A little history about myself. I was born in 1934 November the 25th. The hospitol I was born in was Speers Hospitiol, in Dayton Kentucky. I was raised in Newport, Kentucky at 5th and Mama Street, in a little half of house adjoining a Jewish church. I lived there for five years. During these five years is when I learned to work with wood. I would go to the dumps and look for the old time roller skates with metal wheels. I would then take a piece of 2 x 4 and an orange crate and at that time, they were made from wood...nice box. I would take one skate separated and put the front wheels in front of the 2 x 4 with the orange crate overhead. The rear wheels I would put at the end of the 2 x 4. Total length was 4 1/2 feet. Actually, this was the fore runner of the modern day skate board and they have four sets of wheels. I learned many things growing up, because of the hard times and the war going on. I would hop trains at the L & N Railroad and ride them about twelve blocks. I also learned to be a great marble shooter. When I played marbles my thumb was so powerful I could crack the marble I was shooting at. Soon five years have passed and we moved to Dayton, Kentucky at 819 Third Avenue, in a little white cottage. It was at that cottage my wonderful father bought me tools, so that I could learn more about wood. The best tool I had was a craftman jig saw..motorized. I would draw pictures on wood of country things..like chickens, pigs, and cows and sell them in front of the house. My sales were bleak. So I decided to start shining shoes. I shined shoes up and down Mama Street in local bars and restaurants. When shining shoes at local bars the stink from the spitoons soon created my decision to give up shining shoes and set up bowling pins for Mamas Street bowling ally. Since I was the samllest pin boy they only let me set up pins for the ladies. I got tired of that and I decided to go to Southgate, Kentucky and become a caddy, for the golf course carrying gold club bags...18 holes and only recieving 5 or 10 cents..I decided enough was enough. My brother Allen was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1949. He was in the 73rd heavy tank division. He was shipped to Korea, where he spent 18 months, during the war. Now being older, I wanted to join my brother so I joined the U.S. army for three years. I road the train from Cinncinnati to Fort Leonardwood, Missouri. I was processed there. After processing we took an army airplane and flew to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where I trained with the 101 st Airborne Division. After my eight weeks of basic training I didnt get my leave. I was then flown to Fort Lewis, Washington , where I took seven more weeks of advanced fighting unit. After those seven weeks then I got 15 days furlough...went home on the Trailways bus. Now back at Fort Lewis I was reassigned to a company called Oversnow Platoon, because the army knew we were going to Alaska. I trained on these vehicles...jeep, 3/4 Army truck, 2 1/2 Troop Army truck, a Weisel, which is a track vehicle and it had a 1942 Steutabker engine and also an otter, which was a larger track vehicle having an aircraft engine. This otter cost the government at that time $89,000.00. Now its time to go to Alaska. We boarde the General Freeman battleship, at Fort Lewis, Washington and sailed up the Alaska seaboard to Cook Inlet...boarde army trucks and taken to our new homes. I remained in the over snow Platoon till I bacame a short timer. Then they stuck me to take care of a rifle range as I only had six months to go. At that time I requested from my company commander to be discharged in Alaska. He was not happy about my request, because it was in December, when I was to be released. He told me that I was very unawareof the dangerous trip down the Alcan in 40 below zero weather, with snow 4 in some places and 8 drifts in other places. That did not scare me. I siad I can handle it, but he says to me, fly your wife and baby home and you drive alone. My wife would not accept this. I drove 6,500 miles from Anchorage, Alaska to Fairbanks, alaska (north) in order to pick up the Alaska and Canada highway....and then on the long journey home. We went clean through White Horse, Canada, Alberta, Canada dropping down into Montana, over to the Dakotas, into Sparta, Wisconsin, where I had an army friend and his wife and I stayed with them one day. Dropping down from Wisconsin, into the states I was familiar with. I was a corporal in the military and mt master Sgt. Betten said if I was to reenlist, I would become Sgt, that my stripes were waiting. I says to Sgt. Betten will I stay in Alaska if I reenlist? He said ..yes you will because you are in a jarascope unit, dedicated for six years. I said Im sorry, but Ive had enough of Alaska. There are so many stories I could tell you, that happened in Alaska and most of them very sad and death was a big part of them. Well Im home now and in 1959, I went back to learning the basics of gold and silver smithing. This carreer took me up to now, which is November 2013. I am still crafting jewelry. Ive also learned the art of clock making and fixed many clocks for the people of N. Carolina. Now Im old, which is 79 this month and dont have much desire for goldsmithing and silver smithing any more. I am now interesting in the art of wood carving, tagua nut carving and hobo nickel carving....carving water fowls and carving things out of cypress knee wood, from the swamps. And this is just a little story about myself, that most people dont know. Thanks for reading.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:09:29 +0000
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