Live, Laugh, Lucey: Lessons from My 94-Year-Old Dad

It's not every day you get to interview your own father on your podcast. So when my dad, William Lucey, came to visit us in Hendersonville recently, I didn't want to squander the opportunity to capture his story — and his voice — on tape. At 94 years old, he's lived a life marked by loss, hard work, and success. After losing both of his parents by age 11, he was, for all intents and purposes, on his own until he joined the Army, met his wife (my mother), and started a family. This episode is a very special one for me, though it's just a simple conversation between a father and son ... which I'd like to dedicate to my late mother. I'm grateful for both of them, and to you for taking the time to listen along. 

The Henderson County Chamber of Commerce is a proud presenting partner of the Apple Festival Races which will be held on Saturday, September 5, 2026. The event is presented by Hunter Subaru, with support from Lassonde Pappas, Cummins, and Mountain Credit Union. This event has something for runners of every level with an 8K, 5K, and Chick-fil-A Mini Moo Mile. To register, visit https://raceroster.com/events/2026/111853/apple-festival-races. 

The Kudzu Project is powered by the Lucey Agency, a full-service marketing firm based in Hendersonville, NC.

Transcript

Nick Lucey 0:17

How does that sound? Good. Kind of loud. Kind of loud? Is it too loud? A little loud. Okay. Is that better?

William Lucey 0:25

Yeah, that's fine.

Nick Lucey 0:27

Okay. You don't hear that shrill noise outside? What is it? It's the parking garage across the street. Every time the gate comes up, a little alarm bell goes off because it's to warn the pedestrians that there's a car coming out. I can't hear it. You can't hear it? Okay. That's a good thing. Yeah, I guess. Well, Pop, it's an honor to have you on my podcast. Is this being recorded? Yep. That's part of the surprise. Okay. Sometimes you have to just roll from the very beginning.

William Lucey 1:08

Thank you.

Nick Lucey 1:08

Yeah. Yeah.

William Lucey 1:09

Thank you for well, for uh understanding my my uh inconveniences.

Nick Lucey 1:18

Well thank you for for being on, Pop and thank you for for being you. Thank you for being my father.

William Lucey 1:25

You're welcome. My pleasure.

Nick Lucey 1:28

Yeah. So where do we start? It's not every day you get to interview your own your own dad.

William Lucey 1:34

I guess I'd start May 17, 1932.

Nick Lucey 1:39

And that's when you were born.

William Lucey 1:40

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:42

What are your first memories of life, Pop?

William Lucey 1:44

Oh gosh. Very, very faint. Uh I have very faint memories of I was born in a hospital in Portland, Maine, but my folks owned a home in South Portland, Maine, across the bridge. And uh I have vague memories of that house. It was a nice old home, uh kind of a uh stately home. Uh my father had a can I kind of wander off? Of course. My father had a pretty good job, a clerical job uh with the Boston and Maine Railroad. I think at that time it was the Boston and Maine and Maine Central Railroad. And uh he had a he had a uh uh a a nice job, so he had a a pretty nice house. And unfortunately, uh soon after I was born uh uh he was he was stricken with uh uh encephalitis and uh he had that for ten years. Uh the last six years he was bedridden from it. So uh he didn't work for many, many years, so we lost the house. I don't I don't know many details on my young childhood, but apparently lost the house. Uh my my aunt Delia had a stately home in in Portland, right on State Street. Her name was Delia State, by the way, the last name was State, and it had an apartment, which is where we lived. Uh we moved there when I was, I believe, two and two years old. We stayed there until 1950. Where was I going with this? But so memories of my childhood? No, I don't I don't have too much of my very early childhood. Little pieces of vision I can pull back from visiting uh relatives in in uh Connecticut. My father's family was from West Haven, Connecticut. My mother was a Portland uh girl. While I'm at the family, I might as well say I have I have one one sibling, a sister, uh Ellen, eight years older than me. She was eight, she was eight years older than me. She passed away around around uh I should remember that. 2001. Yeah, somewhere. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Does that answer your question?

Nick Lucey 4:38

Well, that's a start. Yeah, okay. You sit ... you've told me that you have one memory of your father out of bed, and that's when you ... you want to tell the story?

William Lucey 4:48

Well, he was bedridden, as I said, and uh pretty pretty helpless. I hate to t say this, tell this story, but uh we lived on the second floor, and uh the poor guy, he wore a night shirt, and I one day I forgot my key to the house, and he had to come down and let me in, and it was I I felt so bad. Yeah uh but uh yeah, he was pretty pretty helpless. My sister took awfully good care of him. He was as I said, he was bedridden and he trembled terribly. So he had to be fed and and bathed and so forth. And uh it was uh pretty sad, but I I recall uh fondly uh being being able at night to uh say goodnight to him. I had a there was a in the apartment we had there was a one room on the third floor that that we could use and I would holler down the stairs uh good night, uh sleep tight, uh don't let the bed bugs bite. And uh he would utter something back and it was a a very warm and loving exchange of words and but that's that's about all I remember about him. Yeah. Uh truly. I remember when he died in nineteen forty two in May, May twentieth, uh three days after my tenth birthday, I remember looking into the bay window in that apartment, and I remember looking out the bay window and seeing them carrying uh uh a sheet covered stretcher out to the to the hearse, and and that was the last memory I have of him. Good man.

Nick Lucey 6:52

And how about your mother, Pop?

William Lucey 6:55

My mother died. Uh my mother was a school teacher, her maiden name was Shaw. Uh she passed away in May again, May 5th, 1944. So it was two years after my father. Uh they were both in their late 50s, by the way, when they passed away. They're young. Yeah. They were beyond normal parent age when I was born. Uh, you know, they were in their late 40s when I was born. My mother had a heart attack. Uh she had a weak heart. She uh she was a school teacher, as I said. Uh started teaching. She went to college, she went to a teacher's college. Uh I think it was called St. Elizabeth's, then in Portland. She started in a one-room school in a section of Portland called Strowwater, Maine. Uh, I think it was really part of Portland. A one-room school. She eventually uh wound up teaching at a regular school on the west end of Portland, uh, taught uh taught the uh middle grades, eventually wound up in a school called West School on the west side of Portland that she got permission. We lived about five miles away from the school, but she got permission that I could go there so she could wouldn't have to have a a babysitter uh all day for me. Uh I did attend a Day nursery in Portland for a few years when I was quite young. I have I have a lot of memories of that. Uh it was a it was a pleasant experience. Uh uh I was with other kids and could play with other kids and so forth. But pretty much on pretty much on my own.

Nick Lucey 8:50

Yeah. You always used to tell me that your mother was a tough woman. She was.

William Lucey 8:57

Uh she liked to smoke. I don't I don't have good enough memory to know if she inhaled. I don't think she inhaled. I think she just was like kind of like that actress Betty Davis. She just blew it out. And uh, but she'd buy whatever cigarette had little cards in it for uh for an emphasis, for make them popular for parents to buy that kind of cigarette, uh, that brand of cigarette. I remember during the war, uh there were wings, wings cigarettes that had airplane cards in them, and I love those. And then there was a comic character, uh O. Henry, who's a kid that was, I don't know, they made him bald for some reason, but it was his name was Henry, and the I don't know if his name is Henry or if I'm confusing it with a candy bar. But one type of cigarette had those cards, and there was another cigarette, Rawley, I remember these were Raleigh's, Raleigh cigarettes. Uh this was before filters and and king size and all that. The Raleigh cigarettes, you could, you got a little coupons and you could and you could save the coupons, kind of like later on SNH green stamps and those green stamps came out, and and you could get stuff out of a catalog. I remember my mother got a coffee table with coupons from I don't know if it's coupons or coupons. But either way, you know what I mean, uh uh uh from Raleigh. But yeah, she was she was pretty tough. She didn't take take any crap from anybody. She uh if I often said uh if she had lived a few more years, I'd probably still be wearing knickers. Uh wore knickers back then.

Speaker 1 10:54

Uh now what's the relevance of that to people who don't know what knickers are?

Speaker 10:58

Knickers end at your knees unless the elastic breaks down just below the knee and they s they slop down a little bit, maybe halfway down your calf. Is it calf or calf? Uh halfway down your leg. And then they had the they were the most ugly knee socks you wore with knickers. I mean, whoever designed those uh uh should have been locked up. I mean, there was uh they were they were they were really ugly. And the other thing I remember about knickers, you'd get a new pier every fall, and and uh when they were new, they were cautery and uh they'd make a noise. You know, as you walked, and uh so it would got better as you wore them out. But but that's that was my mother.

Speaker 1 11:59

So at the ripe age of 12 you were basically on your own. You were your sister was she was an adult at that point, right?

Speaker 12:08

She was no, she wasn't quite an adult. She was 20.

Speaker 1 12:10

Okay.

Speaker 12:11

She wasn't quite an adult, but she got permission. The city gave her permission to be my guardian. Well, you know, 20-year-old girl, she's got her own interests and so forth. And she was she was wonderful f in caring for my father uh when he needed it. Uh but and she was not she was not bad for me. She just wasn't around as much as she could be, let's put it that way. And so I was kinda I was kinda on my own and I could do my own things and go prowling around town and Which involved a lot of pool halls, right? Well, eventually, yes. Eventually. Yeah, I that's another story, but uh yeah, I spent too much time in in pool halls later on. But you're a good shot. Well, I was. Yeah, I I did okay. I did I did pretty good, as a matter of fact, and and uh uh I enjoyed it immensely, and I hated to lose. But I you know, a funny thing about that, in Portland at least, you used to have to have a note to if you weren't if you weren't 18, you had to have permission to to go to the pool hall. So my sister wrote a permission slip for me to to to go to pool hall.

Speaker 1 13:34

So she was an enabler.

Speaker 13:36

Yeah, she enabled me. Yeah, yeah. But you know, I view that pool room time as I met all kinds of characters. Don't forget characters, don't forget this was this was in the in the sixties, uh in the forties, and uh and you meet a lot of characters, you meet a lot of people, good and bad, and uh it's uh it was a an accelerated lesson in life and life's characters and life's ups and downs. What was life like eight eight decades ago, Pop? Uh eight decades. Uh sorry it would have been 14. Pretty tough. Um people were people worked hard. Uh television was what year was that? Would that be?

Speaker 1 14:25

Uh uh early 50s, wasn't it, when television Oh yeah.

Speaker 14:29

I graduated from high school in 50. Yeah. So television was just getting into bloom. No color. Uh no cell phones. Uh and then phones back then, right? Yeah, we had a party line. Uh we had a party phone.

Speaker 1 14:50

Uh to people who don't know what a party line is.

Speaker 14:53

Oh, a number of customers could have the same number. Ours was 34626 in Portland back then. I moved out of there in 1950, but I still remember the number. But there was a this habit stuck with me for many years afterwards where where when you pick up when you want to make a phone call, you pick up the phone and you listen so that no one else is on the line so you can dial your own call.

Speaker 1 15:25

So can you imagine people having to do that today? No. Yeah. No. There was a certain um austerity to life back then, wasn't there?

Speaker 15:36

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how to I don't know how to explain that other than life was I think life was well, I don't know how to say it. I think life was much more genuine. Uh it was it was much politer, much more respectful. There were much, much better manners. I remember it wasn't that many years ago. My dear wife, we'd get in an elevator, and if I was wearing a baseball cap or a hat, I'd take it off. And this one day she said, you know, you gotta stop doing that. You don't you don't have to take your hat off in an elevator, and and I said, Well, that's that was a habit with me. That's what my mother taught me, and so that's what I felt I had to do.

Speaker 1 16:37

You said the other day that people could be mean, but they just didn't swear when they were mean. Is was that true?

Speaker 16:44

Yeah. Yeah, swearing today is there was something I read something recently in the about a movie, and it it categorized how many times uh the F word was used in a particular movie. Uh first of all, I think it's I think it's deplorable that the F word is used in movies, and then I think that for someone to take the time of counting them to make that an issue to make that a newsworthy was terrible. And then they came up with another movie that beat that movie until it was a little bit of a a contest on the F-word. And I found that pretty sickening.

Speaker 1 17:35

It's like a ra our civilization is in a race to the bottom.

Speaker 17:39

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. It's uh it's deplorable. Yeah. Deplorable. And another thing I remember about courtesy back then, I don't I hadn't noticed this, but maybe it's still occurring with some people. But I lived right across the street from a a Catholic church, where by the way, on Sundays I could get up pretty late before mass and and and still make it to Mass. But gentlemen going by the section of the church where the altar was, uh walking on the outside, walking down the street, would tip their hats. I don't know if they do that today, and I don't know if there's hats. But that particular church, I'm diverting now, but that particular church, we had we had six priests because there were masses every every hour, uh, on the hour. It's unbelievable. And uh w well attended, uh every hour. Unbelievable. Uh same Dominic's. I think it was the first church. I read a book about Portland, Maine, that my Nick's oldest brother, my oldest son, gave uh gave me uh it was a it was a book about the Irish in Portland. I'll I'll use this opening to say I'm 98.6% Irish. Uh is that correct, Nick? Somewhere about that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 19:16

Uh you might have a little scotch in you, a little water.

unknown 19:20

Yeah.

Speaker 1 19:21

Well, certainly scotch and water.

Speaker 19:23

Uh uh, where was that going?

Speaker 1 19:27

Uh the Irish in Portland.

Speaker 19:29

Oh, the Irish in Portland. Uh St. Thomas was the first church in Portland. First Catholic Church. First Catholic Church. Yeah. And uh and uh when when it closed probably a couple of decades ago, uh it became a kind of a Catholic uh Catholic museum for the city. Uh I I don't think the city owned it. I think it was uh owned by the Catholic Church. But it it it was not a a sacred church anymore. And it didn't it didn't hold mass. Right.

Speaker 1 20:05

You know, I've always noticed that you and and people from Texas are always very proud of their state. Do you is there a certain amount of pride in that comes with people who are from Maine?

Speaker 20:18

Uh yeah. Uh mine, I can only speak for myself, but I I would imagine this is true of others. Uh you always got beat up about Maine. You know, we were kind of backward and hicks. The only state in the country that's well, it used to be before Hawaii and Texas and and and Alaska, but it was the only state, continental state in the United States that was bordered by only one other state, and that was New Hampshire, of course. And uh, and you we we talked a little funny, and people made fun of us, you know, there's this little saying about Harvard and the uh Harvard Yard and park your car and all that stuff, and and uh and it gets to the point where you you like to fight back a little bit, uh but uh but you're also very proud of the people who were successful that were born in Maine. And and I think of people like like like Henry Longfellow, and uh if I have to pause, it's because there weren't many of us. Still aren't. Uh there was a uh a well known actress, uh Phyllis Thaxter. Um gee, there were there were some oh well right now I can say there's there's uh on the Dallas Mavericks, there's uh Cooper flag. Uh being six foot nine out of Maine makes you pretty tall, and he's he's He's quite a star for the Dallas Mavericks. Played for Duke as a star. And uh and there are others that I I don't come to mind right now, but there's a there's a handful of people from Maine that really made a made name for Salt. And I apologize for those I'm forgetting.

Speaker 1 22:19

Well, I'm sure they'll write in and complain. Well, I'll answer them. Okay. You're wearing an LL bean shirt right now. I think a lot of people think that Maine is all LL Bean and Bean boots and and yachting and and all that, but it's it's really not, is it? It's It is Yeah.

Speaker 22:39

No, it's not all LL Bean.

Speaker 1 22:41

Yeah.

Speaker 22:42

Uh interesting point there, the the the grandsons of LL Bean. Uh I went to a Catholic high school, Jesuit high school in Poland, and uh the three three grandsons went there as well. Their last name was Gorman, and uh nice, nice, really nice young men. And uh one of them was in my class, and uh they were real nice kids. Uh but yeah, LL Bean uh I probably got uh three-quarters of my present clothing is LL bean.

Speaker 1 23:20

So you're living the stereotype?

Speaker 23:22

Yeah.

Speaker 1 23:22

Yeah.

Speaker 23:23

Yeah. I don't do it intentionally.

Speaker 1 23:25

It's excuse me.

Speaker 23:27

They're just good clothes.

Speaker 1 23:28

Yeah. Yeah. So w when did you leave the the pool hall phase and and kind of move on with your life?

Speaker 23:39

Uh well, I gradu as I said, I graduated from high school in 1950, and uh during high school I worked for a stationary store in Portland, Maine, a well-known stationary store called Loring Short and Harmon. Uh uh it was an old, old store, uh, but very, very progressive in terms of the of their merchandise, uh, and quite extensive. There was a good-sized wallpaper department. There was a very big and unique, and probably one of the few book bindries uh around that made all these, made all these great big record books for counties and towns and cities that were leather bound and and uh uh the book bindery had an area where the glue was and a stitching machine and women who did a lot of the hand labor on these great big books. So they had a good-sized binder, and uh they had toys, and by the way, every there was everything was retail and wholesale. They had salesmen out on the road and office supplies with a big department, a camera department, uh big book department. And the the woman that that ran that book department, I I swear she had read every book in the department. She she people come in off the street and talk to her about certain books, and she'd know the details of every book. It was it was just a wonderful experience for me. So I'm I'm digressing. Uh I worked there during high school, uh, up until the time I, and for three years after high school, I wound up having a car and being one of those salesmen on the road selling out of the back of my car, and uh to drugstores and variety stores and whatnot. And uh then after my army service, I went back to work there for your question uh related to when I got out of the pool room, and I'd have to say I had a little pool room time left in me when I got out of the army, but not very much. Uh so I guess I guess when I went in the army is when my pool time ended to answer the the question before I went too far afield.

Speaker 1 26:11

Pop, we were going to pool halls five, ten years ago, weren't we? We were what? We were still going to pool halls five or ten years ago.

Speaker 26:19

Well, yeah. Where was that?

Speaker 1 26:24

I'm kidding. Oh.

Speaker 26:25

We did, we have been since you kids have been growing up, we've gone to pool halls a couple of times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 26:37

Some old habits die hard, I guess. Yeah. So you touched, so you you worked at Loring Short and Harmon for three years after you graduated high school. Yeah. And then your army, your army time. Did you get drafted or did you sign up?

Speaker 26:52

Well, I I joined the reserves. Uh my friends were all leaving and going to the service, and and I I the the reserves sounded attractive to me, so I went in the reserves and uh the army reserves, and I have to go, have to go, I went a couple of summers to a fort in New York for training. And uh, but then I thought, you know, I should be doing more to s to serve my country. And so I volunteered for active duty, and so I went on active duty in January of 1953 for two years. Then I stayed in the reserve after that for another another year or two. Anyway, I wound up having I wound up having four years of a total of four years of service on my discharge paper.

Speaker 1 27:48

And you spent much of your active duty time in Alaska?

Speaker 27:52

Yeah.

Speaker 1 27:53

During the Korean War.

Speaker 27:54

Yeah, I went to Alaska. Uh a place that's now not there anymore, it's called Big Delta. If I my memory is right, it's where the Richardson and the Alcane Highways came together. It was about a hundred miles, I think it was southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. We'd go into Fairbanks weekends once in a while and go to a couple of bars or something and have some have some beers. And anyway, yeah, it was uh Big Delta, Alaska. Uh this is back before Alaska was a state. It seems to me that they became a state in 1960. I'm not sure about that, I'm just guessing. Uh but it was before they were a state, and it was uh I was I was um I guess I was unusual. I was one of these guys that that liked the service. I I and I I don't want to be demeaning to uh uh countless people who probably like the service. But uh I enjoyed it. I made a lot of friends and and uh I loved the food. I I look forward to meals and uh some of the guys it was fashionable back then to it to complain about uh military food, but uh I look forward to meals. And uh so I it was a it was a good time for me, uh really, and maybe that's because compared to my childhood, which was rather lonely and not too much, not too many dollars and cents, maybe maybe it was a uh maybe that's why it was more attractive to me.

Speaker 1 29:45

And then you got out in what year would you have gotten out?

Speaker 29:49

I got off active duty in in January of 55. Okay. Yeah. And uh went back with the family I was living with, beautiful family. Did I say that before? It was a beautiful family. You did not mention them. Their name was Cook. They were they were they were folks from Wyndham, Maine. They were kind of rural folks. Windham now is a good sized town or city, suburb of Portland, but they were they were just everyday folks, uh worked hard all their lives, and uh they treated me like a son. I I knew them because uh my best friend in in the early years of school was was Buddy Cook, and he was a wonderful fellow. I turned out to be quite a high school athlete, wound up getting a scholarship, the univer football scholarship, the University of Rhode Island, and then busted his knee, so he quit school. But anyway, I I'm going down too many side roads here. Uh anyway, I I lived with him before and after my my service. Where does that take me? I think it takes us to 1955. Okay, so I worked for Lawrence and had my own car and I that I paid dearly for and uh wound up losing eventually. Uh well well, I didn't lose it so much as I took a big loss on it and I had to sell it when I got married. But 1955, I guess this is the time to get into my love life. I I I when you're a youngster, young man in in a town, a city like Portland, Maine, you summertimes you have a choice of going to the you want to meet girls, and you want to be able to have a beer or two, maybe girls. And so you have a choice of going to the lake. There were plentiful lakes around, or going to the ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, go to the beach. Uh, and the destination there was Old Orchard Beach, Maine, an amusement park, a big amusement park, full of uh French Canadian French Canadians loved Old Orchard Beach. They'd come down all you'd see in Old Orchard were Quebec licensed place. And anyway, we were in the bar we hung out in in Portland. Boy, I sound like a lush. Uh the the bar the bar in Portland. Uh uh, we flipped a coin this one night. I'm sorry. These memories get to me. Uh and the ocean won. So we went to the ocean and went to this, kind of it was kind of a nice, nice bar. And it was part of a hotel, the York Inn. It's in it's burned down since. And uh and uh having beers and and I saw this rather attractive looking girl sitting across the dance floor, and so without getting up, real real swift, real real Sir Walter Raleigh, a real a real courteous guy, from my chair I asked her to dance, and she hollered out, if you want to dance with me, come over and ask me. So I went over and asked her, and uh we danced, and uh and then just to compound my ignorance and stupidity, when the when the music was over, and I as I recall it was a disc jockey, uh which is really unimportant, uh I left her on the dance floor. Uh I hate to admit these things. Such a lovely girl. And uh and so we went back to our respective tables, and so then I thought, God, she's a good looking girl. And so I I I went over and asked her to dance again, and she says, Well, looks like there's nobody else around, so okay. So she she she was a wise guy, and and we danced, and I took her home, and she lived in Bidiford, and Bidiford was a a mill town, uh mostly all French. Back then practically everyone spoke French. Uh you go downtown and you wouldn't hear too much English. And so I'm one of these uh oh boy, he's Irish. Uh and he's besides that, he's from Portland, which both both both titles weren't too too popular with the French people, uh Irish and from Portland. So I took her home, and uh I found out afterwards that her mother said to her, you know, I could hear you on the porch when that gentleman brought you home, and I don't like the sound of his voice. Promise me you'll stay away from him. And and my wife, Janine, said she would. She promised my mother she'd stay away from me. So anyway, we made a date. We made a date for that was a Friday night where we met. We made a date for Sunday night, and we're gonna go to the movies in Portland. Biddeford was about 16 miles from Portland, by the way. And so Saturday night, the guys, me included, we were all Irish, by the way. There was there was a there was a Casey and there was a O'Brien and and on and on.

Speaker 1 36:06

Were you in a gang?

Speaker 36:07

No, we weren't a gang. And we weren't we weren't licensed or registered as being an Irish uh community, but just turns out that way. But anyway, Saturday night we went back down to Old Orchard, and must have slipped a coin again, and went down to Old Orchard. And well, you gotta remember back then the sidewalks were packed, and uh you had to kind of wiggle your way down the sidewalk, and pretty soon I see coming towards me, Janine, my my future wife Janine, coming down the street, holding on on the arm of this guy. And so when we passed, I gave her a dirty look. I don't even think I she said hello, and I don't think I even said anything. And I found out afterwards that he said, who's that guy? And she said, I don't know, some guy from Portland. And so, and so Sunday night came along, and uh I was always I always managed to be late for dates and late, well, late for about everything. I don't know what what that is. I don't know if that's something you're born with. Anyway, that was me. And so apparently she had two dates that night. Me and the guy that she was hanging on to that Saturday night. And uh so I was late in coming, and that the guy, I found out later his name was Tex. Uh Tex showed up on time, and my wife told her sister, uh, tell her I've gone away. And uh at this time her her parents were in Quebec at this at that particular weekend because working in the mill, you get one week off, and it's always July 4th week, and so the French people would head to Quebec. So the girls were home alone. By the way, there were three girls and one boy in my wife's family. And so the kids were home. They were grown up, all grown up. But she told my sister to tell her she'd gone away. And later on, her sister told you you do your own dirty work after this. So she told the guy, and he was all upset, of course, and I don't blame him. So we went on a date, and uh we had that date because I was late. And uh uh I often tell my kids this that uh only because I was late are you here. That's an awful thing to say, isn't it? Uh but uh we went to a movie called Seven Year Itch. It was Marilyn Monroe and Tom Yule. I used to go to a lot of movies because it was all when I was growing up, it was all there was no TV, and what else were we going to do besides playing the sandbox? You know, I don't know. Anyway, I went to this movie and and she was laughing a lot. And I didn't I didn't think what she was laughing at was very funny. And uh she finally recog realized that I'm I'm not h she felt I wasn't having a good time. Being with her, I was enjoying it, but she said, let's get out of here. So we left because she thought I wasn't having a good time. And uh we went to a uh a steakhouse. I didn't make much money back then, but I wanted to show show off a little bit, so we had steak sandwiches. Can you imagine that? And the pay I was making, steak sandwiches. But Valley's Restaurant, it became quite famous. They had restaurants as far west as Syracuse eventually, but originated in Portland and gone out of business some time ago, but it was a wonderful restaurant. And uh took a home and and we dated ever since. After that. That was 1950-five.

Speaker 1 40:07

Isn't Valley's where you gave her the ultimatum?

Speaker 40:10

No, that was at no that was at uh the Bridgeway restaurant. There was a bar. Boy, my time in bars is getting uh enumerated here, isn't it? Uh there was a bar. Uh one of my a good friend of mine, one of my best friends, uh, his brother owned it, the Bridgeway Bar, it was right across the bridge. It was in South Poland, the bridge between Portland and South Poland. Uh I asked her to go steady. Uh we we hemmed in hard. And anyway, I said, okay, I'm gonna I'll give you 30 days. I want to go steady with you. I I like you a lot, and uh I I'd like I'd like to be with you all the time. And uh and I told her 30 days. I don't think it mentioned meant an awful lot to her. She, I don't know, I don't think I don't think she really understood me or or took to me too much at that point. And so we talked about a little while and then and then uh time went by. So 30 days later we're back in the Bridgeway, and I said, Well, your 30 days are up. And she said, What do you mean? I said to go steady. And uh that led to quite a little discussion, but uh but she relented. Wasn't too much. I mean I'm making it sound like there was a dislike involved. I don't think there was any dislike. I think she'd liked me a lot, but I don't she do she wasn't in a position to make commitments, I think. That was about it. And uh she said yes, and so the rest is history, so to speak.

Speaker 1 42:02

Well, she always had an independent spirit, didn't she?

Speaker 42:04

Well, yeah, because she was on a low on her own so much. Uh I didn't say anything about her schooling, did I?

Speaker 1 42:12

No.

Speaker 42:13

Oh. That's another little story. I don't want to talk too much here, you know.

Speaker 1 42:17

Uh this is your interview, Pop.

Speaker 42:19

Oh. Well, uh they were very, very poor. They were immigrants. Her mother, Claudia, her father Amade, uh, last name Iman, E M-O-N-D, E-M-O-N-D, were from Quebec. Uh Amadee was from Quebec City, and uh uh Claudia was from uh uh Tetford Mines where they mined asbestos. Can you imagine that? Mining asbestos. I didn't I never knew that until then. But uh they were immigrants and uh he was pick and shovel and she worked in the mill and uh very very uh work conscious, wanted to do a good job and and keep their job, and uh lived in a flat. And uh one summer when Janine was probably five or six six, I believe, the flat burned down and they had to find a new place to live. So they they found another flat, but it was in another section of Bidifid that was just uh everyone in Bidifid was was hard working and of of meager uh values. You know, they didn't not values but uh uh monetary. They they all worked hard in pick and shovel mills and whatnot. They're all laborers and and uh they were very concerned with their jobs and Make sure they kept them and so forth. And uh so when the flat burned down, they moved to another part of town that was just a little better off, just a little better off. It was too poor, but better poor, if there is such a phrase. And uh and so they moved to this new flat, and Janine had to go to a brand new school, another Catholic school, and she was standing in line, waiting to be registered, and the nuns told her to come up to the front, and they told her that they're gonna put her back two years. There was something about she was ready to go into the into the second grade, I think. Yeah, going into the second grade, and they're gonna put her back into the what they called, in Biddeford they called it the baby grade, I guess you'd call it kindergarten. She was going back two years. Two years? I mean, my God, that's a that's a lifetime when you're that age. Anyway, they didn't give her any reason, but something in her records indicated that she wasn't ready for second grade. And so she went home to tell her parents, and hoping her parents would would bail her out of this predicament. And when you labor as you don't come home right at the crack of 5:30 or 6 or whatever it is, so that she had to, she grew a little impatient, I suppose, waiting for them to come home so she could tell them. And when she told them, the bottom line was her mother said, the nuns know best. The nuns know best. So Janine had nothing to do, couldn't do anything but accept it. So she went back to school two years behind, two years older than the kids in her new class. Uh uh, I'm certain with a lot of ridicule, teasing, and so forth. Don't forget they they didn't have much money, so their first day of school, there were no new clothes. And right around this time, and I I can't equate when it happened in this episode, that her mother her father deployed her father uh knew enough to register uh as an immigrant uh in his job and living in this country. And Janine's mother, Claudia, uh, didn't register as she should have. So the authorities came and picked her up and took her away, took her back to Quebec right around this time, and kept her there in Quebec for for two years away from her children. So around this period of time, uh no one was really looking after Janine and how she looked, and her clothes and her teeth and just her overall appearance. I guess a nice way to say it is she was quite unkempt, unkempt. And so I can I can't imagine now as she's growing ahead or more taller than all the other children, and not very well dressed, and not well manicured and whatnot, uh there's a lot of a lot of a lot of ridicule. She survived all that. Uh and I might as well inject now, all with good faith, all with good faith, with uh a closeness to the Blessed Mother. You don't talk back to nuns, and you don't show any irreverence. You you do as you're told, and you do the best you can. And so she she stayed back another year in the third grade, uh because she just, you know, I guess lost all her interest in schooling. And then one year, a young nun from Quebec, I have her name, uh, but I I don't I don't remember it. I have it written down at home. Uh a young nun, uh Janine describes as being very pretty, pretty nun, nice young, they kind of took to each other and Janine started enjoying staying after school and and cleaning the blackboards and doing arts and to help the nun, the sister. And so she became quite happy with schooling. And then the they'd get the nuns would go back to Quebec for the summer, and then the following fall, she was looking all over the place for her for her favorite nun, and she couldn't find her, so she asked one of the other nuns, and the nun told her she's not coming back. So that was devastating to her. Anyways, to go on, she kept growing and kept going into the next grade until the seventh. At the seventh grade, she stayed back again. And uh her birthday is in December. And so that second year, when it was only two or three months when December rolled around. So on her 16th birthday, she quit school. Uh just quit. She had been looking forward to it, and uh went home, talked to her best friend and uh taking a bus to to Boston, and she went there for I think it was 18 months, surviving, they were surviving on their own, jumping from job to job, and and uh but all the time living a a very a very let me say it Catholic life. They were they were good girls. But finally she thought, she heard a friend of hers had a car, and she she thought, I want a car. So, do you want me to take do you want me to you maybe have other questions? I don't want to keep going on too long. Keep going, Bob. Okay. She wanted a car, so she so she went home from Boston, uh, got a job in the mill. I think her she was real dedicated to doing a good job, whatever she did. And she got a job and bought a car in 1950 Ford. Uh by the way, she didn't know how to drive, uh, but she she drove the car home. I forget what she paid for it, not very much. It was 195. I may have already said that. Uh she drove it home, but she drove it in a low gear. It's a wonder it didn't burn the engine out, and then uh uh wound up being able to pay for the car and worked in the mill and happy with her job. But the mills then were very, well, they were probably still union-oriented, and uh she had to be careful with what she said, but she could see some injustices, but uh if she opened her mouth, she'd be reprimanded. And uh so she walked the straight and narrow and and uh enjoyed her job in the mill. She was still working in the mill when I met her. I already talked about meeting her, right?

Speaker 1 52:03

Yep.

Speaker 52:03

Yeah. So I'm back to where a point where I have already told you about. So she always liked the underdog, didn't she? Oh well, as stated in her obituary, I witnessed, but I heard of others, I witnessed her breaking up or trying to break up two fistfights, uh, one in the middle of a street in Wisconsin, and one in in a shopping area parking lot in Westbrook, Maine, outside of Portland. Guys fist fighting, and she'd she was, she'd get out of the car before I could practically stop the car and be running towards a fist fight. She could see that there was one of them that wasn't doing too well, and she'd take for them. And and anyway, uh to make it short, she put us she put herself in peril, which yeah, the underdog was very, very meaningful to her.

unknown 53:02

Yeah.

Speaker 53:03

And that wound up including poor people, because she suffered as a very, very poor person.

Speaker 1 53:11

Yeah. Well, I'm glad you were you were late that Sunday night to meet her. Yeah. And I'm glad you guys, the you Irishmen picked the beach instead of the lakes.

Speaker 53:24

Yeah. Yeah. I am too. She's a wonderful woman. Wonderful woman.

Speaker 1 53:31

You were married for 68 years.

Speaker 53:34

68 years. Uh she passed away June 4th, 2025. And uh the the following uh I'm getting I get confused with my arithmetic here, but uh we met uh on July 1st of 1955. So our 70th anniversary was the month following to the day, and no, not quite to the day, uh uh a year later. Uh so we met we met in uh July 1st of 1955 and she passed away uh June 4th, 19 uh 2025. And that would be that was 70 years, so we were married uh uh we were married almost 69 years. Uh wonderful, wonderful girl. Always always close to Mary. And uh always loves the little guy.

Speaker 1 54:44

70 years is a long time to spend with someone.

Speaker 54:46

Yeah, it is. Not to say that we're in ups and downs, but uh she was a she was a sold good soldier. We moved around a lot. My job took me. I I remember I I'd like to acknowledge that we lived in we had permanent homes, homes we purchased in six six states and the province of Quebec. So we owned homes in in seven different states and pro in our province. And uh through it all, she was she was so courageous and willing and so in love with life, very much in love with life. And uh loved her children dearly. Yes, she did would do anything for her children, very proud of her children.

Speaker 1 55:41

Well, she was the best mother you could ask for, that's for sure.

Speaker 55:43

Yeah, the best wife.

Speaker 1 55:45

And she encouraged you to to chase a career in sales.

Speaker 55:52

Yeah. Well, she also encouraged this. This is a uh kind of a unique thing. Here she is quitting school the day she reaches 16 and fed up with the whole experience the way she'd been treated. But here again I got to insert, never condemning, never condemning the the authorities. Never condemning the authorities. Always just saying that that's the way God wanted it for me, apparently. But uh when we had been going together not too long, I left this out be earlier, but when we had been going together for a little while, going steady, I hope, uh, uh, she found out that I had the GI Bill. And she said, What does that mean? And I told her it meant I could go to college with a great deal of financial help. And she she laid me out one up one side and down the other, uh, that you're not going to college uh when you're gonna be helped so much by doing so? She says, You're crazy. And she really gave me a great deal of encouragement to go to college, take, make use of the GI Bill. So I said, Well, I I kind of like to go to a Catholic college. Oh, well, no, before that I applied to the University of Maine. I wanted to be, I thought I'd like to be an engineer. So I applied to the University of Maine, and uh at that at this point I was I was uh 20, 23, 22, 23, or something. I'd been out of high school too long, University of Maine wouldn't let me in, so I said, let's let's try a Catholic College. So I applied to Marquette, University of Marquette in Milwaukee in Dayton, Ohio, University of Dayton. And uh I got accepted at both schools, silly thing, but I I I chose Dayton, or we chose Dayton because it was closest to Maine and how far we'd have to travel to get there. So we we went to Dayton for five years. It took me five years. No, excuse me, I went to Dayton for one year, and it was we were paying, it was too expensive, and I could go back to Maine as a as a resident, and so went back to Maine. Took me four years. I started mechanical and electrical engineering, and the studying was too tough for me, and so I switched to mechanical and it took me five years. And she persevered through all that. But the the oddity that I wanted to mention is that here she is the girl that quit on the day she was 16, and she's the one that forced me to go to college. It's it's it's that just gives you a little sense of her character.

Speaker 1 58:55

Yeah, and common sense. She had a lot of common sense.

Speaker 58:58

Yeah.

Speaker 1 59:00

And then you would return to Maine. You f you finished school at University of Maine. Yeah. And at the time you were getting up there in years.

Speaker 59:08

Yeah, I was the oldest graduate out of the mechanical engineering college. I was 29 when I graduated. I managed to do well in studies in in mechanical engineering, so I did pretty well honor-wise. And uh, but it wasn't without having to have to keep. Three of uh four children were born while I was in school. Am I right? Yeah, three of the four kids were born when I was at Eastern Maine General Hospital in Bangor. Uh, three kids were born. One year one of the nurses upset my wife when she was in for the second son, Billy. Nurse said, Oh, you back again? And Janine thought that was pretty derogatory and she told her off. Anyway.

Speaker 1 1:00:02

That's mom.

Speaker 1:00:03

Yeah. Anyway, three children born, the University of Maine, and then Nick, who I'm a baby who I'm sitting across from, uh uh, he came later when we moved to after I graduated, I took a job in Beloit, Wisconsin with a paper machinery manufacturer. And Nick was born in Beloit, Wisconsin. So he's the only non-Mainer of the four.

Speaker 1 1:00:30

Yeah, I was the odd man out. Yeah, of the four kids. And ironically, you wound up in Wisconsin after picking Dayton over Marquette.

Speaker 1:00:37

Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That was just coincidental. Yeah. Yeah. So, but I had a lot of jobs in in Bangor. I was being a veteran, I was able to get a job that local kids couldn't get because I was a veteran. So I carried mail for four years in Bangor, and uh one year in Dayton, by the way. And I I worked in the railroad nights, throwing mail bags around. And then I had a job in a little Italian restaurant. So I was making, you know, we weren't doing too badly. Plus, what I got from the G.I. Bill, we were we weren't living too bad, but didn't have a hell of a lot of time to do much else.

Speaker 1 1:01:20

Yeah.

Speaker 1:01:21

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:01:21

You were just telling me about the first house you bought, uh, which was in Wisconsin. Yeah. It was, did you say it was 800 square feet?

Speaker 1:01:29

Yeah, 800 square feet, three kids. And how much did it cost you? $19,000. Wow. Yeah, yeah. It was a it was a cute little house. We liked it. We we made the best of it. And that was good enough for us. And uh we were happy there. Uh uh. You were a long way from home. Yeah, a long way from home. Couldn't go home very much. Janine didn't go back to see her mother for for a few years, I think. And uh when she finally did, it wound up being a an occasion where I traveled a lot uh selling machinery, and most of my customers, if not all of them, were in Maine, as it turned out. So we decided it would make sense if Janine and the kids went and stayed summers with with her mother and father in Bidifit. And that's what they did a number of summers, and they they look back at that today and say how fortunate they were to live in Beloit and and be able to spend their summers close to the ocean.

Speaker 1 1:02:31

We summered in Maine, just like the L L Bean commercials.

Speaker 2 1:02:35

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1:02:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:02:37

They were like they were they were very pleasant for you, I know. Well, they're all fond memories, Pop. Yeah. And you're a good man.

Speaker 1:02:47

Well, I would take issue with that, but uh uh uh that's something you don't put on a podcast. Well, and I that I would I don't want to put on the podcast.

Speaker 1 1:02:59

Well, and I've I've I've told you this before, and I'm not sucking up, but you know, you're you're you're my hero. That's so nice of you to say.

Speaker 1:03:10

It's um so nice of you to say. And I feel so blessed to have four children who all take such good care of me. Uh they go way beyond where I want them to and and make sure I'm comfortable. And I feel pretty good. I go to the gym and and uh I'm still I have I use a cane now, but I'm able to get around in pretty good shape and I love life and I I enjoy people. I'm not the most sociable person in the world. I never joined country clubs or stuff like that. I no no offense to them. I just didn't think didn't think I had the time or the fortune to be in a country club. You know, you're either working or enjoying your family. Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:04:02

And uh so Well, it's been really it's been really fun and rewarding hosting you for this past week, Pop. And I'm glad you got a chance to go on the Blue Ridge owner flight this past weekend.

Speaker 1:04:14

Oh, that was well that's a that was a dream. I I I I I still can't believe it. I have to pinch myself to think that I that I was honored so much. Uh, you know, I didn't I didn't see combat. I just served my time and as truth be known, as I told, as I said earlier, I I enjoyed the service, loved the food, uh, had a good time, was able to get to a bar now and then again for a beer, and and uh what's wrong with that?

Speaker 1 1:04:48

Well, you you you raised your hand and you signed on the dotted line, and you would have gone to Korea had they asked you to. Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:04:57

So oh yeah, well, you know You did more than most. Well, that's nice of you to say. And I suppose that's true, but I will leave it at that.

Speaker 1 1:05:10

Any any final thoughts, Bob?

Speaker 1:05:13

No, other than to repeat myself that that uh God has been very good to me, and I'm so very thankful and having been part of producing four wonderful children who just and by the way, all four of them have been very successful, and for all of them at this point, overly conscious of my well-being and wanting me to be comfortable. And uh at this stage in my life, who could ask for more than that? Yeah. Because there's so many poor souls that I pray for who are alone, totally alone, and no one to de no one to look towards for any help with anything. And uh that's so very sad. And it's too bad it's that way, but uh I pray for them.

Speaker 1 1:06:05

Yeah. Well I want to dedicate this episode to my late mother, your late wife. How lucky we were to be surrounding her in her final moments.

Speaker 1:06:18

Yeah, she was uh her faith was so contagious. Uh her strength, she didn't she didn't take any crap from anybody. And uh but she was very benevolent too. Uh uh loved helping the people in need. I can't I can't one thing I should have mentioned, you know, love babies. I mean, love babies. Couldn't keep her hands off babies to the detriment of the mothers sometimes. Uh you know, you're getting a little too close here. Uh she loved loved babies and just enjoyed being with people. And I suppose I'm leaving out other stuff I should mention about her, but but she was one of a kind. And and thinking of where she came from came from nothing. I mean, absolutely nothing. Her father at one point, don't forget early on that this was during the depression very early in her life, and and her father was into and out of jobs picking shoveling. At one point he found himself having to go door to door begging for food. So she she always knew what a dollar was. Uh whenever you'd buy something without fail, and the kids make fun of this, but you'd say, How much you pay? How much you pay.

Speaker 1 1:07:51

Yeah. Well, you all came from a different era. And um you didn't have much.

Speaker 1:07:57

And but it was a good era. I mean, i it was well, I shouldn't say it was a good it was a terrible time, but it was a good time, if that somehow makes any sense. Sure. Because you had to fend for yourself and you and dark and in our situation, you had to fend for yourself, and and you did it with pride and and courage and ambition and and you did the best you could.

Speaker 1 1:08:24

Well, you guys always taught us the the value of a dollar and and the meaning of hard work.

Speaker 1:08:29

Yeah, yeah. So I enjoyed every job I had.

Speaker 1 1:08:33

Well, thank you for taking the time to talk today, Pop.

Speaker 1:08:36

Well, it's been my pleasure. It's been I miss up these big words I miss up. It was cathartic.

Speaker 1 1:08:42

Cathartic.

Speaker 1:08:43

Cathartic. It was cathartic for me.

Speaker 1 1:08:45

Not Catholic, but cathartic.

Speaker 1:08:47

Well, uh I suppose I'm there's a little bit of Catholic thrown in there too, I suppose. But it was cathartic.

Speaker 1 1:08:55

Will you come on next time you're in town and get interviewed again?

Speaker 1:08:59

Well, I don't know.

Speaker 1 1:09:02

What else would I I'm sure you'll think of something.

Speaker 1:09:05

Well, maybe, but no, I'd be happy to do whatever you want me to do. You you guys all do so much for me. Well, and uh I should I as as we come to an end here, I I keep being reminded of things I should say. I'm I'm very fortunate, and Janine would be very and I know she was happy with Nick's wife, Tiffany, and Leslie's husband, Mitch. They're wonderful uh children-in-law, and uh I couldn't be blessed with anything better than them.

Speaker 1 1:09:41

Well, thanks, Pop.

Speaker 1:09:42

We love you very much. They've been they've been very kind to me as well. So yeah, this has been very nice for me to be able to express a lot of these things and give tribute to my wonderful wife.

Speaker 1 1:09:55

Love you, Pop.

Speaker 1:09:56

Love you, Nick. Thank you so much.

unknown 1:09:58

All right.

Speaker 4 1:10:13

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Speaker 3 1:10:52

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