Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes
In a world where storytelling has been our link to the past since the days of cave drawings, there exists a timeless tradition. It's the art of passing down knowledge, and for Military Veterans, it's a crucial piece of their legacy. Join us on the Veterans Archives Podcast, where we dive deep into the heartwarming and awe-inspiring stories of those who served, no matter when or where.
Here, Veterans get the chance to be the authors of their own narratives. Through guided interviews in a relaxed and safe environment, they paint their experiences with their own words and unique voices. The result? A memory card in a presentation box, a precious gift they can share however they please.
But that's not all. These stories find a secure home in our archive, a treasure chest of experiences for future generations to explore. The best part? It's all a gift to the Veteran – our way of saying thank you for their service.
Tune in to the Veterans Archives Podcast, where history, heroism, and heartwarming tales come to life.
Veterans Archives is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Please visit our website for more information. www.veteransarchives.org
Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes
Navigating Life’s Challenges with Papa Pete Cenzer
Papa Pete, also known as Peter Cenzer, invites us into his world, sharing a lifetime of stories that weave together his Polish heritage, military service, and family achievements. From his nostalgic upbringing in Detroit as a middle child to his unexpected career path after attempting pre-med studies, Pete's life is a testament to resilience and adaptability. This episode captures the essence of a man whose journey is marked by serendipitous moments, such as meeting his beloved wife Francesca, and the colorful tales of his time as a supply engineer in the U.S. Army, including a memorable mix-up involving Mamie Eisenhower.
Get ready for a heartwarming exploration of Pete’s vibrant post-military career, where he navigated the corporate world with tenacity despite setbacks. His candid reflections on roles at AAA and Chrysler, along with various stints in data processing and supply chain management, reveal the challenges and triumphs of a determined spirit. As we marvel at Pete's career resilience, we also celebrate his dedication to education, which ultimately led him back to Chrysler, illustrating a lifetime commitment to personal growth and professional success.
As we reach the golden years of Pete’s narrative, the episode shines a light on his treasured family and cherished retirement activities. The joy of being a grandfather to 23 and the fulfillment derived from volunteering at his church illustrate a life rich in love and connection. In the touching conclusion, Pete opens up about navigating the realities of aging and dementia within his marriage, offering pearls of wisdom on communication and unwavering devotion. It's a poignant reminder of the enduring bonds of family and the beauty of a life well-lived.
Good morning. Today is Thursday, october 24th 2024. And today we're talking with Peter Senzer, also known as Papa Pete. He served the United States Army. So good morning, pete. It's great to see you.
Speaker 2:Good morning. Good morning to you, Bill.
Speaker 1:Well, so we'll start out real easy and the questions will get harder as we go along, I think.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, when and where were you born? I was born on December 24th 1933, 9.30 in the evening at Providence Hospital on the boulevard just down the road from the Henry Ford complex.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's pretty precise.
Speaker 2:Well, we were at Grandma's house. My dad was Polish and the Polish people always do a big Christmas Eve thing. So we were at Grandma's house for Christmas Eve when my mother decided it was time for something to happen. So we ended up at Providence.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you were a whole different kind of Christmas gift, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And how many brothers and sisters do you have?
Speaker 2:Well, I had an older sister and a younger brother, and they both passed away.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you were right smack in the middle.
Speaker 2:I'm a middle child, which is very bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm a middle child myself, so I know what you're talking about. We'll talk a little bit about what was it like growing up as a kid. What are some of your early memories?
Speaker 2:Well, my sister and my mother had the same I don't know what do I want to say, but they argued all the time and my sister always had her own bedroom because she was the only girl argued all the time. And my sister always had her own bedroom because she was the only girl, and so she would get mad at my mother and go upstairs and slam her bedroom door. And my brother was the youngest, so he got away with murder and I ended up doing everything right, you're kind of.
Speaker 1:You're kind of the forgotten child, right, yeah, right, right, they fawned over the the first one and there's all kinds of baby books and stuff and then, yeah, that little child got forgotten, and so where did you go to school?
Speaker 2:Well, I went to elementary school at Guardian Angels Church it's on the corner of Whittier and Kelly in Detroit and then I went to U of D High, the Jesuit high school, over on the west side of Detroit. And then I went to U of D High, the Jesuit high school over on the west side of Detroit, and my mom and our family doctor wanted me to be a doctor. So they sent me to St Louis University for pre-med and after two years of pre-med I gave up. I said I don't want any of that, all those names and everything and how to pronounce them and what they mean. And so then I came home and my sister worked at the AAA and I got a job at the AAA and my buddy John was the guy I was working with was showing me around and we went into the legal department and right there was Francesca sitting there at a desk, secretary to one of the lawyers, and I had previously seen her at one of my buddies whose dad was a part of the mafia. I had seen her at a wedding and I wanted to go meet her because in high school I never messed around with girls and I wanted to go meet her and he wouldn't let me. He says you don't know who she belongs to. You could be in a whole lot of trouble.
Speaker 2:But then I saw her at the AAA and then one day she called me up and said hey, meet me at Luigi's for coffee. I said okay, and she's. What do you want? I said, well, I would like to ask you for a date. But John says you're his girlfriend. She said I'm not John's girlfriend. You want to ask me? And I said okay, how about dinner and a movie? And she said okay, and here we are. What okay? And here we are what. That was in 1953, so 71 years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a pretty incredible story.
Speaker 2:So then, because I had lost my draft deferment from college, shortly after that I got a letter that I had to go down and have a physical exam taken by the Army. And then they said you'll be hearing from us. And so, sure enough, around the 1st of November 1953, got come on down, we need you. So went down to Fort Wayne. In fact I had thought about going to join the Navy that's what I want to really be. But I went down to Fort Wayne and then it was funny because there was two buses leaving Fort Wayne. One was going to Fort Knox and the other one happened to be going to Great Lakes Naval Academy, and I got stuck on the Fort Knox bus.
Speaker 1:Just the luck of the draw on that one. Yeah, I want to back up a little bit, though, and I want to know a little bit more about your family. Can you tell me a little bit about your mom, like, what are some of your memories of your mother?
Speaker 2:Well, my mom, she was kind of a pain Okay, of a pain Okay, and her family goes back. We have paperwork that takes her family back into the 1600s. Some of them came to this country on her mother's side on grandma's side.
Speaker 2:They came here in the early 16, early 1700s In fact they had a relative die in a Revolutionary War Wow, and their name was Edwards. And then Grandpa moved here and they lived in Highland Park and Grandpa was good buddies. He got to know because he worked at the Ford plant. He got to know Henry Ford real good and then he did something that he shouldn't have done and I never did find out what it was and Henry let him go and then they moved. Grandma and Grandpa moved to Flint and Grandpa went to Buick and that's where he retired from. Was Buick Now what Grandpa's family is about?
Speaker 2:I have no idea. Nobody's ever traced that. And on my dad's side he's Polish, our original name was Toporsky, and when Grandpa they lived near the border of Russia and Russia was coming in and taking the guys into the army. Russia and Russia was coming in and taking the guys into the army back in the let's see, well, back in the early 1900s. And so grandpa decided to come to the United States and when he got to wherever they were going to get on a boat, they told him he can't come in because their quota for Polish people was all filled up.
Speaker 2:So so they were out wandering around the town because it was Grandma and Grandpa and three kids and there was a company called Senzer Manufacturing. So Grandpa went back in and that's a southern German name. So Grandpa went back in and registered everybody as Senzer and they got on the boat and they got here and my dad was the first one born here. He was born in 1908. And he worked his whole life in the automobile industry, started out at Dodge and then we went to Toledo because he worked at Jeep.
Speaker 2:Then he came back and got a job at Hudson Motor Car Company and then he worked at Hudson Motor Car Company until it merged with Nash and became American Motors. Then he was in line to become vice president of engineering and Romney got who was the pres? He got elected governor, so they got a new CEO and he told my dad he couldn't have the engineering vice president job because he didn't have a college education. I mean, he had 40 years of experience but he wasn't a college graduate, right? So it sounds like lots of ties to the automotive industry, though oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, so it sounds like lots of ties to the automotive industry then.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow. So it's an interesting story about how your last name came about, because when you said you were Polish, I thought Senzer's not a Polish name. This isn't making any sense to me, but I think that happened a lot when people that their names changed for one reason or another in order for that to happen. I do want to ask you another question too. I'm kind of going through your story, and when you met your wife, who I met here just a few minutes ago, she was pretty direct in hey, what do you want? It almost sounds to me like there was almost for you like this love at first sight. When you saw her at the wedding, you really wanted to meet her, right. And then you saw her at work. Was it the same for her? Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, okay, oh yeah. Like I say when we went to Luigi's to talk, she just go, go, go, go, go. Well, she's Sicilian, so you have to watch, right right. So, yeah, it came to me just like that. I mean, she was the one I wanted. You know all the other dates my buddies had hooked me up with. One date was enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But when I saw her, I knew that was the one that I wanted and, god bless, he made sure that here we are today.
Speaker 1:When you know, you know right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we'll fast forward a little bit back to 1953, when you were drafted. So the question I had when you talk about Fort Wayne, are we talking about Fort Wayne Detroit or Fort Wayne Indiana?
Speaker 2:Fort Wayne and Detroit. That's where they met the drafters. And see, a lot of guys got called but hadn't had a physical. See, I got a physical when I lost my draft deferment. So, I didn't have to go through a physical. I just went down to Fort Wayne and sat there for all these guys that had to have physicals had physicals, before they started saying number one, bus one, number two, bus two, number three, bus one. And until all the buses were filled up and away we went.
Speaker 1:And you had a 50-50 shot at getting into the Navy at that point right, and you ended up going to Fort Knox instead. What was that experience like for you?
Speaker 2:Oh, it was fun. It was fun. One of the crazy things, one of the guys that I got drafted with. It turned out I knew and his brother had been drafted and he got drafted and sent to Fort Knox and all he did was he told his brother to complain how bad they were and everything you know. We got to Fort Knox and it was nothing to it yeah nothing to it.
Speaker 2:Uh, and it used to be funny, we get called out in the morning for uh, for a roll call, and half the time the sergeant would call me Caesar and I'd say, sir, it's not Caesar, it's Senzer, and I'm Peter and I'm here. So after that, a couple times that happened, when he called Caesar, I just said Julius, and that's the way it went until we got done with the basic training.
Speaker 1:I'm glad he had a sense of humor about that.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think he paid any attention.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean he was not. You know, it wasn't as tough as what I thought it was going to be. It was kind of lax.
Speaker 1:I mean it just You're kind of in between wars too right, so it kind of surprises me that it was easy, as you say it was. A lot of times when you talk to veterans they talk about how hard it was and everyone else had it easy between them.
Speaker 2:I had no trouble with basic training. It was good, I enjoyed it and, like I say, nobody was real hard on us, or yeah, and so how long was basic training for you? What was it? Eight weeks? Okay, I think it was eight weeks, or was it 16 weeks, I don't know. It was long enough, right.
Speaker 1:So when you were in basic training, is that when you selected what job you were going to do, or did they just tell you what job? How did that work for you?
Speaker 2:Well, they just told me when I went in you got interviewed and what did you do? What did you want to do? And, like I say, I had two years of pre-med in college. And so the guy after I told him, you know, I don't know what I want to do, what's there to do in the Army? So then when he checked down, I think he checked off medical and then I guess it was just infantry. And then I got sent to Fort Belvoir, virginia, for training as a supply engineer, supply specialist Okay, and what kinds of things did you do?
Speaker 1:We went to.
Speaker 2:Fort Belvoir for that. And then after Fort Belvoir there were eight privates and eight sergeants and we all got sent to Granite City, illinois, to the engineer depot, and we were learning the new part numbering system. Because if a guy in the garage was working on a Caterpillar tractor and he needed a part and there was no Caterpillar part there, but over in the other one was a John Deere and there was a John Deere part but it had a different part number. So what they were doing is they were gonna, because they were all made to the same plans and what they were. What they were doing was changing the part numbering system so all the parts would have the last same I think it was six numbers and then there would be a four number at beginning and that would be who manufactured it.
Speaker 2:So we were down there because there was eight Army areas in the United States and we were going to have to go to all the different engineered places in the United States to teach them the new part numbering system. Well then we got a new CEO and he said this is ridiculous, we're not doing that. We're going to just keep two people, a sergeant and a private, and they're going to stay here and we'll bring the people in into here and teach them here. And so I got sent back to Fort Belvoir. Okay, one other thing was when I finished Fort Belvoir with my training, there was war games going on down at a military camp in Virginia and we got sent down there for the war games and we each got assigned to a different spot because this was for the officers who had just graduated from their training and the town we were in got atomic bombed on the first day.
Speaker 1:It put an end to the war game, didn't it?
Speaker 2:So that was the end of the war game for me and we just sat around all day and went to the movies or went to the cafeteria, just went to the gymnasium, went swimming for two weeks and then, like I say, then I went to Granite City and then, after Granite City, I got sent back to Fort Belvoir and at Fort Belvoir there were a lot of teachers, or there were teachers and people who lived on base, and a lot of the houses still had cold, hot water, heaters and furnaces and that.
Speaker 2:And oh no, before I got into that I was the head cleaner guy at the minor officers' quarters. Okay, clean bathtubs, clean the wasteaskets and all that. And then the government decided to hire an outside company to do that. So then I got around to putting coal in and then they hired a private company for that. And then I just went to work for Sergeant Dandurant in the supply office. Went to work for Sergeant Dan Durant in the supply office and it was funny because one day Mamie Eisenhower because John Eisenhower, I think that's who was the pres his wife.
Speaker 1:Dwight Eisenhower. Huh, dwight Eisenhower.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dwight Eisenhower. John lived on the base, john the son lived on the base. He, john the son, lived on the base, okay, okay and uh, dwight's wife decided to come and visit her son, but she never called ahead to say I'm coming, it's kind of important, isn't it?
Speaker 2:she just got to the gate and holy cow the whole place went bananas and then one day, uh, one of the one of John's kids went next door and was playing next door, because there was always a CIA car parked in front of John's house and one of John's kids went to play with the neighbors. And then the neighbor lady decides to go shopping and she takes the kids with them, but she doesn't tell the CIA guys and they didn't catch it at first.
Speaker 2:And all of a sudden. They wait, a minute, wait. There's nobody playing out there, there's nobody home, and so then they had to go hunting around until they finally found the kid in the grocery store somewhere.
Speaker 1:That must have been a little bit scary for them at first.
Speaker 2:And one nice thing about being at Fort Belvoir coming home all the time, because when I got done with work on Friday afternoon I'd go out and hitchhike and get home. Then there was a flight from Detroit that got to Washington DC on Sunday night and it was only $10. Wow. And you got to Washington DC and right around the same time the bus came and it was the bus that went by Fort Belvoir. The bus came and it was the bus that went by Fort Belvoir. So I'd get back to Fort Belvoir, just run in the front door and just in time to run out the back door and say here, and then I finally got discharged.
Speaker 1:And then in 55, Fran and I got married.
Speaker 2:So you were dating and you were coming home to see her on the weekends.
Speaker 2:Yeah almost every weekend I was home. Oh, that's nice, because I had no problem hitchhiking, yeah, and it was crazy when you were hitchhiking that if there'd be maybe two or three other guys there and people going by, and maybe some guy was in the Navy and there was a Navy guy there, although he might have been the last guy to show up, he got picked up. Guy there, although he might have been the last guy to show up, he got picked up. And then we got married and we started having children and I went back to work at the AAA. Now, what did you do at AAA? I worked in the claim department. Okay, now, what did you do at AAA? I worked in the claim department. It was just a whole lot of crazy things.
Speaker 2:And then my brother-in-law, my sister's husband, he worked for Univac Computers and so he got me a job at Dodge Truck out in Warren in the computer department, data processing. So I stayed there for a while. And well, let's see where did we go after Dodge. Well, I stayed quite a while because the guy that was the billing supervisor, he had a heart attack and he didn't come back to work. So they asked me if I wanted to be the billing supervisor and that was in charge of de-invoicing all the dealerships for the vehicles we sent out. So I took that job over and then let's see.
Speaker 2:And then I just finally ended up quitting Chrysler because I didn't have a college education and I couldn't go any farther than billing supervisor. Right, I started back to night school to help, went to U of D for a business degree, but guys, I wasn't a brown-nose kind of guy and the guys that were brown noses, they were the guys that always got promoted. And then I just went out and I had crazy jobs. And a funny thing was is after I left Chrysler I got a job at a place and what was the name of the place? I don't know, it was a manufacturing company and shortly after that they went out of business.
Speaker 1:Oh no, that's not good.
Speaker 2:And then finally, my uncle, who lives out here in Milford, had a ready mix plant and the guy that was his manager quit, so he called us up to have us come out for Thanksgiving and we came out and he offered me a job managing the Ready Mix plant. So in 1966, we moved to Milford and then two years later he decided he wanted to open a golf course and so he put the Ready Mix plant up for sale so he could do what he had to do to make the golf course. And I didn't have money to buy it. So I got a job at a small manufacturing company here in Milford. It was called Scuttle Manufacturing and we made furnace humidifiers. And so I got a job there and it was good because I could walk back and forth to work.
Speaker 1:That's convenient, that's really convenient.
Speaker 2:And so I've been there about 12 years when the old man that owned the company died and his son. We had another factory down in Marietta Ohio. Now our factory was a union factory and the one in Marietta wasn't, and the son did not like the union. So three people that worked at Scuttle and Milford got transferred to Marietta Ohio and the rest of us got let go oh to Marietta Ohio and the rest of us got let go oh. And so then I got a job working for a guy, and over the holidays somebody who was building it was a stamping plant and some guy was building. A friend of his was building a new plant down in Indiana and he was having trouble getting machinery and our guy had just got all new machinery. So over the holidays he sold all his machinery to this guy in Indiana. So we get back from holiday and goodbye guys, we'll see you.
Speaker 1:Wow, no notice, no nothing, huh, no nothing.
Speaker 2:Well then I got a job as a custodian in the schools. Then I got a letter or I got a call from a guy that worked for me when I worked at Dodge years ago, and he had a real good job. He was still at Chrysler. He says I understand you're looking for a job and I still to this day do not know how he found out I was looking for a job. He says send me your resume. So I sent him my resume and the next thing you know, I was back working at Chrysler.
Speaker 1:So what were you doing at Chrysler?
Speaker 2:Well, then I went back, because in the meantime, when I was working at Scuttle, I went back and finished my college education. Yeah, when I was working at Scuttle, I went back and finished my college education and I figured, well, I had about three years worth of it. I might as well do the final year, right. So I went to Lawrence Tech and graduated from Lawrence Tech in 1971, I think, yeah, 71. And so I went back to Chrysler and I worked in the accounting department. And what the heck did I do? I was in an audit kind of operation, okay. And then, because I had a computer from before and then I had an accounting degree, they were setting up a new program, trying to set up a new program to pay the car haulers, and so they asked me to join that. So I joined that, and then I got, and then I just stayed in on that in that department, okay. And then again it was the brown noses that knew absolutely nothing that were getting promoted. And then they came out one day with an early retirement program.
Speaker 2:They came out one day with an early retirement program and it was funny because they passed them out. And well, first off I didn't get one. And I talked to my boss. I said hey, what's going on? And he said well, henry, who was the manager, said he's not going to do it for any of his guys. And so I said well, that's all right, I know people in personnel, I'll go get it. And then the next thing, you know, henry said it's okay here it is Because it had to be Henry's idea, and so then every day my boss would say, hey, I haven't got your card because it's going to be October 31st.
Speaker 2:I haven't got your card. I said, well, I know when the deadline is. I said Fran and I are just talking about it and praying about it and see what we think. And so finally I decide to turn the card in and take the program and the next day I go to work with my card all signed and everything. And where's my boss? He's off on vacation. So I never saw him again, oh goodness.
Speaker 2:So I retired and then I was having fun at the senior center, helping set the senior center up, and all that in Milford. And then one guy would go to church every morning and one day the pastor said hey, can I talk to you? The custodian the guy that was the custodian quit or turned his notice in. He says can you take his place till we find someone? And I said, sure, I'll take his place. I got no problem. So then a couple days later he says I just gave him his paycheck. He's not coming back.
Speaker 2:I said, hey, ron, don't worry about a thing, just give me the keys and you'll never know. And so then I opened the church the next Monday morning, and in the meantime too, I Got me a job as a volunteer at Huron Valley Hospital in the medical staff office and then at church. We had food collections and there was a food pantry at the Presbyterian Church, so I used to have to take the food over there every week. And one day the lady says, hey, can you stop and help? And I said sure, so I'd stay and help, do whatever needed to be done.
Speaker 1:You did that for a lot of years, didn't you? You worked in the food pantry for a lot of years, didn't you?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, I did that till the COVID hit, yeah. And so I was working in the food pantry and then a new guy came in ahead of the food pantry. He says this is ridiculous, because all these churches had food pantries. So somebody came into the Presbyterian church to get food, then the girls to register, the girls that have to call all these other churches make sure these people aren't going everywhere. He says we should have just one place. So they started and that's when community sharing started. Two churches kept their food pantries the Church of the Holy Spirit in Highland. Then there was a little church out on Hickory Ridge in Commerce and I don't remember the name of it, and they kept theirs. Otherwise the whole rest of the church has all joined and we became community sharing.
Speaker 2:And then, after I finally got Fran to retire, I tried to get her to be a volunteer and she didn't want to. But then her buddy called one day who was a volunteer at the hospital and said they're going to have orientation for volunteers in the new cancer center they're opening. So we went to the orientation for volunteers and then we became volunteers in the cancer center and we did that. That was in 98. So we did that until it quit, when they dropped the volunteers at COVID time. And I had a great time. The custodian job at church was the best job I ever had. Because you know, then the lady that was a secretary and a bookkeeper at church was diabetic and she had an accident and she really tore things up so she couldn't come back to work and my friendly friend Francis, my wife, had told everybody he's good with numbers and Ron says can you be the bookkeeper?
Speaker 2:he's good with numbers, and Ron says can you be the bookkeeper? And the funny thing was years before that at church they were talking about buying a computer and I voted no. And Frank Sinatra, the pastor, said what do you vote no for? I said, hey, I know these people that work here. And I said you're going to spend 10 grand for that computer and all you're going to get out of it is using it as a word processor. And then here it was, a few years later I go and then I become the bookkeeper and what are they using the computer for? A word processor.
Speaker 2:So then I went around to the other parishes and found somebody that was really into it and they gave me the name of a guy and he came out and loaded all the programs in the computer and that was like in March. So I continued doing things manually for April May and our fiscal year ended June 30th. And then I also did it on the computer April May and our fiscal year ended June 30th. And then I also did it on the computer April May and June, so that at the end of June the numbers were exactly the same manually and in the computer. And I said to the secretary hey, joni, no typing reports this month, and printed them off and away it went and it was on the computer after that always. Oh, that's perfect. And food pantry I. I worked in the receiving. I was in the receiving part where people drop food and clothes and stuff off and huh. So, like I said, I did that for a lot of years yeah, I want to.
Speaker 1:I want to back up a little bit. You, um, you got married in 55 and 55. I'd like to talk a little bit. You got married in 55. I'd like to talk a little bit about your children, if we could.
Speaker 2:How many kids do you have? Six, Four boys, two girls. Two of the kids our two youngest ones, live right across the street from here. My older daughter lives down in Brighton. Our oldest son lives in Missouri and he's coming today to spend some days here.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And our middle son lives in Connecticut. Our next son and then our next son lives out in California. Mike, our oldest son, was a chef. Well, he's not retired. He retired from his chef job and his wife works in a hospital. She didn't want him sitting home all day doing nothing. They had a part-time guy in the cafeteria, quit, he's a part-time worker in the cafeteria at the hospital. Our son, paul. He and his wife live in Connecticut and he's a part-time worker in the cafeteria at the hospital. Our son, paul he and his wife live in Connecticut and he's a chef and he's a chef in the prison system in Connecticut.
Speaker 2:And then our daughter, therese. She and her husband are both retired. He worked for GM and our daughter worked for DuPont. She was in the accounting department at DuPont and her husband was an engineer at GM. And then Bob, our son Bob, is out in California and he's got a mortgage business, a real estate business and a computer business. So he's pretty busy. And his wife Gladys works for because she's originally from Mexico and she works for a magazine that gets published in San they live in San Diego and gets published in San Diego and she's the editor of the magazine. Gets published in San Diego and she's the editor of the magazine.
Speaker 2:Then our son, carl, who lives across the street. He works at Ford's, he's a draftsman, he works at Ford's, and his wife works for a company and I don't, but she works from home. And then our youngest child, mary and Mark. They live across the street. And Mary, she's a vice president of something or other at an outfit called Thetford Norcold and they make all kind of things for motorhomes, refrigerators, stoves, toilets, showers, all that good stuff for recreational vehicles. And her husband, mark, he's a teacher in a special education school.
Speaker 1:All right, well, it sounds like all your children, are successful and have really lived great lives. Are you proud of them? Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And we have 23 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, and our youngest grand—well, not our youngest grandson oh yeah, he's our youngest grandson because the rest of them are all great-grandchildren. He plays hockey in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League and he plays for the American Sioux up in Sioux, St Marie. He plays for their hockey team. So our son-in-law's got it set up on our TV for Flow Sports. So when Ben's playing hockey wherever he's at in Canada, we get to watch him on TV.
Speaker 1:Well, that's pretty cool, oh yeah, so even the grandchildren are doing really well yeah. And it sounds like you see them, or at least communicate with them on a regular basis.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah. And let's see, mike has four, yeah, alex, rachel, corey and Josh. Alex is a phlebotomist, alex is a phlebotomist and Rachel is a social worker. And these kids are all in Missouri. Corey is studying to be a doctor and she's here in Michigan right now for her internship. And one nice thing about it she has seven things she has to do and five of them are at the Ascension Hospital. And one nice thing about it she has seven things she has to do and five of them are at the Ascension Hospital in Rochester and two of them are at Huron Valley Hospital, which is right near here. So we get to see our granddaughter for a couple months while she's here doing her internship. Oh, that's really nice.
Speaker 2:And Josh, he's the maintenance guy at a college out in Missouri. And Paul well, his one daughter, amanda. She lives in Chicago and she works for some rich guy in Chicago. I forget his name. And then the rest of them all still live in Connecticut, though I don't know exactly what they're all doing in Connecticut. Our daughter, terry, her son's out in. He lives out in Arizona, in Scottsdale, arizona, and he's into something in computers out there. And Carl's one daughter lives here. His daughter and son live here. His daughter works for a place that rents a room or rents condos, and then his son got a job putting windows in at manufacturing plants not residential windows, commercial windows.
Speaker 1:Right, the big industrial commercial windows. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2:And then Mary's her two daughters are both going to graduate in December as social workers. And then, like I say, Ben, he wants to go to college and he wants to play hockey in college. So that's why he joined the Junior Hockey League, so that hopefully, at the end of the year or next spring he'll have been picked by a college that he can go to next fall.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll have to catch up and find out what's going on. So what do you do to keep busy now?
Speaker 2:Well, we have a lot of things going on around here. I mean, there's, we have music three or four days People's come in and guard. We have quite a few guard guitar guys and we got an accordion guy and there's a couple of guys that play the saxophone and trumpet and there's bingo just about every day of the week. They have, they have, they do jeopardy on the blackboard and they got bus trips.
Speaker 2:They go three days a week. They go to bus trips. They go to, like the Meyers Kroger's Walmart. And then there's other trips, like a couple weeks ago we went down to Livingston County Conservation Club and we all piled on the bus, went down there for dinner and the place was packed, yeah, and they had barbecued ribs and chicken and great food. And last week, where did we go? Last week? Oh, the cabin in Brighton, but every week there's usually a special. Then there was a bus trip to go down around Dexter for a look at the colors well, that sounds nice, it sounds really good we get a sheet every week.
Speaker 1:Uh huh oh, it just has all the activities for the week on it, yeah like Monday, the group crossword.
Speaker 2:Oh, it just has all the activities for the week on it. Yeah, like Monday, the group crossword puzzle in the library. Travel to the mini park. It's people that do a lot of sewing, make jewelry and things like that, and they come in, set up in the parlor for two hours and people go buy things there. And then Gary Collodi was performing in the library. He was a squeeze box accordion player.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then at 345, we had a Bible study, and then on Tuesday it was bingo. And then Brian, who's the activities director, he runs a little store back in the library and so that was open. And then we got a lady comes in and takes blood pressures on Tuesdays, and then it was craft day in the lot and Lacey, the young lady that works in the activities room and they make different things like that thing up there we made, and we got a bunch of different things that we made.
Speaker 2:And then they got a book club and then we have chair exercise with Nate a couple times a week. Then they have after-dinner movies and then Wednesday they had a rosary service in the morning and then they had the bus go into Myers and then they had a guided meditation in Reiki with Susan and that's where you sit quiet with your eyes closed and the soft music and just meditate Sounds nice.
Speaker 1:And then they had a bus trip to Walmart.
Speaker 2:Just meditate Sounds nice. And then they had a bus trip to Walmart. Then we had the kids trick and treat last night. How was that? Oh, that was great. They set the dining room up. That was from 5.30 to 7. And they set the dining room up and they put all the residents at tables and they gave them each a bag of candy. And then they let the kids in and the kids went up one aisle and around and down the other aisle to collect candy from all these people. And then there's some vendors like the Visiting Angels. They help medical and things.
Speaker 2:So, they along the window sides of the dining room. They had their little things set up and they had stuff there that they gave to the kids. One of them was giving out candy apples. Another one had five little bowls. One bowl was all these nifty things so he could open it up and blow and make bubbles.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And they had little plastic rings and a bunch of things, and then the other ones they just had candy. But it was good. It stayed real busy. Well, for the first hour it stayed really busy from 5.30 to 6.30. And from what I heard, there was a couple other churches in the area that were doing the same thing last night.
Speaker 1:Okay, so they kind of got to make their own yeah.
Speaker 2:And it went good.
Speaker 1:I have a few more questions I'd like to ask you. Okay, you've been married for a long time. Frances sounds like an amazing wife. What stands out in your when you think of her? What really kind of stands out in your mind? What do you like?
Speaker 2:most about her. She's just a fantastic woman. I just feel for her. And the big thing, it was never about sex, it was strictly about becoming best friends and that's what we did. We become best friends and it's getting a little hard right now because she's getting a little dementia, but hey, she's my love and she's my best friend.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's what it was all about and what it's been about all these years. And you know she laughs and has a good time most of the time, but some days she has bad moments and I have to kick myself in the butt if I don't handle it quite right. It's been taking me a while to learn how to be the proper caregiver, which is really tough, yeah.
Speaker 1:I can only imagine.
Speaker 2:You know, when somebody asks you the same question every two minutes for an hour, you know, yeah, it gets, so I've got my voice down when I answer her. And you know, like our son from Missouri is coming to visit and today, and you know, and when he called the other, day and said he was coming and he was going to be here between one and two o'clock, and you know.
Speaker 2:And then five minutes later, when did Mike say he was coming Between one and two o'clock? Honey, two minutes, two seconds later, when did Mike say he was coming? And then all of a sudden it changes. But it's just been a hard time to go through, to get used to remembering that, because she always had a great memory. She had a tremendously better memory than I do and I did. But I'm getting there. I'm getting there and I don't want to lose her, so I do what I can to keep it going.
Speaker 1:Well, and I can tell that you both really love each other just from the short time I've been here. The only other question I have and as we wrap up our conversation today, first of all, it's been this has been great. I've really enjoyed this. I've enjoyed getting to know you. You've lived a nice, long life. You've had the love of your life, You've had six children. You have 23 grandchildren, you have great grandchildren and you're still keeping busy. I feel like you've led a life of service in a lot of ways. But the question I have is, when someone listens to this story years from now, what would you like them to take away from your life or from this conversation today?
Speaker 2:from your life or from this conversation today.
Speaker 2:Just get to know your getting to know my wife and her, becoming my best friend and planning on making this life together for all these years. That just you know that it's an easy thing to do if you work at it and you have to work at it hard and be able to sit down if there's a problem, to be able to sit down and discuss it and say, hey, you know, maybe we should look at it this way and be able to listen to what your spouse has to say. You know, just don't say no, it's got to be this way it's got to be. You know, be able to listen to your spouse of what it's got to be and be able to settle on a good answer to the problem.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thank you for that, and thank you for sitting down with us today, Papa Pete. We really appreciate it. It was a pleasure meeting you.
Speaker 2:I'm glad I was able to do it.
