pressure but i passed ok. I was assigned to Ambulance Company of the 125th Medical batallion as a cook. My mos. number from the Army classified me as a Baker. The unit was a part of the 39th Division. Everything went fine and i made the summer encampments and drills which afforded some extra income. I had moved up from cook to Mess Sgt.
The problem with my service came in the mid 50's when Mr Moore told me one day that he was having to give his Son In Law a job and would not be able to keep me on. His Daughter and Son In Law was having to drop out of College and needed work. He told me to start looking for another job but i would have 2 or 3 more weeks of work. I started looking and every contact i would make i would be told that because i was in the Guard and the Korean War was going on, there was too much danger of being called into active service. Needless to say, after leaving the store and no income was making life difficult. Thanks to my wife's parents we did not go hungry and they were most supportive. They had purchased a home out in the area called Sherwood and we had moved into it. It was November, 1050 when i answered an ad in the paper for workers needed at The Visking Corp. in North Little Rock. Visking had opened the plant in 1947 and was making non woven fabrics from fibers and cellulose. I went to the plant and was interviewed by the Personnel Manager, Bob Weathers. Again i got the same story that it cost too much to train someone and then for them to be called into military service. ( To be continued)

Well, I arrived back home around the end of July in 1947. It was a trip that seemed as if it took forever. Probabily because i was in a hurry to get there and mainly due to flooding in Missouri and the bus i was on had to detour way out of the way. As i said earlier it is always good to get home after being away for a while. After a few days back I contacted Colonial Bakery about going to work. They informed me that there were no openings and did not anticipate any. Kathleen and I went down to Louisiana to see my Mom and two sisters. When we got back home i received a phone call from Anson Tyler, one of our neighbors who had gotten me the job originally at Colonial. He was connected with the Union and informed me that they had got my job back for me. I thought about it for a couple of days and decided I would not go back to work there. I had no car and would have to ride the bus as before. I recalled the times when i worked there before of having to walk home nights after the busses stopped running. I answered an ad in the paper for a job with a plumbing and heating company. I would work for a couple of years as a journeyman learning the trade. They gave me the job and i was given a date to start. the day prior to my starting, Leon Moore who owned Moore's Food Market which was a block and a half from where we lived wanted me to go to work for him. I accepted the offer and called the heating company that i would not go to work for them.
The job at the grocery store turned out to be a good decision as it allowed me to go to school and take a one year course in Salesmanship. This was funded by the government and called the 52/20 program. I had no idea what would come out of the schooling but i think it helped me greatly in dealing with people and especially since the grocery business was largely dealing with people. This is where i learned that no one ever outgrows the need for courses in human relations.
My job at he grocery store was not only stocking but waiting on customers, taking orders by phone, filling them and even deliverint them. This was a neighborhood grocery and many of the customers never came to the store. They called in their order and it was delivered to them. Most of our customers worked for Missouri Pacific Railroad. If they were not going to be home, they would leave the door unlocked I would put the groceries on the table. meat etc in the ice box and take my sdelivery box back to the store. Another duty was to collect the grocery bill once a month since nearly everyone charged them and only paid monthly. I would go into homes where people were sleeping, (night workers) and would try not to disturb anyone. I went into one home and the lady was on her knees praying out loud. I put her groceries in the kitchen and when i left she was still praying. I did apologize to her later and she told me did not really hear me come in. I recall making a delivery to Mrs Chudy a polish lady and as i was leaving something hit me in the back. I turned around and she said i had brought the wrong bread so she threw it at me. We laughed, and i always knew never to take her any balloon bread.(Wonder) Anyway, this job was very intresting and i enjoyed it. It gave me the opportunity to gain a lot of experience dealing with people and that experience would prove very beneficial in the years to come.

Oh how great to be back home again 

Pictured is two of my buddies that were with me for quiet a while in the army. As i have mentioned before the one on the right is Virgil Fridley from West Virginia. He lived in the coal mining area of W.Va. Harold Stayrook (center) was from Johnstown Pa. He is the one that was disowned by his parents for going into the army. We were refered to as The Three Musketeers by our group. This was ok since those in the medical core were normally refered to as Bed Pan Commandos or Chancre Mechanics. When i was staying on the base and Kathleen was back home, we went everywhere together. We had times when we could go with a group of patients to different events put on by the base. Baseball games in N.Y. City was a favorite. I did get to see games with Enos Country Slaughter and even Ted Williams.. There were trips to other special events as well, for instance like St Patrick's day which many in that area celebrated. Being on the base had a lot of advantages. If we needed any uniform items, we had connections to go and get new outfits since this was a POE base. It was here that we were issued dress shoes and did not have to wear the boots anymore. It was here also in 1946 that we saw the first television. It was a black and white set ( of course ) that was in the day room that was provided for patients and all connected with the Hospital. There were many places on base that you could go for entertainment. This made it better since our income was not enough to go off the base on our own very much. Another experience was going to Perth Amboy N.J. when a hospital ship came in from overseas. If we were not working, help was always needed for personnel to go and help in unloading and getting them to the base hospital. Since we only baked for the hospital, it was not as demanding as far as the daily schedule. Like I said earlier, we often got the Lt. to put fruit on the menu instead of cakes or pies.
Overall, my time in the military was really a growing experience for me. Remembering all the good experiences well overshadows the rough times. I only remember the rough times being in basic training in the winter. I remember real well having to sleep with my rifle every night for two weeks plus carrying it everywhere i went during that time, even to the chow hall. I never dropped it again. We were sitting in some outdoor wooden bleachers during a training session. I was on the top row and i let my rifle fall underneath. Everyone, was well trained in having respect for the rifle. I had remembered the serial number on it for many years but i can't recall them now. I don't suppose i will ever forget my army serial no.
Well, in bringing this segment of my life to a close, i will be getting my discharge here at Camp Kilmer. Normally, everyone goes to Fort Lee, N.J. but all my paperwork was done here at camp. I will board a Greyhound bus in N.Y. City and head back to Arkansas. Everything will be great as the future unfolds and we can regain our family life. I have loved every minute so far and will not look back except for the memories of the past. 

I finally got situated at the station hospital at Camp Kilmer. The entire hospital was confined so everything was convenient. I didn't have to get outside to go from my barracks to the bakery. The part of the building i was in contained the bakery, butcher shop and morgue. What a combination. They were still doing autoposies at that time. They would still bring ship loads of patients from the european theatre of operations. Unfortunately, some never made it from the move back to the US. There were three of us who ran the bakery. We had a dietician who furnished us a list of items weekly that would be on the menu. I don't know how she ever made Lieutenant but i supposed it was her background. Lt Katz probably never came by the bakery more than a dozen times during my stay there. Occassionaly, we would call her if we couldn't bake something she had listed. On one occassion she had marble cake listed for the Saturday meal. We called her and told her we were out of marbles and could she substitute fruit. She said yes so this allowed us to get out of there early on Friday. We had her substituting fruit on many occassions.
Kathleen, came to New Brunswick and we rented another room but this one was larger than the one on Long Island. We had a small hot plate to heat stuff on. We could use their refrigerator in their kithcen as long as we didn't put any pork in it because they were Jewish. During the winter we kept several items between the window and screen that on most days would be colder than the refrig. Their name was Porges and lived on Seaman st. On one of my company trips back to Brunswick, i drove back over to this address. The neighborhood had really gone down in the years since we were there. Kathleen's dad came up to visit with us. We took an El in to N.Y. City and took him up ontop of the Empire State Bldg. He really liked that experience and even said he could feel the building sway. As i recall, the building has a 12 inch sway. We also attended the Manhattan Church of Christ. He knew E.G. Couch who was preaching there at the time. While he was there visiting us, our landlord provided a bed and room for him to sleep. Needless to say, his visit made us feel good since someone from back home was there. Kathleen got a job with J.J. Newberry. This was prior to Christmas and helped a lot with the finances. She enjoyed working there and the management was good to her. On one occassion, i went by and she was crying. When i ask what was wrong she said one of the men working there had insulted her about something and told her they were not running a boarding house for girls. This was also intended for the other person working the counter. I took her back to the Manager and told him she was leaving and would not be back. He told her to take the rest of the day off and be back tomorrow. That person was never seen again. We had no idea if he was fired or not. The manager seemed to reach out to wives of military personnel and furnish work for them. We had explained to him the incident that had happened and had assured us it would not occur again. She continued to work there for the duration of her stay. Sundays we would spend a lot of the afternoon just walking around town. Rutgers University was part of the downtown area and we would visit the campus. My buddy Fridley and another buddy Stayrook would spend some time with us on Sundays as well. Fridley, as i had mentioned was from West Virginia, and Stayrook was from Johnstown Pa. He was from the Bretheren Faith in Pa. but his parents had disowned him when he went into the army. I think his folks were really Quakers. Anyway he enjoyed being with us. He worked in the butcher shop. Next post, i will show a picture of the three Musketeers. 

I am not sure how i ended up with two of the same pictures on the last post. Anyway, just consider my expertise on the computer. If it were not for sweet daughter Cindy, i would be competely lost as for as computers are concerned. I keep forgetting what to do, in fact i don't remember what i had for lunch.

 

Rather than dwelling too much on my time on Long Island i will move on. I was a part of the 154 military personnel who stayed on at Camp Upton after the decision to close it down. Most of the wounded had left and it was not necessary to keep the base open. The closing was directed by civilians rather than military. Our duty was helping to get rid of a lot of items no longer needed by the military. We burned truck load after truck load of woolen items such as hoods, scarves, blankets etc. I thought at the time, what a waste of perfectly good items. I suppose the cost of salvaging these type items was more than they were worth. Mostly though, each day we would be told to find us a place to hang out. They, the civilians wanted this job to last. We done a lot of napping in warehouses where no one came around. One event i may have mentioned earlier was that on weekends, if 6 of us wanted to go off base we could use a military vehicle like a weapons carrier. Out favorite place was Montauk point at the end of the Island for swimming. The light house at the point was also a favorite area to just relax. I recall in later years watching a special on TV of how they moved that light house more inward. Each day was just reporting and finding out if we were doing anything in particular. Finally after several weeks of working with the civilians, we begin to get orders of a new destination. My orders along with Fridleys was to go to the POE at Camp Kilmer New Jersey. Camp Kilmer was a Port of Embarkation where military personnel were processed and outfitted with new clothing to go overseas. At this time they were also a base for returning military from foreign duty. I would be assigned to the bakery at the station hospital. Camp Kilmer was just a few miles outside of New Brunswick. In order to bring all this to a close, in the next post i will give a few comments about our time there . Kathleen would be able to join me and we would live in New Brunswick. Little did i realize at the time, that in my later life i would work 36 years for a company that their headquarters was in New Brunswick. On my last trip to New Brunswick just before my retirement, they treated me to a dinner on the top floor of one of the towers. That is a reason why i have a picture of the twin towers over my desk here at home. Anyway, i know this is not very intresting but we do hold on to memories that have had an impact on our lives.

The training at the bakery was going real well and we had a good working relationship. The German pow's were picked up each morning from the stockade and brought to work. We had some problem communicating but our instructor did a good job of translating. One of the fellows was very personable and we kidded each other a lot mostly by some type of hand motions. His name was Augustine Mueller and was one of Hitler's storm troopers. I would tell him Hitler no good but he would just grin. The Germans would take stuff like metal banding etc from boxes back to the stockade at night and make bracelets. They were always bringing me something to take to Kathleen. We had found a one room place in Patchogue after she came up to stay with me. It was on the third level of a large home and consisted of a bed and chest of drawers and closet. We had a bathroom in the hallway. The lady who owned the home was a widow lady. She was very good to us and was always bringing up to us clam chowder. Since we had no way to prepare meals this was very thoughtful of her. I did not like clam chowder and would always flush mine down the toilet but always told her how good it was. Kathleen got a job working at Ben Franklin's five and dime store. When our landlord found out she was going to work in the mornings without eating, she bigin to give her toast and coffee. Occasionally i would bring her a pie from the bakery at camp. I recall she liked pineapple pie. I had to ride the bus back and forth to the base so i left rather early in the mornings for the 15 mile trip. She became good friends with some of the ladies at the store. We had a young married couple who owned a car and they would take us places on Sundays so we could see a lot of intresting places. There were a lot of millionaires living on Long Island and we enjoyed just seeing some of the mansions
I think i had already mentioned in earlier post about some of the events of my time at Camp Upton. We were able to take some trips into New York city and see some of the musicals. We stayed busy and the time passed by quickly. This was not the typical army base and i was not under a lot of pressure for my whereabouts since i was living off the base. I had a good friend at the base who was from West Virginia. We went everywhere together prior to Kathleen coming up. His name was Virgil P Fridley. I always called him V Pee Freely. My daughter Cindy did some research recently trying to locate him in West Virginia. There was one reference that showed someone there with the same name who had died in 1981. Anyway i wished i had kept up with some of these fellows after we got out of the army. Patchogue was a neat little town. Everything was kept clean and was a good place to live. We were just a couple of blocks from the sound. On one occasion we went down to the dock and took a small boat over to fire island. Fire Island was a large sand dune that protected the Island from the ocean. I will never forget how scared she was of the water and the small boat we were in. I liked Fire Island and was supprised how many houses were there at the time. I could never get her to go again. Later on after she went back home due to the base closing down, we could go to Port Jeffersonand take the ferry boat over to Bridgeport, Conn. and back just to have something to do on the weekend. 

We arrive by train at Patchogue New York about midnight on Sunday. Patchogue is about half way out on Long Island. Camp Upton was about 15 miles out of Patchogue. We arrived at the camp just shortly past midnight. We had not had anything to eat so they took us to a mess hall that was closed. The only thing they could find for us to eat was some chow mein left from the Sunday meal. This was my first stab at eating chow mein and vowed never to try it again. To this day it has not been a food that i would consume. On Monday we spent getting processed and situated in our barracks. Camp Upton was a base designed for wounded soldiers to convalesce. The base had all kinds of equipment foe the wounded, even outdoor bowling lanes. Camp Upton was a base that was active back during WW1. Irving Berlin wrote the show that was later done in 1943 titled This is The Army. The movie had actors like Ronald Reagan, Geroge Murphy, Kate Smith and Irving Berlin and others. The original was written during WW1 and as i recall it was titled Yip Yip Yaphank. Yaphank was a town near camp Upton I had the occasion to go there several times. In fact during my stay there i visited all over the island.
Well, my first day at the Bakery School was a day of getting acquainted and learning about the daily activities. The instructor was a man of German descent. All the other workers were 9 German Prisioners of war. There was another person besides me who was assigned to the school. I knew from the very first day that i was going to like it here. There was nothing formal about the operation since there were only two of us that were military. Our instructor was a civilian. I don't recall ever seeing very often any one of any rank coming by the bakery. From the very onset our instructor told us that in order to be a good cook or baker you had to have imagination. He didn't use recipes he just told us how much to use in what ever we were baking. He was big into chocolate eclairs. I must say, the pastries etc that was put out were first class because of giving the wounded military the very best. There were not a large number of military personnel assigned to the base as compared to other bases. Our section had a captain in charge and the base commander was a Brigadier General. I had the pleasure of meeting him. As i was walking to my barracks one afternoon after work, i saw this car pass but paid it no attention. It stopped and someone called me back. It was him and he ask me if i had a problem with saluting. When i recognized who he was i saluted and told him "No Sir" Anyway, i knew that you saluted a person if the tag on front of the vehicle showed who it was. We also had a Lieutenant in our group that had been a Lt Colonel. He was a fighter pilot and had flown his plane under the Brooklyn Bridge and was busted. We understood he had been assigned at Upton as a CID person. He always hung out with the enlisted men and a lot of fun to be with. This was a good army base and not a whole lot of pressure. Everyone done their job. I have always tried to be content with every job i have had and always ( I think) done my best. 

Basic training was not very much fun at the start due to the cold weather and not being use to the routine. All extras outside of training came hours before daylight. During our innoculations we woud be rousted out at 4:00 am and go to the infirmary for shots so we didn't have to miss any training. It was several weeks before we got our rifles. During the meantime we done our exercises with wooden look a like rifles. I suppose this was much better than having the real ones to crawl in the mud with. However, when we got the real ones they were covered with cosmolene (spelling?) It took several days to get all that junk off. Finally we got to learn how to take it apart and put it back together, even blind folded. The target range was an experience also because we had some of this while it was snowing.
Finally, we got passes to go into town on some Saturdays. In Alexandria they had a real nice USO and we could go there for entertainment and also enjoy some non military food. This also made it better to visit some of the sites in DC. At the end of our training we had the week long trip to AP Hill Military Facility for the end of our basic. It was an exercise in defending an area from troops landing from LST's. They used dynamite to set off charges as the troops landed and came up the hill toward our stronghold. We had done this nearly all day on the Saturday when everything was stopped. Oneof the fellows setting off the charges accidently got some wires crossed an set off a charge next to him, killing him. This ended our training and we were put on trucks to go back to Belvoir. The trip was welcomed but there were about 50 of us on each truck standing for the long trip back. The showers back at the barracks really felt good. The next week we took the test to help determine what our MOS number would be and where we would be assigned. I was assigned to go to Camp Upton on Long Island New York, to Bakers School. At the time i didn't realize it but this would be better than the infantry or artillery where some of the guys were going. The picture is me with my Mother In Law on one of my furloughs back home. The next post will be after i get to Long Island 

Well, on the 28th 0f November i reached my 18th birthday. I registered for the draft the next day. I knew it would not be many days before i heard from them for me to report for my physical. In the meantime i continued to work at the bakery. Pictured is George Riley my Father in Law. He had served in World War I and had a bout with meningitis while in France. He was a lot of encouragement to me and in fact was a real mentor to me.
Christmas came and the new year approached before i had to report to Camp Robinson for my physical. Needless to say, i passed the physical and would be drafted any day. There was an army recruiter at the base that day. He told everyone if they enlisted,the time they had to serve would be less than if we were drafted. There were five of us from North Little Rock who went ahead and enlisted. We were told to report at a certain time on the 14th of January to Camp Robinson. We were put on a bus at camp and sent to Fort Chaffee in Fort Smith, Arkansas. We were there less than a week before we were to be sent for Basic training. Kathleen came to Ft. Chaffee and we spent Saturday and part of Sunday together at the guest house. She had relatives in Ft. Smith so that worked out real well for her.
A couple of days later, we were put back on the bus and sent back to Little Rock to catch a troop train bound for we didn't know where. The train left Little Rock in the wee hours of the morning and we headed out to our destination. We knew then that we would be going to Fort Belvoir Virginia for training. The train stopped somewhere in Georgia or South Carolina as i recall. We sat on the train all day waiting on on another train to drop off some soldiers goint to the same place. I wondered at that time what Army life would be like. Why go to Camp Chaffee for 3 or 4 days and then turn around and come back to Little Rock. Anyway, i was in the army now and had to do everything their way. We arrived at Fort Belvoir on a late Friday and was processed and assigned to our barracks. The soldiers we picked up on our trip to Virginia were from Florida. Lo and behold, on Saturday morning we woke up to about ten inches of snow. The guys from Florida had never seen snow so they quiet supprised at this happening. We were told the next Monday it would be two weeks before we started basic. In the meantime they would take us out to the woods and we would cut timbers to be used in training. Ft. Belvoir was one of the main bases used for training engineers. They would use timbers to train engineers in bridge building which was one of the major functions in of engineers in the army. My brother Bennie had trained at Ft Belvoir and had been with the corp of engineers during all his military service in WW2and the Korean War. At this time i did not know where i would end up. I do know that i thought i would freeze to death during this two weeks. A lot of the fellows had never seen an axe or saw and it was amazing to see how awkward they were doing this type work. We were eighteen miles out of DC and twelve miles from Alexandria Va. It would be several weeks before we would be getting any pass anywhere. For two weeks we were Quarantined and could not go to the px except as a group for one hour on one night a week after it was closed for everyone else. Didn,t understand this either but that was the way it was. I recall getting several candy bars as finances allowed because it takes a while to get adjusted to army food. Thats enough of this for now. 

This is a picture of the entrance to our humble domain with my bride coming out the door. This was a cozy little place. We were fortunate and enjoyed living here. I recall an instance when my brother Johnnie got married here in Little Rock. He married Beatrice Johnson from Grain Valley Missouri. We let them have our apt to save on having to get a hotel room. I gave him the key to get in that night after the wedding, ( I was his Best Man and had forgot where i had the ring when that part of the ceremony came up.) Any way it was late at night when they got to the apt. When he started to unlock the door the key broke. Rather than waking all the neighbors, he decided to climb up on the chicken house and try to get in thru a window, the one in the previous post i was working on. He finally got in but I was blamed for the key incident. He accused me of doing it on purpose. Had i thought of it i would probably have given him the wrong key. 

As i had mentioned in the previous post we lived in the garage apartment that belonged to Kathleen's parents. The picture shows me doing some work on the window screens. This apt helped us tremendously because they did not charge us any rent. My job with Nabisco went well and we managed to get by on my salary for the time being. Our neighbors were great and offered a lot of encouragement to us. As the year progressed we were able to do a lot of things that we enjoyed. We would spend time with our friends and enjoyed playing cards. Since our apartment was two rooms, a small kitchen and a bedroom, we ate often with Kathleen's family. My mom would come and visit occasionally. It was difficult for her to get around but she enjoyed being out. She had close friends back at home that she was with a lot and this helped her from getting lonely. Getting near the end of the year a neighbor of ours worked at Colonial Bakery. He suggested that i apply for a job with them. He was the Union rep. and told me what i could earn working there. I had earlier posted about my first day there and spent the day reworking bread boxes. If you will recall at the end of the day i was hired and the other fellow who had applied was told he was not needed. I hated leaving Nabisco but it seemed that opportunities came my way and i felt the need move on. I might comment here that every job i have ever had has been a challenge but i have enjoyed everyone of them. I was never afraid of challenges and worked harder mainly because of my educational background.
In November i would become eighteen and have to register for the draft. In the meantime, i worked at the bakery pinning diapers on the flies to keep them from messing on the pies. No, just a joke, i ran a slicing and bread wrapping machine. The only problem at the bakery was having to work late some nights and having to walk home from Cantrell to 22nd st in NLR. It was scary walking cross the river on the unlit railroad bridge but someone upstairs kept me safe. Thank you Lord.

Needless to say, we realized that things were becoming very serious and our love for each other was evident. As the time went forward changes begin to take place. On November the 28th i would become 17 years of age. I considered myself an adult even prior to becoming 17. In November i left the drug store and took a job with the Gus Blass Department store. My job started in the boys department and i was to keep the boys clothing stocked on the tables etc. One of the ladies in the dept. was the wife of one of my favorite teachers at West Side Jr. Hi.
She let me train as one of the sales persons on the floor and then i also waited on customers. In December Kathleen started working at the store in the gift wrapping dept. It was in early December when i ask her to marry me. She said i would have to talk to her dad and mom to see if they would consent. I was really nervous when i talked to her dad and ask him to consent to let us get married. I will never forget that day and conversation we shared and his willingness to help us start our journey together. I suppose also, in fact i know so that he would become the father figure to me that i never had.
I went to the jewelery store across the street from Blass and purchased the rings. As i recall the set cost me $60.00 and they let me pay it out in a couple of payments. I remember her mom buying me some nice dress pants and Sport coat. This would also be the very first time in my life to celebrate Christmas. On December the 16th, 1944, we were married. Some of the church folk mentioned to her mom that this would probably be a wedding that wouldn't last. Well, what do you say in situations like that? This December it will have lasted 62 years if we make it till then.
At Blass Dept Store i was making $16.00 per week. On a Monday after we were married i went to the Boss and told him i needed a raise. He said no. I had heard thru Kathleen's Brother in Law that they were needing someone at the National Biscuit Company, Nabisco. I went to Nabisco and applied for the job. The Personnel Manager did not want to hire me since i was only 17. There was a lady in the office that had married at an early age and she told him she would be my guardian so to speak. I got the job and started to work at $22.00 per week. That dear lady, Sarah Henson, became a special person and offered a lot of encouragement. Her husband Bill, would later become the Mayor of Sherwood where we would move to later on. Kathleen's parents had a small garage apt over their garage which we lived in on 22nd street in NLR. Their home place still stands today but the garage apt no longer exist. My work at Nabisco was hard work but it was also a lot of fun. I helped unload box cars of crackers and cookies and also helped in filling orders that would go out by delivery trucks to stores all over the state. We didn't have any of the modern conveniences at home. We did have an ice box and would get ice two or three times a week. We used a card that was placed in the window with the amount of ice for the delivery man to bring up. Life was great and i don't recall having any worries in those days. We didn't mind having to ride the bus everywhere we went. We had friends also who liked to ride their bicycles. I will probably bring this to a close when we get to the year,1950 

As the summer progressed, we begin to spend a lot of time with each other. Mr Wade could not understand why i did not like to work as much as before. When he found out i had new girl friend, he kidded me a lot. He really helped me out on one of our bicycle trips swimming. I had blistered so bad that the blisters would bleed through my shirts. He would have me stay behind the pharmacy and he doctored me for several days. He would put ointment on my back and i would sit there with a fan blowing on my back. As i reflect back on kind deeds like this it just made me more appreciative of his influence and encouragement that he gave to me.
When school started in Sept. Kathleen enrolled at Little Rock Hi. We used my address in order for her to do this since she lived in NLR. In those days we in Little Rock refered to No. Little Rock as Dog Town. I wore a High School Print Shop Jacket that was black and gold in color. This almost caused me trouble when i would go to see her in NLR. Those two schools were really into rivalry. After school started we switched classes around so we could get some classes together. We both gave up typing and ended up taking Spanish together. She had to ride the bus to NLR after school each day and i would go to work at the drug store. It seemed more and more that school was becoming secondary to what i really wanted to do. I begin to think of finding another job that would pay more money. After all dating was most important as well as just spending time together. We were happy spending time with friends and that did not cost much money. I spent a lot of time at her house and having meals with her family. They really were good to me and seemed to accept me. She had two brothers at home and a sister that was married. Time continued to go by and Fall was approaching. Things change a lot in the Fall and change would become a big part of our life come Winter.