My son is a great guy. I never remember him being in trouble. She graduated from high school.

He had an old clunky car, and worked delivering pizzas. The drive to school in this old car; he wouldn’t walk even though it was only three blocks. In the morning, his friend Pete used to come down and ride to school with him.
One morning I went out there and Pete and my son were kicking the tires on the old car.  I asked them what they were doing, and they tell me that the car wouldn’t start again.

We took it down to the Ford garage, and I told them can it to fix this damned car so that it would run. I went back the next day and the mechanics said that the best thing to do was to junk the car; it wasn’t worth fixing.  So we got rid of the car and between the two of us we bought in 1936 Chevy. It was kind of a family car.

Two days later I look out and my son has the hood upon the car.

I asked him: “now what the hell are you doing?”

He told me he was gonna take the battery out. I tell them to put the lid down and leave the damn thing alone. I got so sick of fighting cars.

Other than that, he was a good kid. Today, he’s living over here. Mark was the only child I had.


We Move from Wisconsin to California

My father worked for a guy in Wisconsin, and this guy was kind of a fruitcake as far as I was concerned. He had an electric shop. My father sold electrical appliances. Anyway this guy that my father worked for moved out here to San Leandro. He kept calling and writing my father asking him to move out here and work for him as a salesman.

My father wrote back and agreed to come only if I could get a job. I was working as an apprentice with two other guys in a windmill gas engine factory. That’s when I quit my job as a theater projectionist.

The guy wrote from San Diego and told us not to worry, there were plenty of jobs out there he told my father that he would get me a job out at Caterpillar tractor.

So we moved, lock, stock, and barrel out here; my father, my mother, and I were in my early twenties. I went down a Caterpillar tractor and there were six or ten guys standing around every morning looking for work.

I said: “hell, this is no good. “

So then my father went to work in a blacksmith shop making ornamental iron railings for new buildings. I used to go down there and hang around with him. The guy who ran the shop used to do a little arc welding for handrails, so I started doing that.

So I went to trade school, and I finally got a job in South San Francisco in a shipyard. I worked there for quite awhile.

My Son Makes a Good Investment

My son lives right over here. On Sundays I go over there and visit. His name is Mark, and he’s in business. I was proud of him, because when my sister died, he inherited $60,000.00. That’s a lot of money.

I didn’t need the money for anything specific, and my son was paying rent, so I said: “why don’t you take that money, and pay off that damned house.”

I told them he wouldn’t have to worry about the payments. So I gave him the money. When I saw him later I asked me if he had paid off his house.

He told me he hadn’t!

I asked him: “what the hell did you do with that?”

He told me that where he was working, the guy who owned it was pretty old, and had 1ft. in the grave and the other one on a banana peel.

My son said he didn’t think the owner would last much longer, so he bought into the business. And, he still in it! He’s done really well.

They have a home now in Corralitos. I lived there with him for a while, but I was alone too much. My son told me I ought to get into a place where there are a lot of people, such as this one.

I’m happy here, up to a point. I really can’t get acquainted with any men. I’ve got a couple of lady friends, but I don’t seem to get along with some of the men.

A Monthly House Payment of $47.00!

My mother died young she was only 46. My wife died only about a year or a year and a half ago. She had pneumonia. I was living in San Lorenzo; I had a home there.

We bought this home; it was a tract house. My house payment was $47.00 a month. I paid about $17,000.00 for the house.

Can you guess what I sold it for?

I sold it for $500,000.00. It had three bedrooms and a double garage on a little 90 foot by 50 foot lot. The house was in a good neighborhood, with good neighbors. It was perfect! It was close to the school; the kids could walk.


I Practically Lived at the Golf Course

I practically lived at the golf course. It was right there in Hayward. We had a great bunch of guys there. We would go out in the morning, and play cards all afternoon.

Then we’d go home and say: “how come dinner isn’t ready!”

There was a guy named Louis who used to call me “Frankie boy.” When the rest of the guys disappeared, Frankie would say: “I’m not going to play you!”

We used to play gin rummy.

Decades after My First Job, I’m still working as a Movie Projectionist!

There’s one woman I get along with really well. I go see her, and we watch movies together. My son gives me movies, and I’ve got a lot of good ones. I guess I’m still being a projectionist!