We had one big trip together as a family. After got laid off at Dow chemical I was put on the trip crew. I went to the Dow plant About 30 or 40 miles west of Texarkana. I went down there to help assemble a fiberglass pipeline for the Dow chemical plant. I spent ten months down there. Every other weekend I drove home and then drove back down. One time I took my family down with me. My wife had a sister living down in Texas.

So when the rest of the guys came back to family I took my family down to Texas. Then I came back to Arkansas. When everyone else came back home I brought my family back home.

We spent close to a month. I’d spend four days in Texas then come back to Arkansas. While we’re down there my oldest boy couldn’t believe it.

He was in kindergarten at the time. He came home one day and said: “I made a new friend. He’s the chocolate kid!”

He made friends with some colored people while we were down there. I have never begrudged them because I grew up with them.

While I was working in Bowling Green I also worked in Meijer’s here in Findlay. I worked day hours in Bowling Green and evening hours at Meijer’s. Some weeks I would put in 80 hours; 40 hours each at two jobs.

That’s when my son, the one twin, was going to college in Minneapolis. He was going to auto Mechanic trade school. When he started to go there I figured I would just take on an extra job. The extra job started as part-time.

Then my regular job started to take on all for time. This was just before they closed the doors. Remember I told you that I had worked at bowling green for fifteen years? Well, that shop was unionized and they wanted to tack on an extra 50¢ an hour for retirement pension benefits. The guys went out on strike to get that extra 50¢.

When they went on strike, the company transferred all the work to three of its other shops that were non-union.