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.
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Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes
100 Years of Hard Work, Service, and Love: the Story of Louis Tippit, Jr.
The remarkable century-long journey of Louis Tippit Jr. unfolds through vivid storytelling that transports listeners from the hardscrabble poverty of Depression-era Missouri to the Pacific battlefronts of World War II and beyond. Born in a cypress log house with no electricity in 1925, Louis shares how his early life was defined by grueling farm labor, picking cotton for mere pennies, and walking six miles daily to attend a three-room schoolhouse.
Louis's life took a dramatic turn when he joined the Navy Seabees at age 18 with two friends they nicknamed "The Arkansas Travelers." With disarming humility, he recounts how military service introduced him to modern conveniences most Americans now take for granted—his first experience with electric lights, his first pressurized shower, his first train ride. His wartime duties took him to Pearl Harbor, where he helped construct crucial warehouses for military supplies, and later to Saipan, where he witnessed history as the Enola Gay departed for its mission to Hiroshima.
What makes this conversation truly exceptional is how Louis connects personal experience to sweeping historical changes. From traversing the Panama Canal to supporting wounded soldiers returning from Iwo Jima, his memories provide intimate glimpses into pivotal moments of the 20th century. After returning home, Louis built a 31-year career as a millwright at Fisher Body/General Motors, passionate about the role unions played in creating worker protections and benefits. Now at 100 years old, having experienced 70+ combined years of marriage to two "good women," Louis reflects on a life spanning from log house poverty to recognition as part of America's Greatest Generation.
Join us for this extraordinary conversation that serves as both personal memoir and historical document—a living bridge connecting us to America's transformation through the eyes of someone who not only witnessed it but helped build it. Louis's story reminds us how far we've come and honors the resilience of those who paved the way through hard work, service, and unfailing optimism despite overwhelming challenges.
Today is Monday, June 2nd 2025. We're talking with Louis Tippett Jr, who served in the Seabees Construction Battalion in the United States Navy. So good afternoon, Louis, Good afternoon. It's great to see you today. Thank you. And we're going to start out simple. I know you've been doing a lot of interviews so you're probably pretty good at this by now, but yeah, so when and where were you born, Louis?
Speaker 2:Moulton, missouri, duncan County. Probably pretty good at this by now, but uh, yeah, so when and where were you born? Lewis, malton, mozart, duncan county. Okay july, july 26 1925 all right, my uh.
Speaker 1:My grandfather was born in ken, missouri I'm sorry, may may all right 1925 I'm going to ask that question again then all right, so we'll start out simple. When and where were you born, lewis?
Speaker 2:Born in Moll, missouri, may 26, 1925.
Speaker 1:All right, so you are officially 100 years old right now.
Speaker 2:One Monday it's past the week ago today- yeah, congratulations.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yeah, my grandfather was actually born in Kennett, missouri.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's just a hop the jungle way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's up by the arkansas border, I think that's right.
Speaker 2:I I went to. I was raised up in arkansas and the town I went to a lot with monette m-o-n-e-t-t-e and you got it monette missouri okay, and my uh, my grandmother is from Mark tree, arkansas. Yeah, okay, yeah, that's, that's a South of the, let's see. Anyway, it's not too far from Jonesboro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well you, so you know how. I know that my grandfather was born in Missouri and not in Arkansas. No he was born in the back of his house. If he was born in the front of his house, he would have been born in Arkansas.
Speaker 2:Oh, the state line went through the house.
Speaker 1:That's what my family tells me.
Speaker 2:Well, I've heard of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let's talk a little bit about growing up. What was it like for you as a child?
Speaker 2:What was it like for you as a child? Well, we were very, very poor and, like I've told different ones, I was as happy as I would have had a million dollars and, like I was saying the other day, I don't believe I ever remember getting a Christmas present.
Speaker 1:Really Mm-hmm, that's something. Yes, so did you have brothers and sisters?
Speaker 2:We entertained ourselves by homemade stuff.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. And how many brothers and sisters did you have?
Speaker 2:Well, at that time we just had the one brother Lowell. He celebrated his well. He signed that law book that I've signed that's going all over the world. He signed it this past Friday. Law will be 98, the 20th of September.
Speaker 1:So you guys are pretty Go ahead.
Speaker 2:He's bald, and Martin's bald, and so are I too.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you guys are pretty close in age.
Speaker 2:Yeah, about two years and five months I am older than he is. He served in the occupation of Japan and he enlisted in the Army Air Force in December of 1945, and they had a cutoff date in 1946 or 1947, I think, and he's counted as a World War II vet, but I enlisted in 1943.
Speaker 1:Okay Now, growing up, did you have the opportunity to go to school?
Speaker 2:No, this grade school was about three miles away. Dirt road Three miles one way, six miles on and back.
Speaker 1:You walked every day. Oh yeah, Wow. And what was that? Do you remember? Do you recall what that was like?
Speaker 2:Pardon me.
Speaker 1:I said do you recall what that was like, what going to school was like for you?
Speaker 2:Well, I enjoyed it. We walked along with other kids, uh-huh, we laughed and talked with your playmates yeah, was there a lot of kids at your school? Well, it was a three wing schoolhouse. Uh, I think there were. I believe, uh, each room had about two grades, I think, uh, I think the one room before you went into eighth grade. I think, uh, fourth, I'll say third, fourth, fourth and fifth, fifth, I think, the sixth and eighth one in the.
Speaker 2:That's the last road okay, so you, you went up through the eighth grade then yeah, well, actually in the eighth grade I was on the record enough that I was a pastor. I was around enough other people that I knew everything.
Speaker 1:Okay. So after you got done with grade school, what did you do?
Speaker 2:Oh, I was on the farm. We had two seasons. You had a cotton chopping season. You had to cut picking time. That's, that's how we made her living that's.
Speaker 1:That's some hard work, isn't it?
Speaker 2:oh god yeah, when I went in service, I was getting one dollar a day oh my gosh, and it's, uh, it's, it's, it's hot during that time of season.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, it can be. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So July, when I land by the crop shouts it's going to be hot and you start picking cotton, I think in September. It's been so long since I've been on the farm.
Speaker 1:So you did that for a number of years then.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, after a while. And then I went in service. The first electric license left under when it went in service, the first shower under pressure when it went in service, the first train rider was when it went in service. You just keep counting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of firsts for you. Pardon me, I say that was a lot of firsts for you.
Speaker 2:Oh yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So where did you go to basic training at?
Speaker 2:Well, I went to boot training at Camp First Virginia. I came back to Gulfport, mississippi and took my advanced and the advanced training was over. I went to Gulfport, virginia, and uh, when the advanced training was over, like the gold seas, went back to north port virginia and uh went through the panama canal and out in the south pacific and the pearl harbor. But pearl harbor back in, one of those might not know it was not a state I did not know that.
Speaker 1:So were you a pearl harbor then when, when attack happened?
Speaker 2:No, I was too young. I was only like 16 and a half. Okay, it happened December 7, 1941. Just from there until 1942, just very short.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how did you come about being a CB?
Speaker 2:Well, a couple of friends of mine at the they have the MoNet which I I've got kind of got acquainted with them. They said they was joining the CBs and they wanted to be done. We all three joined. They called us the Arkansas Travelers, and one of them was one day older than me and one was two and we were born the same year and the same month. We didn't know each other. We got into the Seabreeze together and we stayed together all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now, when you got done with your advanced training and you went overseas, where did you go?
Speaker 2:Went to Pearl Harbor. Okay, sorry about selling out, but Pearl Harbor they just got through raising them oklahoma it's in such a bad shape they took it out and sunk it and the arizona I went around did a lot of times going over the portal to work, just the superstructure sticking up out of the water. Have you ever been there? Right up from pearl harbor is red hill. You see inside out on the highway there. That's where camp was.
Speaker 1:Okay, what kinds of things did you do there in Pearl?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the things was what's called Banana Project I think I'm pronouncing it right and we built warehouses. It was all metal except the wood. The frame was wood. It was like 40 by 100. Frame was wood. It was like 40 to 100. Anyway, they didn't have electric in them or concrete floors because they only put stuff in there that didn't have to be refrigerated like coffee, sugar, flour and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:All the dry storage right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I was going to say in that area. Now it's what I think is a big k-mart store it's what, I'm sorry k-mart shopping center, but they still got some warehouses, I think there yeah, probably some of them that you built yeah, yeah. Now, how long were you at pearl?
Speaker 1:seven months okay, and then, uh, where'd you go from there?
Speaker 2:well, what got on? A ship, uh uh, went from there, started out, got out to carry all in the marshals and it was invading the uh uh philippines. We had to sit in the harbor in that hot sun for 12 days waiting on the escorts going into Saipan and we just got, not too far out from Pariala, our ship played out. The sub was trying to get us. Anyway, they saw our escort circle around us and located the sub and went to drop an ash can on it.
Speaker 1:You know what?
Speaker 2:You heard them say ash cans. I can tell it wouldn't go down so far as to go off.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, the depth charges, I think, is what they call it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, depth charges. Yeah, we went to the fan tail of a ship, a Navy ship, a little one somewhere. They said they got it, but you know they play tricks.
Speaker 1:Right, right and then. So how long were you in? So eventually you went into the Philippines then.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't go. We had guys in our outt outfit that did go to the Philippines. I backtracked a little bit. I was at Pearl Harbor. They found out that they could put flamethrowers on tanks. So people in my company- went to got the OTA from DC to put flamet, flame throws on tanks. I don't have any flame throw on tanks. They put flame throws on them. We had three guys in my outfit. I used my name to them. It went to our instructors to show them how to use the flame throw in the.
Speaker 2:Philippines and when we took they came back to our outfit on the side fan okay, all right and then.
Speaker 1:So how long were you there?
Speaker 2:in 13 months okay, and the norway. If you know anything about history at all. I was on side pan. The nor Gay took off from. Indiana which was separated by water three miles, august 6, 1945.
Speaker 1:It was a military secret, so you saw it take off then.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, it was a military secret, okay.
Speaker 1:Alright.
Speaker 2:You know what the name of the airplane was? Yeah, it was named after his mother, noah Gay.
Speaker 1:Oh so I knew the name, but I didn't know it was named after his mother. Oh so I knew the name, but I didn't know it was named after his mother his name was T-I-B-B-I-T-S and mine is T-I-P-P-I-T. Oh, did they ever get the two of you confused? No, go ahead oh no, I was going to ask what kinds of things did you do when you were in Saipan?
Speaker 2:oh, I was in powder wrapping group and I was also in the harbor working when the ship came in from Iwo Jima with the wounded on it. We left from there a lot of them, because we were about 1400 miles away and we had the water towers built for them, the wounded on there. We left from there a lot of them because it was about 1,400 miles away, we had the water towers built for them, we had hospitals built for them and I know we actually we got set up with ice cream. When they came in, we arrested them and took ice cream to the wounded.
Speaker 1:I bet they appreciated all of that. Oh, they did.
Speaker 2:I was 20 years old. I left there November 22, 1945, if you count it up, 1963 is when Kennedy was killed. On the same day I also landed in San Pedro, California, December 7, 1945. That was another same day. I also landed in San Pedro, California, December 7th by 1945. That was another extraordinary day.
Speaker 1:And so, when you came back from Saipan, was this at the? This was towards the end of the war then, oh it was the end of the war.
Speaker 2:It was the 15th of August 1945.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, it took a while for a lot of guys to come home, though, didn't it.
Speaker 2:I think we traveled day and night, I think, on that aircraft there. I think we've got 70 days coming back. Some of them had a slow boat to China, which was. I forget how much ship we called that. That's one of the old tanks and stuff like that. Okay, so that's a real thing of the old tanks and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's a real thing. Slow boat to China.
Speaker 2:That's right, yeah, lsts are what they were. Lsc yeah.
Speaker 1:Those were flat bottom boats, weren't they? Yeah?
Speaker 2:They opened up like a I don't know, like in front of it like hands open. They're very, very slow. They haul like tanks and things like that they use them for landing. Yeah, because they go up pretty close to land.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So you say you went through the Panama Canal on your way home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was that like?
Speaker 2:Oh, it was real close, on each side Wasn't very much room and the lack of the lack when he was going through over on the left-hand side was like a train track and uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. I don't know how it worked. Anyway, it was connected somewhere. Rather than a track to pull the ship to the bottom of the ocean, it had to be filled, had to fill up the water to go over in the Pacific. Got in a certain location, they shut locks on each end of the island and filled up the water to be at the same height in the Pacific when they opened the gates to go out.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what some people might not know is that the whole purpose there is because one waterway is lower than the other waterway and so you can't just take a ship through and do that.
Speaker 2:I know they load this. We took on coffee and on bananas. I remember saying to them I've been sugar too. I'm not sure it was about. Oh, I think we stayed overnight after we got to the canal.
Speaker 1:Tell me a little bit about what shipboard life was like for you.
Speaker 2:What ship life? What do you mean? What?
Speaker 1:was it like to be on a ship. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:The first 24 hours we was out left Norfolk Virginia. Oh my God, that ship had only been out for a shakedown. The number was PA-44, the flagship. Anyway. One of my buddies got so sick he said I wouldn't care if this SD sunk. But when I got, when I'd get sick, I would go to the top side and get that cooler and have beer there. And it wasn't so bad, you couldn't. You got swept off the ship.
Speaker 1:We had all our equipment, our equipment plus a thousand people you know, I talked to a guy who was in World War II and he said that when he got on the ship they served him pickles and mustard and that kept him from getting sick. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. I don't know if it was true or of that I've heard of that that song kind of knew. I don't know if it was true or not. He said it worked for him though.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. I know when we were all rocking we'd go down to eat. We'd mostly eat soup, had to stand up to eat and all the people would just follow the whole place. When we got out in the Pacific it wasn't so hot I never saw it wasn't all our airway got down the hose but it was pumped to us and I got out in the Pacific, used my life jacket for a pillow and it just slipped. The rain felt good yeah, because there wasn't.
Speaker 1:There wasn't air conditioning no ships officers oh well, that's nice I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think I'm telling it right yeah, so you uh.
Speaker 1:When you came home at the end of the war, you uh where did you? Where did you? Uh? You came into california then no, okay.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the ship we went up on the flight the next morning and had built no nuts for us had a sign on the brick building that said welcome home. Job well done.
Speaker 1:How'd that feel.
Speaker 2:Oh good, I spent two birthdays over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how many years total were you Well?
Speaker 2:actually I was in two and a half years on the fdr and and harrod as trouble and all and reserves on six years during the vietnam conflict of johnson and and uh, on nexus.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was in, I served on the four presidents so when you served in the reserves, did you still do sea duty or any of that stuff?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, two different places, two weeks each time different places and sea days. We did things for schools and Boy Scouts and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, just a lot of civil service types.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you had people in the CBs who could do everything you could think of. Yeah, we didn't go to no classroom.
Speaker 1:We trained under people that knew the job which sometimes is a good way to learn it right oh yeah that's the best way. I guess I was one of the youngest yeah, so you were how old when you got out then? 20.
Speaker 2:I've been 21. In May I got out. I was just short. December 14 1945 you weren't even old enough to drink the whole time you served no, oh, in fact we had, uh, in the little town where I was raised or went to a lot more than arkansas, it's about six miles out of town where I was raised I had a pool table, a pool hauler, and I wasn't even allowed to go in that. But when we came home on the leave the guy said, well, I'm going to let you guys play pool.
Speaker 1:That's good. Oh yeah, yeah, you know, my granddad was a bootlegger back in the day, so he didn't care if you were 21.
Speaker 2:I heard my I was just telling a little bit about that. Well, he had, he had to do anything he could do to make a living that's the truth, and he did, and he did, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you did as well.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's terrible how people see a generation I was in was a bad and the one way before me was terrible. I had to work.
Speaker 1:Right? Well, you were born just after the Depression. Really Something like that.
Speaker 2:I know I've heard my mother pick cotton for 35 cents a hundred and my grandpa. I was around him about 10 years before he passed away and he always had some stories that he used to tell. I didn't say anything. He and his father and his relatives met Jesse James and gangled him.
Speaker 1:Really, that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:And my mother was raised, started out in Norville Illinois and went from Norville Illinois to Oklahoma and turned white.
Speaker 1:Well, you just don't hear those stories anymore.
Speaker 2:And another thing I wanted to say I was raised in a log house, not a cabin. A log house A lot of people say cabin, but I think cabin is a little bit different than log out.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, it was like a house, it wasn't just a small.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was all cypress log and the mark didn't peel off of them. It wasn't no electrical stuff. I did everything with a crosscut saw, hand saw and chopper axe.
Speaker 1:Yep, and did you use? You didn't use nails either, did you?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I had to put the roof on.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Everything was. The roof was a log that had been buried in the ground. You dug dirt out around them. It had been buried in the ground for years and years and oh, I guess I was like three foot over three foot through. We saw them all the way to the board. We split four big boards and that's what went on the roof. I was just 10 years old, I was having to carry the board from where I spent my time going to the roof.
Speaker 1:So you spent your whole grown-up time working hard.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I started making a hand in the field as well.
Speaker 1:Gosh, which probably, which probably helped you stay healthy even now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, well like we had nobody had an electric and started getting electric after I come home from service. And the food my mother cooked the morning we had to eat it that day. And then in the summertime when it got real warm without picking cotton, they had ice trucks from different little towns that delivered ice. They brought ice. They could get 20 pounds of ice for 20 cents and we had an old refrigerator that had ice on the porch that covered up with old war-out oil and the ice was only for your tea, oh, Ice tea. We drank ice tea.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I see we drank iced tea out of corn fruit jars.
Speaker 1:So you were saying that the ice was 40 cents for 25?
Speaker 2:40 cents for 20 pounds.
Speaker 1:Okay. So your mom had to pick 100 of cotton almost to pay for ice for a day.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, my mother didn't come to the fields and she got everything took. Here we had like three milk cows and either one or two of them giving milk all the time, and she always did those short. I didn't have her to say oh, get out here, come out here and have your milk to couch.
Speaker 2:I'll have to, I'll have to a lot because you used to say to me just a kitten, I know she used to say us, us two boys. She said she had a nickel, she wouldn't have invited a cleaner. She used to say the girls could have a brother and couldn't have it.
Speaker 1:Wow, so let's talk a little bit about what happened. So you served in the reserves, you did your service. So what did you do once you left the military?
Speaker 2:Well, at first I came home and served as an Arkansas just a short time. I know President Truman was the first president I got voted for because at that old I had to be 21. And I went to California just a short time. The people out there I got to working with in skilled trades and I know I first started out the place where I was working building a rock crusher, and anyway, time come me to join the labor union and the people that were working there said no, no, you're not doing those labor unions, you're going to be in skilled trades.
Speaker 2:I liked it real well, so I got in skilled trades, just worked at that a short time. We built a rock crusher. I got paid. I came back to Arkansas, just stayed a short time, came to St Louis and worked at Fisher Body in 1960, this was bought in 1969.
Speaker 1:My son was born in December of 1948.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you got married. Then in there, yeah, I got married. Got home the 14th of December, the girl and I got married. We knew each other. Of December, the girl and I married. We knew each other. We rode over to all the time I was in service. We got married the 27th of December and guess what was? I don't know. I'll tell the story. We stopped on Dirt Road Port, I guess you'd call it, and anyway, she was supposed to be real quiet and she said I sent the penny for your thoughts. I said would you marry me?
Speaker 1:she said yes, did you get your penny pardon I say did you get your penny?
Speaker 2:yeah, I don't know. Anyway, it was married 37 and a half years and, wow, my wife, I lost her. And he said, I mean, and I'll see you July 19, 84. Yeah, 84. She tried to go through the fourth of the heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic and she didn't make it she tried to go through the fourth vocal heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic and she didn't make it. We had two here at Barnes and two at the Mayo Clinic out here in Minnesota.
Speaker 1:Then I married.
Speaker 2:I ran into my large brother later and I'll tell you a story about her. Her and my first wife's birthday was one day apart, but Louise, my first wife, two years older, but I'll say I was married to two good ones. I was married to a large mother of 35 years. She's married now. I worked next to her.
Speaker 1:So you have a total of almost 70 years of being married.
Speaker 2:That's a pretty good record yeah, and like I told everyone something I never did believe meeting up on your wife, I never did hit either one of them yeah, well, probably probably one of the reasons you stayed together so long.
Speaker 2:That's right I know one time bar's mother was sitting on the couch and I'm standing up the doorway, uh, and I asked this ask would be doing this because I want to hear what she had. So I said are you mad at because she's real sick? She said no. I said I couldn't be mad at you. She said you're too good.
Speaker 1:That's really nice, really nice. Now, did you have children?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, One son. I lost him first of October 24.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, he was 67. What's it? I'm just curious, what's it like to watch your children kind of grow old with you? You know that's.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, my wife, my first wife, had the rheumatic fever when she was 11 years old. The doctors I had then wasn't any more than veterinarians. Now veterinarians are more about human life than they did back then. They thought she was just having chills and when he was born they came back on her and said she's not having more kids Three years before he was born. Another thing my cousin, his wife, got married. That day.
Speaker 2:I didn't really know it. My wife and I got married that night. They were on my marriage license, Signed my marriage license Four of the surplus preachers. You know what it cost for a kid to get married? How much Three dollars Wow that's wife.
Speaker 1:Four of us are blessed preachers.
Speaker 2:You know what it costs for to get married.
Speaker 1:How much? Three dollars, wow, that's cheap. Better stay married because it doesn't get any cheaper.
Speaker 2:I had two good people. They both had both good workers, good cooks, everything you can think of. They've had just a whole lot of life.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, tell me a little bit about your son. What kind of work did he do?
Speaker 2:Well, my son graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Overton Park, Memphis, Tennessee, and he was a photographer of a trade. He'd done lots of silk screening. I know you've probably heard of Winfield, Kansas State, Council of the World where they play music. Yeah, he went there almost 50 years and he had two brain surgeries, all 24 and 25 years ago and I don't know exactly. People well-educated and very, very smart and I just went downhill.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you must've been proud of him, though.
Speaker 2:And he didn't. He wasn't the loud and hollered or spoken.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's something I did, that's something that never did bother me, and then so when you married Barb's mom, she already had Barb then.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Barb was 29.
Speaker 1:Okay, oh yeah, I guess, if you do the math.
Speaker 2:She had three girls Uh-huh and Barb was at the wedding, and uh and the wedding was in her backyard, real close to your work from where we're at right now. And I think we had about 80 people there and we had a five piece band and my mute my son know a lot about music, was in music with other people and hand bar got abandoned, band together we had a five-piece band. It was about 80 people there for a wedding outside in her backyard that sounds really nice.
Speaker 1:It was how did you meet barb, or how'd you meet barb's mom?
Speaker 2:well, I worked with a guy at the picture body. It was a it was a room in her basement and he told her about me and my wife just didn't. Then, oh, lucky, you heard, that happened so I know different ones. Oh, you're too early. I said well, you see, a nice lady like Mary was you let her get away? You're going to be sorry? And anyway, he told her about me. I guess she was interested in me.
Speaker 1:Believe it or not, he told her about me.
Speaker 2:I guess she was interested in me.
Speaker 1:She came to see me.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's something, and when we got married I knew we was going to get married I said, Mary, I'm going to ask that you ask me to get married.
Speaker 1:She did, she might as well. She came to see you first, right yeah so how long did you work at Fisher Body?
Speaker 2:31 and a half years okay, so you retired. Fisher and Chevrolet went together 71 or 72, I'm not real sure. Uh huh, go ahead the new plant.
Speaker 1:I just opened it up when I retired. I'm not real sure Go ahead the new plant.
Speaker 2:I just opened it up when I retired.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you pretty much worked there the whole time after you got out of the service son, right up to your retirement yes. Yeah, what kind of stuff did you do there?
Speaker 2:I was a millwright. I worked with a lot of steel. I built the bear, I don't know. There's different things that we uh was asked to do.
Speaker 1:Okay, Well, we had a good union.
Speaker 2:We didn't. We didn't have a general maintenance. I think general maintenance I got that all the way, for I was at maintenance. I think general maintenance that got down all the plants Before I was that Melrod did his work, five-year did his work, but the electrician did his work but the welder was neutral because they could call on the welder to work with any of the trains.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you didn't have to worry about it. If you needed a welder, then no.
Speaker 2:This is your trade.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you retired in the 1990s.
Speaker 2:In December of 1982.
Speaker 1:Okay, wow, and so you've been retired for 43 years, then.
Speaker 2:Something like that.
Speaker 1:I think I was.
Speaker 2:Well, 43. I've been telling everybody 42.
Speaker 1:So you really kind of lived three lifetimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know we went through ATWL and some of the things we had to go through before we got a good union. I was just thrilled to death at State World because I got a union pension out of this world and that's nice, I got a hospitalization pension out of this world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my dad was a member of the United Auto Workers Was a what? He was a member of the UAW United.
Speaker 2:Auto Workers, oh good, from Detroit or where.
Speaker 1:Out of Lansing, michigan actually. Oh yeah, so always had a roof over our head, yeah.
Speaker 2:I know you probably heard him speak at Wal-Mart. Wal-mart rules are a lot. Yes, I know Wal-Mart rules have said well, it's starting to end and you're going to try to get yeah, try to get hospitalization for us from cradle to grave. We almost made it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you think about it like I. So here in Michigan, at the museum right here in my town, there's a whole section of the museum that talks about the unions and there's pictures of the unions.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you what people don't realize it. If it wasn't for unions, retirement, social Security and everything like that, it would be a drawdown.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:A lot of people. You've got people. When I was out 30 years ago, some of the new people would come in and see pictures of how things were.
Speaker 1:They'd say oh was it really this bad?
Speaker 2:I'd say yes and worse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because the unions really the unions started because of safety. Yep, they started because of safety and the conditions were good.
Speaker 2:Fisher Body went out and all the women brought food to their husbands and they stayed in the plant.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They have to go out like that.
Speaker 1:Well, and they stayed in the plant. Mm-hmm, yeah, they have to go out like that. Well, and before the unions became a force, I mean, there were fights that actually went on with the security guys.
Speaker 2:Oh God, yeah, Walter, Ruzer, I guess had a medical more than once.
Speaker 1:There's a picture of him at the museum here and they have actually one of his shirts that has his blood all over it from all the fights he got.
Speaker 2:I remember my old union from Fisher Valley. The local one I want to go to with the new planet is 2250. I was out there and they honored me of my retirement and the mayor out there made me a flag.
Speaker 1:That's nice.
Speaker 2:I don't have the stuff I've got. I've got something I can write a book.
Speaker 1:You should, for sure. Is there anything that you haven't talked about that you'd like to talk about today?
Speaker 2:no, I wasn't thinking all of a sudden doing the others like you've done, like you've done yourself okay, all right, so that's so.
Speaker 1:That's one of the questions I always ask is you know, what would you like to you know? When someone's watching this a hundred years from now and we're both not here? What would you like them to take away from how you lived your life?
Speaker 2:Well, I can just think about what we went through to make things like they are now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, truly the greatest generation.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed working at GM. I just I got skilled trades yeah, alright.
Speaker 1:Well, lewis, I appreciate you taking time out today to talk with me and I hope to talk to you again soon.
Speaker 2:I was going to tell you Barb was supposed to be taking me, her and another person taking me to Pigeonport, tennessee, which is somewhere around the last October, for a military reunion. Oh yeah, I was there. I've been to Delport, mississippi, as an old World War II veteran, also been to Pigeonport, oldsville and, I think the year before last, mississippi as old World War II veterans also getting the pigeon-borne old ones. And I think year before last I'm trying to think back they gave me a Navy quilt and I gave it to Bart.
Speaker 1:Well, you're pretty popular. From what I understand, a lot of people want to talk to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've heard that, In fact, me talking to you today. I didn't know about it until Bart told me I was going to Dennis well, she had reached out to me and we finally connected and I said hey, let's do this.
Speaker 1:Let's get this done well very good.
Speaker 2:Now there's a. There's a lady. I'm a member of American Legion, been American Legion 36 years, I think. I mentioned before and one of the ladies American Legion, the things that she often said about me and was the MC at my birthday party. My birthday party was something else. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1:At the.
Speaker 2:Lodge. I'm a member of America and I was having a building party, my birthday party.
Speaker 1:That's quite a memory for you, huh.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I've been amazing. They gave me my 65th year pin when. I was there.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a long time.
Speaker 2:They probably don't give out a lot of the 65-year pens, do they? I had three ladies I spoke to ask to come up and pen on me Barb, my sister, my daughter-in-law and a lady nurse that I know real well. I asked them to come up and pen the pen on me. I did, and they participated in it. They was our military squad and also I was a squadron. So about 20-some years I was a squadron squadron. I think it was South Dakota. You might not even know it by yourself. He came all the way here, flew in and gave me a pipe.
Speaker 1:Well, 100 years, that's a milestone for sure.
