From fairly well off to very poor in 10 years.

The first ten or eleven years of my life were interesting. I was born during the height of the Roaring Twenties (1925) and I turned eleven at the lowest point of the Great Depression (1936). My Dad was a skilled teamster. At one time he had a team of work horses (Bert and Beck) and did contract wotk in the many fruit orchards in Pomona, California. I watched my Dad excavate for a church basement with his team and a Fresno excavator. At one time we lived in a nice two story house. I was born at home (Kingsley Avemue). I can remember meals with Mom and Dad, five sisters, and three brothers. I was the youngest. My next youngest sibling was my brother, Warren who was five years older than me. I remember sitting by my Dad. There were many folks around a large table. One time or several times supper was just strawberry shortcake. (I still remember the large blue bowl that my Mom mixed the strawberries in.) But you could have all the strawberry shortcake that you could eat! There were several years of good times. Then my life got interestig. An old Chinese saying is "may your life not be interesting". I agree.

My Mom passed away when I was barely five. Her Mom (the only grand parent that I met) came and lived with us for a period. She and I would look at the radio and listen to One Man's Family and Amos and Andy. My older siblings left for marriages. Dad put me in a boys home until he ran out of money. Then it was just my Dad and I and times got very hard. Below is a graph of our nation's production over the first 10 years of my life.

My life and my Dad's fortune followed the same trend. I was born in a full house with food but then.... In 1933 the unemployment rate in the US was 25 %. My unfortunate Dad fell on very hard times. I remember no food in the house. In the sixth grade at lunch time I would pretend that I was going home to eat but actually I went around the corner for a while. (What did I do for breakfast and supper?)

About this time I came home one day and found that our furniture was stacked in the front yard  We had been kicked out of our home for not paying the rent. Homeless. I spent one night sleeping under some bushes during this period in my life. (A brother in law had complained to a sister about me living with them!)

I pulled through the hard times and later managed to get overweight. I have never gotten over missing my Mom. Here is a nice pic of Mom and Dad.

I livd in a tent in a field of pineapples!

It was for a few weeks in 1944. The field of pineapples covered a hillside above Pearl Harbor. There were thousands of tents on those hills. We had ran out of barracks. It was an exotic place to this Pomona, California boy. I had never seen a  pineapple plant. My buddies and I would pick pineapples, take them into our tent, and butcher them with our bayonets. It was exciting. I had only experienced pineapple in a can. It was delicious. We stuffed ourselves.

In addition to tent camping in a pineapple field many important events (to me) took place in 1944.

I married Jacqueline Lois Ireton. We had been together for 63 wonderful years when Jackie passed away in 2007.

I sailed across the Pacific Ocean three times. My third trip was from Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands to Leyte in the Philippine Islands and took six weeks. On a fourth and last crossing in 1945 I sailed home from Korea.

July 20 was my 19th birthday. I was probably living in the tent.

On August 21, 1944 my troopship cross the equator.  After a grand ceremony I became a Shellback. See my card?

During the ceremony I kissed the belly button of the Royal Baby. (King Neptunes Court). They found a sailor to play the part of the Royal Baby. Her belly button had a thick coating of Vaseline and grease. What a lousy kiss!

Then we made a combat landing in the Palau Islands. While advancing up a jungle trail on Peleliu Island, with an explosive pack on my back, I was shot in both legs. Just above the knees. I like to point pit that the location of the wounds indicate that I was not running away!

You can see why I will always remember 1944. Married and shot in each leg. The marriage lasted great and the bullets are still in my bones.

Closet sweet eater!

Thats what I am. And not all in the closet. When I reduced my weight to 200 pounds (for one day) I fell off my diet and this morning I weighed 214 pounds! I went from 250 to 200 in a year and a half of dieting. No sweets. In a month and a half I have put on 14 pounds!

All things in moderation the wise man said. I have not learned the lesson. I either don't eat sweets or I eat them all the time.