Ep 5: Bill's Story

Life's Just Getting Started brings you stories from the heart of Three Pillars. In our fifth episode, travel back in time to a Vietnam hospital in 1967 with Bill, a Chaplain stationed there with the U.S. Army. Tune in to hear this Seattle native share how he was drawn to the seminary in California, and later called to join the Army, serve active duty in Vietnam, take a job in Pittsburgh, and ultimately land in Wisconsin. (Two separate times at Three Pillars, but who's counting!) 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, it's Kelsey. Thanks for tuning in to Life's Just Getting Started, a Three Pillars podcast about all things three pillars. Make sure you stay up to date with all our fun activities by following us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Thanks for joining us here on Life's Just Getting Started. Today, Josh and I are here with Bill, a resident at Compass Point Catered Assisted Living.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Thank you for being here, Mr. Wells. It's so good to see you.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Well, thank you. I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

We're looking forward to talking to you today.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Well, that's your problem.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

And we're getting right into it. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Bill?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Well, we should just jump right in and get to know you. Who are you from?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Well, I was born out in Sea uh near Seattle, raised out there. Um then I went to uh well I went to college in Seattle and then to seminary in um Berkeley, California.

unknown 1:01

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

And then I served two little churches in Washington State, and then I went into the Army as a chaplain.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Well, that was a lot of history in 20 seconds. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Are we almost finished?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Oh, and then we're done. So thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Thanks for coming, Bill. So good to see you. Well, let's let let's back up maybe just a little bit. Okay. Let's talk about how did you what what drove you to go to the seminary? And then love to talk a little bit more about your your time in the service. Thank you for your service. And we'll get into that in a little bit. But how how did you get into the seminary in the first place?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Well, um, it was a long time ago. Uh I just felt that's what I should do in my life. And I had, I thought, at least, the uh things a person would need to be a clergyman.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Yeah, good. And so how did you end up in California as part of that journey?

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Well, that's where the seminary was that I wanted to go to.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

That so it was specific to that. So what drove you into the service then?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Well, uh, it was during the uh Vietnam War, and our denomination was short on chaplains, as most of them were at the time. And our headquarters back in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, knew that I was interested in making a move. So a man flew out clear from Pennsylvania to Washington to see if I would consider joining. And uh I thought I would, yes. I thought I'd go in the Navy, but then I realized they didn't swim. So and but they have nicer uniforms. At any rate, uh yeah, so I I was young enough and healthy enough I could go in, so I did.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Well, that man's job might have been easier than he thought. He came to propose to ask you to recruit you.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

And you said, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah, well you'd thought about it. Well, my wife and I talked about it for a little while, and then we said, Well, it's only for three years. You know, if I don't get killed in three years, and I can always get out.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

But I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

So you were a young man. Either one. Well, look at you now. So you were a young, married, uh uh young married man. No kids at that time.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

That's no, that's not quite correct.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

No, okay, tell us.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Uh I had a son who was six months old when I went to Vietnam. Oh. But my I told my wife she needed something to do while I was gone. So I left her pregnant.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

You're given milk. So thoughtful.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

And so my younger son was born when I was in Vietnam. And when I came home, I not I left with a six-month-old baby, and I came back home to another six-month-old baby, and then won a year and a half. Both boys, both tall from my wife's family.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

That was nice of her to pass the tall genes.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

It was, yes. Well, she passed the any good genes they have came from her.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Aww. So, what years were you in Vietnam?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

67 and 68. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Any any stories that that stay with you that you want to share during your time there?

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Well, actually, one of the residents here at the Fields uh was there the same time I was. And I didn't know him over there, but he came through our hospital. He'd been injured. And um he didn't stay very long because as soon as we could get him stabilized, he went to uh Japan and then from Japan home.

SPEAKER_05 4:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

And uh but I got to know him and his wife because uh well, I met him we both belonged to the uh Vietnam Veterans of America chapter in Waukeshaw. And they were both Episcopalians, and on Sundays I would sometimes see his wife at church.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

I saw him on the two holidays that people go to church for. He was what they call a C and E guy. Christian and Christmas and Easter.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

I got you.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Maybe you shouldn't say that, but hey, it's your episode.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

You can say what you go. So talk a little bit about how did you make that connection? Did you just were you talking about your background history or service with that gentleman that you were in the that you passed each other in the same hospital?

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Well, from church and the veterans.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Yeah, from the VA uh chapter. And uh and then from knowing them in Walk. We both lived in Waukesha.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

So you started talking during that time though, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

And that's been twenty, twenty-five years ago. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Really good, nice people. Yeah. I like them a lot. Oh, good.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

So once you made that connection, Bill, could you you mentioned that you remembered him being through the hospital or clinic?

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Well, I was assigned to a hospital or the year I was there.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Okay. So that's where you spent. I wanted to kind of understand a little if you'd be willing to share a day in the life of an army chaplain at that hospital. And I bet you saw so many people, but you do remember once you made this connection, okay. So he went through there, so you probably spent some days with them and then he was transferred.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

But well, we had during the year I was there, uh, twenty two thousand patients went through the hospital. We usually had two hundred, two hundred and twenty in in-house.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah, admitted. Patients. Patients.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah. And um so every morning I would first thing I'd do in the morning, we had a number of wings. The and uh first thing in the morning I would do is I'd go around to all the wings and see everybody, and you know, say, How are you doing and all that kind of nonsense? And then um I would ask, when I got to a wing that was more mobile, I would ask, Do any of you guys play bridge? And we're all guys then, you know, except we had female nurses and male nurses, but by and large female. And I asked these guys if you play bridge. And if a couple raised their hands, I would say, I tell you what, this afternoon, if we are not busy, and you never knew, you know, in a combat hospital, if we are not busy, the Red Cross lady and I will come by and we'll play a game of bridge. Actually, I learned to play bridge in Vietnam.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Well, what a skill to pick up. How many people do you need to get a bridge game going?

SPEAKER_00 7:57

You have to have four. Four. Four to a table.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Okay, so that was not too hard to find on any given day? Four people?

SPEAKER_00 8:03

We usually we did find some, yeah, a couple of guys.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Uh you don't find so many young people playing bridge as it's like golf. It's a skill.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

The skill we gotta keep handing down.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah. So uh anyway, that was good. Um, I there's one thing I do want to say about uh the hospital there. We had a lot of amputees. Uh young guys who lost an arm or a leg or two legs or whatever. And uh they're what, 19, 20, 21 years old, and they basically think their life is over. And uh all of a sudden they're not hearing from their girlfriend anymore or their fiance, and um no matter how much we could say to them, you know, you're gonna be okay, you'll be able to do anything you want. There was a guy, a man who, a full colonel, one step below a general, came every Friday afternoon to the uh ward where they had the amputees, or two wards, I guess. Anyway, he would tell them how they could do anything. They could water ski, they could do anything they wanted to do, uh, even without a leg or whatever. And of course, no matter how often we would say that, it was sort of uh, well, you know, these guys are all healthy.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Easy for you to say.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah. And so after the colonel would tell these guys they could do things and don't, you know, your life's not over. And he would pull up his pant leg and show he had an artificial leg. And so then there was somebody there that they could relate to. Absolutely. It told them what they would be able to do um as they continued their life.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

He was probably very inspiring proof of it.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Oh, yeah. Oh, I I was really uh grateful that he came every week. He was a regular visitor. Oh, every Friday afternoon he'd show up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

How old were you when you were over there?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

102.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Let me see. I went in 67. So I was 32. Okay. And then 33 when I came home.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Okay. And then uh you spent a number of years obviously in the Army after that. How how long were you in the Army and what made you stay?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Well, it sounds kind of crass, but I stayed in um seven years on active duty.

SPEAKER_05 10:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

And then my kids were young, and we had to it was a lot of rotation at that time. And they just hated it when we moved, and it was so traumatic for them. And um I had an offer of a good job in Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_05 11:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

And so I said to my wife, I don't have to stay on active duty. I could go to we could go to Pittsburgh and I could join the reserve, which is exactly what I did. Because after seven years, I had too much invested.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Because at that time I it may be a little different now. But at that time, you had to be in 20 years, or you got nothing for a pension.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

So I wanted to finish out my 20 years. And actually I uh counting both together, I was 22 years.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Okay. So what brought you to Wisconsin then?

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Another job.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

So you did the Pittsburgh job.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah, I was there seven years.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Seven years, okay. Brought the fam.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

And my kids growing up there became ardent fans of the Steelers and the Pirates.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Oh, how do how do we feel about that?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

So the three games that we just played with the Pirates, I was very careful not to root for the Pirates when anybody else was around. But if I didn't root for the Pirates, I'd probably be disowned from my kids. So I'll I'll root for the Brewers so long as they're not playing the Pirates.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Got it. You got you know how that all settled out.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Oh, yeah, that that was uh something else. We went uh when we moved here, though, uh to Wisconsin, we went to a game, and uh we were on the third baseline, and my sons always took their baseball gloves. And I said to my wife, why do they bother taking those gloves? She said, Oh, she said, leave them alone. That's not a problem, it's okay. So we're sitting there, and Paul Molliter hits a ball right to us. Oh. And my younger son stands up, holds his hand out, and catches it.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

He was right.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

And I said to them, Let's go get it uh autographed. Oh, no, no, no, no, they don't want to do that. So, okay. So they played, went home and played with it just like any other ball. And uh they don't know what happened to it. Oh my god. My my older son said, Well, if we'd known he was going to be in the Hall of Fame, we'd have we'd have done that.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Would have followed through at their suggestion, Dad.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

But what a special memory. And good thing he had the glove.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

I suppose he still has it. I don't know. It may be in tatters by now.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Oh, that's a special memory.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

But um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

So just I I just can't stop thinking about your years where you were you had a young family at home, you were stationed in Vietnam, you were in Vietnam at a hospital.

SPEAKER_04 13:48

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Lifting people's spirits, saying prayers, inspiring them, motivating them. Hopefully. Playing bridge. Playing bridge. Yes, importantly. Do you feel like those years it was two years?

SPEAKER_00 14:01

One year in Vietnam. One year there. May of 67 to May of 68.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Okay. So what uh do you when you look back or if you look at your you know your life timeline, do you feel like that year was a pivotal year in your life? Do you feel like you you went there one man and came back a little different for good?

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Well, probably a little. I never not that significant.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Um it was a good year for me.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Okay. Okay. Are there anything that you think of that was brings you a lot of joy or funny, or we joke about the coffee, or anything that stands out like that?

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Uh well, I have some good stories about being over there.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

But Josh told me not to mention.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Do we have to censor those or what?

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Uh well then we better skip them.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Well, they're historical. But nonetheless, um, yeah, it was it I think what it taught me was that I could do I could get through anything. Nothing um nothing bothered me after that about nothing was too difficult or uh you know, that I if I if I couldn't do it, I know it wouldn't defeat me at any rate.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Sure. Resilience at its greatest. Were you a little bit terrified when you left to go?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

I was somewhat yeah, but I w what it really dawned on me was we uh landed at an airbase called Benoit and took a bus then from where I from that place to where I had to go, which wasn't very far, and it had uh heavy screens on the windows, so they couldn't throw hand grenades into us. Oh my gosh. So I that made me realize, okay, I'm in the real place.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

This is real. I bet you remember those screens vividly. Oh, I do the color, the texture, the feeling of them.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

They were uh like well, like chicken wire, only heavy duty. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

And um but uh I was there during Big Tet, which you are all too young to know about. And uh we we got a lot of patience in at that time from that event, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Did have you had a chance to go on the honor flight? Yes. Okay. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? How that experience was?

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Well, it was you know what my son went with me. Sure. He was uh your guardian. My guardian. And I was stationed at Fort Meade in Maryland, which is right outside of Washington. Yeah, but he was too young to remember all the places we went and the things we did. Sure. But he was a history major in uh at UWM and especially interested in Second World War for some reason.

SPEAKER_05 16:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

And so when he was my I I took him because I thought he'll and he'll get more out of this trip than I will.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

And he it was really, really good that we did that. Now, there were a couple things that had been built uh since we lived there. One was the Second World War Memorial, and the other one was uh Franklin Roosevelt Park. And those were both really very interesting and moving. Then we got to the Lincoln Memorial, and uh I okay, we're the elevator's not working. So we've got, you know, 5,000 steps to go up to get there, to go inside. And uh I Bill said, no, Dad, he said, they told us that we're not supposed to go on all those steps. And I said, Bill, neither you nor I have any trouble with steps. And besides, there's a handrail. If, you know, so I said, let's go up. Well, he said, okay. So we went up, because if you don't go inside the Lincoln Memorial, you don't see on the wall uh one side and then the other. One is the uh Gettysburg address, and the other one is his sent second inaugural. Right. And if you don't go up and see those, you've missed really you look at the statue, but you don't get the full main meaning of the place. So we went up and he looked at everything.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Oh good. What rebels? And no regrets.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

No, no, I don't have You did it.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

You saw it.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

I really I'm too dumb to have regrets.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

So if you fast forward, obviously, so you moved to Wisconsin, you said for a job. How did you come to Three Pillars?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Well, you know, I'm on my second trip here.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Okay, tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Well, uh my wife had cancer, and so we began thinking about a retirement place. Um and um we came we looked at all the places in this area, and as far as we were concerned, there wasn't any place as good as this one. So we came. Of course, her they got rid of her cancer, but that was okay. So then we're going into Waukeshaw one day, and they're building new condos right about a mile from where my son lived.

SPEAKER_05 19:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

And um, you know, we used to stop and look at houses a lot. So, oh, let's take a look. Because we never liked any condos we saw.

SPEAKER_05 19:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Oh, these were nice. So I I said to her, do you think you'd be interested in being here? Oh, yeah, she says I could live here. So we bought it, one of them. And uh then uh we lived there maybe four or five years. And uh after she died, I knew that I'd be coming back.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

First of all, because I didn't particularly enjoy living all alone. Right. I in fact, my wife told me, she said, you should get married again because you're too social to live alone. Well, she told me that even when we were both healthy, and uh I knew that there would be plenty of socialization here, which I really appreciate. In fact, I play bridge here now.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Good thing you learned.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

This afternoon I'm playing with the Presbyterians and Tuesday and Thursday nights I play in the regular Three Pillars bridge. What's funny about that? That's just your delivery, Bill.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

You'll just play bridge with anyone these days, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Well, the best thing about playing with the Presbyterians, uh a couple times ago I took the money home. Oh so now I can pay my rent.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Thank goodness. That's why a couple times a week. What do you pay to play?

SPEAKER_00 20:59

They charge or you pay 25 cents. But with the regular group I play Tuesday and Thursday nights, we only pay 15 cents.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Oh, the discount night. Yeah. Okay. Oh, what fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

So it's it's fun whether you win or not.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Because it's social. And you have to think hard in bridge. Don't you have to count and and there's lots to keep track of.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah. That's keeping yourself sharp and young.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

It's the kind of card game you never quit learning.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

You're okay. Learn something new.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Am I too old to learn?

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Probably.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

It's worth asking, but it's a no. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

No, you no, you're not too old. As long as your brain works.

SPEAKER_05 21:46

It's debatable, right?

unknown 21:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Well, you know what they say though, where there's three or four gathered.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Come on, Bill, finish it.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

There's always a fifth.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

didn't really apply. I was just uh making fun of my my slow processing. Bill.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

If I recall from the first time you were at Three Pillars, you loved it. The social aspect element was nice, the food, the environment, the lifestyle. And then, okay, this beautiful condo, you went and did that for a while with your bread. And then you came back and you you learned some hot tips about well, you knew which wing you wanted to be on.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Mm-hmm. You knew exactly the view you wanted, you knew some neighbors, you knew the style of apartment. Do you feel like you came back better than ever your second round?

SPEAKER_00 22:39

I I wouldn't say it was better than ever, but it was really good.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

But I yeah, I was on the second floor and I had I was on the river side.

SPEAKER_03 22:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

And I could look out my window and pretend I was in Central Park in New York City. You know, it was really, really very nice.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

The river, the garden, those pretty trees.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Oh, the flowers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

So aside from the socialization, what's your favorite part about Three Pillars? Food. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

You had to think hard about that. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

Deliberating. Food.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

We were just talking about food on the walk up here. We were talking about Hawaiian themed dinners.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

It was good.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Good.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

No, the well, I'm over at Compass Point now, you know, where I get two meals a day and then I do my own lunch. But um it's always good food. Good. Yeah, it really is. Good.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

So you take the hot breakfast, do you?

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Oh, yeah, I get breakfast. Yeah, make your own lunch, do something. But my son's, or my younger son, not both, but my younger son, when he was visiting here, he said, Oh, Dad, he said, I don't know. I don't think I could ever live here because of the meat-based food you have. He doesn't eat meat.

SPEAKER_05 23:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

So he'd starve to death. Well, no, not really. But um well, he might.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

But uh we can't accommodate him.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

No, I know because there's a lady who eats in the dining room I eat in who doesn't eat meat. In fact, there are I think there are two. But uh there are two of those. Yeah, they're wasting away. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

So the meat meat and veggies is your kind of uh your kind of meal.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Meat and potatoes.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Meat and potatoes. Oh, see how I did. I snuck the veggies in. But there's always choices too. So choices and everything's good. Would that be accurate?

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Yeah, oh yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

So one of the things that we make sure we we get from all of our guests is favorite place on campus. So can you talk a little bit about your favorite place?

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Well, it used to I I don't know if it is now or not, but it used to be my favorite place was going down the path behind um Riverside Lodge and so on. Take the path down to the river. Yeah. Oh, that that was so peaceful and quiet and everything. I used to always think that would be a good place to smoke my pipe, but I'm afraid they'd kick me out. So I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

You might get ejected from campus, it's true.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Well, I don't smoke a pipe anymore, anyway. I used to when my boys were little, they were about four or five years old, and I said to my wife, I'm gonna quit smoking this pipe because I don't want the boys to smoke when they grow up. So I quit, no problem. When my older boy is 45 years old, I told that story, and he said, Oh, Dad, you didn't need to quit. Because one day when you were gone, Mark and I put your pipe in our mouths, and we said, Oh, we'll never do that.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

They taught themselves.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Yeah, well, I I gave them an aid.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

That was so that was so good of you. Well, that did its job. That worked itself right out.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Yeah, it did. So I haven't smoked since. Yeah, I can picture the bench.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Yeah, because the river curves just a bit so it's flowing around that colour.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Yeah, there's a bench that swings and it's perfect. Yeah, it it is it was really nice. I uh I haven't been down there so much lately, but I have my little cart I could I can go down.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

I have been, but as this weather, we're getting better and better by the day because it's all it's gonna be May, which means it's gonna be your birthday, which means it's spring.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

I had a big birthday party last year. This year uh I'm not doing anything.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

No. You're just being all humble. It's just another thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

I'm not sure I'm humble, but uh but the boys are coming, right? Yeah, they're and their wives and the grandkids. Yeah, they'll all everybody will be here.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

That's a that's a party then.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

You should go down to your favorite spot by the river.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

I could get away from them by doing that.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Now there's a thought. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Except now when this comes out, they're gonna hear that. What you're gonna do about that.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Well, my uh my older son is now living in my house in Arizona. His daughter is living in his house in Waukesha. So I have a granddaughter close by.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Oh, that's fun.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

So I tell people we're a family of squatters.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

You just up and rotate and shift around. Yeah. How nice to have options.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

And then my grandson and his wife live just across the border in Illinois. They're both nurses, and they have a baby who's going to be a year old in May. Oh. And so I see them every so often.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Wonderful.

unknown 27:56

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Well, Bill, thank you so much for taking time to talk with us. Did we miss anything?

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Well, let me look at my notes. No. Okay. Well, the only thing I was thinking about was we when I was in Vietnam, I mentioned that I was there uh during the Tet Offensive. And if you remember, uh at the time, Sergeant so-and-so closed the big heavy oak doors so no uh uh Vietnamese could enter this building, and it was perfectly uh secure the whole time. Sure. Well, we had helicopters who would go out and bring in patients basically out of the jungle when they've been wounded, and they were called to go down and evacuate somebody from the embassy that was supposedly all locked up and secure, and they couldn't land on the roof because they were being shot at from the windows by the North Vietnamese. So, as Winston Churchill said, the first casualty of war is the truth.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Yep. No, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

I don't know if that's an interesting way to end, but powerful.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

It's a powerful way to end for sure. Well, thank you so much. We we absolutely appreciate it. It was great talking to you and great seeing you.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

We appreciate it. Thanks for tuning in to Life's Just Getting Started, the Three Pillars podcast about all things, three pillars. I'm Kelsey.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

I'm Josh. I'm Bill.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

And we are signing off.