230319 A Wonderful Life

I’ve had quite a life.
Before the navy.

In The Navy.

My life has been blessed in many ways.

I always had a job, from 15 years old until 62 years old. At 15, I worked making chili in a huge 60 gallon cauldron on Wednesdays for an independent entrepreneur and made tamales on Saturdays. At 16, I worked in a food factory, loading conveyors in a cold storage locker and washing their trucks on Saturdays. I worked in a gas station, changing oil, fixing flat tires, some for big trucks, the wheels and tires weighed more than half of my own weight and I pumped a lot of gasoline at 21 to 26 cents a gallon. I enlisted in the navy on my 18th birthday and would have done so at 17, but my parents would not sign for me. I worked in a navy galley for 3 months cleaning metal trays and emptying slop from 30 gallon trash cans. I flew with a naval air crew for a year operating radar. I worked on the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk for two cruises working on airplanes. Taught basic naval aviation electronics for 3.5 years. Made a final cruise on the USS Enterprise ( The aircraft carrier, not the starship.) On the Enterprise, I ran the radio, navigation and IFF repair shop. I worked as a temporary Navy Shore Patrolman in Hong Kong, the Philippines, San Diego and at the Naval Training Center. I had my own TV and CB radio shop for 3 years. I worked in the Product Engineering lab at Burroughs Corp and later in the data center, working on Mainframe Computers for 10 years. I worked in the reliability and the section labs at Litton for 19.5 years, all the while working on our farm 7 days a week. Litton closed down and I retired on Social Security a month later. Not only retired, but just plain tired now at 77, going on 78 in July.

I’m proud of my accomplishments working, but more proud of living with the woman I loved for 58 years. That’s a club that few attain membership in these days.

When I met my love.

The last picture of her a few months before she passed away.