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
Sailing Through Time: A Navy Veteran's Journey (Gary Scott)
From the biting winter cold of Great Lakes Naval Training Station to the sun-drenched shores of the Mediterranean, Gary Scott's naval journey shaped not just his military experience but the foundation of his civilian career. When faced with Vietnam deployment in 1971, Gary made the practical choice to join the Navy instead – where "three hot meals, a nice bed, and a hot shower" awaited him aboard ship.
As a diesel repairman on the USS Capricornus, Gary's responsibilities extended beyond engine maintenance to the crucial task of converting seawater into fresh water for both crew use and ship operations. "I served watches in the engine room making fresh water for the showers and for the boilers," he recalls, detailing the meticulous testing process where only the purest batches were deemed worthy of the ship's boilers. His time aboard the Capricornus took him across the Atlantic twice for Mediterranean deployments and on numerous Caribbean cruises, experiences he would later recreate with his wife of 54 years during anniversary trips.
Despite his father's initial disappointment at Gary's enlistment, a brand-new excavator awaited his return to civilian life. Taking over the family business, Gary applied the precision and discipline honed in the Navy to become what one acquaintance called "a legend" in excavation. His specialty? Digging perfectly level basements that required no additional work – "I used a transit to keep it level. All the cement guys loved me."
Today, from his custom-built home in Holly, Michigan (where he dug the basement himself), Gary reflects on a life well-lived – from naval engine rooms to construction sites, from test-driving cars for Jack Roush Engineering to traveling extensively with his wife during retirement. His story exemplifies how military service can provide both adventure and valuable skills that translate perfectly to civilian success.
Today is Thursday, August 28th 2025. We're talking with Gary Scott, who served in the United States Navy. Good morning, Gary. Good morning All right. We're gonna just start right out with, hopefully, an easy question when and where?
Speaker 2:were you born? I was born in Pontiac, Michigan, 1942. Okay, did you grow up in Pontiac then?
Speaker 1:No, all right, how long? So you were just born there, but you lived someplace else. Yeah, all right. Where did you grow up? Mostly Clarkston, okay, and any brothers and sisters?
Speaker 2:Yeah, one sister, two brothers. Okay, where'd you fall?
Speaker 1:in that pecking order, I was the top, I was first, okay, so were you the typical oldest sibling. Then, yeah, you took charge of stuff. Yeah, okay. And what can you tell me about your parents?
Speaker 2:your mom and your dad. Um, my mom was stayed home. She never. Well, she did work one time in rochester at some cleaners there and my dad was in the excavating business, okay, so he wasn't too happy. When I joined the navy, oh, well, we'll talk about that.
Speaker 1:I'm sure Can you tell me just kind of briefly what was it like growing up then in Clarkston and what was it like as a kid.
Speaker 2:Well, it was pretty good there. There was like two classes, though Us people out in the country were different than the ones downtown. They thought they were special, so different yeah so now did you live?
Speaker 1:um, were your neighbors closer, or kind of, were you far apart from your neighbors then where you lived? Oh, they're pretty close, were they? Okay, all right. What about school? Um, how was school for you? Clarkston High School, that was good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, any sports or anything, particularly you remember about going to school. No, I wasn't in any sports there, I just kept my nose in the books and get it done. Get out of there.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, so you get through school.
Speaker 2:And then is that when you joined the navy is right after school? Yeah, because I was pretty high on the list to go to vietnam, uh huh, and so I went down, joined the navy on january 19th 1971, and then on the ship, you get three, three hot meals a day, you get a nice bed and you get a hot shower every night. Yeah, that's true. So, and I made a lot of the fresh water for the showers and the boilers work the uh evaporator down in the engine room okay for the ship.
Speaker 1:So you were uh saying a few minutes ago that your, your dad wasn't real happy about you joining the navy no, because he wanted me to stay there and, uh, work with him, you know, and in business.
Speaker 2:And then when I got out, when I got out, he said I got a brand new excavator waiting for you. I'll take you over there and get going he was ready for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, was that sort of? His dream is to have you work with him now. Yeah, okay, all right. So he got over being mad at you then. Yeah, oh, very good. Well, talk to me a little bit about basic training. What was it like? What do you remember about when you first got there and how you felt about your decision to join the Navy?
Speaker 2:Well, it was pretty good, except we first got there, got there at night, went to bed and this guy come in the morning with a garbage can, with a baseball bat inside, waking everybody up, you know. And then we got that bicycling shot in the rear end and then we was all laying down and the drill sergeant, he said I'll work that out of, you Got to get up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and you know what? I remember that, and it really was for our own good to get that lump out of our butt there. Yeah, that was painful. Yeah, for sure. Now, where did you go to basic Great Lakes, okay, all right, and how was that Cold?
Speaker 2:I was in there in January in the snow. They had sidewalk watch. Go out and sweep the sidewalk off, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you were there for was it 12 weeks for Navy basic? At the time I was?
Speaker 2:there for three months. Then I went home for a week and come back and spent three months in engine school.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that was your a school, then that you went to all right, and uh, then from there. Uh, what happens next?
Speaker 2:then, uh, let's see what month was it so it'll be june maybe june or july, yeah, got on a train and went to new york to get the ship. It was in dry dock uh-huh they were scraping the bottom and uh went there, then got on the ship and uh got settled in. Then we took off. How long were you in dry dock? Uh, it didn't take them long to finish that. When I got there. I wasn't there a couple days and they got done. Oh okay, they ordered everything Ready to tail end then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. And now you were on an AKA, right. Can you maybe talk about what an AKA is and what kind of work you did there?
Speaker 2:Well, I was a diesel repairman and the AKA. We carried 100 Marines with us wherever we went, put them ashore every now and then so they could play games, then go back and get them later, and we did that all the time I was in there. Okay, and where?
Speaker 1:where were you, uh, stationed out of then? Norfolk, okay, and that was what. Four years in norfolk, then, all right, and did you so? Where all did you travel to from Norfolk?
Speaker 2:Well, we went to the Mediterranean twice six months at a time. 62 and 64. Went to the Caribbean about five or six times. When we first got on the ship, we headed to Guantanamo Bay for a shakedown cruise and went to firefighting school there, and then we headed out.
Speaker 1:Okay, and where'd you go from Guantanamo?
Speaker 2:Well, we went to quite a few Caribbean islands, uh-huh, and then, yeah, that was about it, other than the two Mediterranean cruises. Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, talk to me about your med cruises. I've been on one myself and I really enjoyed it. Uh, how was it for you?
Speaker 2:it was great. Yeah, look at some pictures in here. Yeah, I couldn't afford to go that much traveling on my own money, right, right, uncle sam paid for everything.
Speaker 1:So well, and I think in the day it was join the Navy, see the world right. Yeah, yeah. So you got to do that.
Speaker 2:Well, I did put in for transfers after I went in there I don't know, three years or something like that. And uh, I put in transfer three times and they turned me down both times, Said my rate was too critical, couldn't leave. So I wanted to go to the West Coast for a while, Right, See some more of the world. But it didn't happen.
Speaker 1:I feel like whenever they tell you no in the Navy, they always say your rate's too critical. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:And I'm trying to figure out. Well, what rate isn't critical then? Well, my rather in my eyes, wasn't really critical because we had spare engines already sitting on the deck, all built up and everything. So for the landing craft, and then cover up with canvas, you know, and they're ready to go.
Speaker 1:So oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know. It's what they said.
Speaker 1:I think it's just their way of saying no yeah and giving you an excuse for it. What do you remember most about your med cruises? Then is there some place in particular that you liked more than other places?
Speaker 2:I like greece better than I did italy, and and uh, barcelona, people more friendly and and uh, it was good food. Do you remember where in greece were you at? I was in uh athens and I was in uh road, uh, island road. Yeah it was island and a couple other islands okay, never the fancy one, santa rita never got there oh the uh.
Speaker 1:My wife's greek, so she'd be happy to hear that you enjoyed the other Greek islands that much. Have you been back?
Speaker 2:since, yes, I took my wife back on our anniversary, took her to the Med and went to all those places, and then after that we went again on a transatlantic cruise. The cruise liner we usually take when we're going on vacation was making a repositioning cruise to the Med, so we went again. So what we didn't see the first time. We got to see the second time. I've heard about those repositioning cruises.
Speaker 1:They're a lot cheaper. Yeah, a pretty good deal. From what I've heard, you're out at sea a lot longer than you normally would be Well, I didn't mind going to sea no, no, and let me ask you that too.
Speaker 1:So, um, there's something about being at sea, at least I think, like it's just different. Um, do you still get that feeling like when you like, when you look at the pictures of your, your ship and and things like that, I mean, you really kind of have fond memories of being out at sea, oh yeah nice fresh air and, uh, we only had one rough time in north atlantic, but most of the time was pretty easy and uh, yeah, I liked it never hit any of those storms coming up through hatteras to get back to norfolk, ever we.
Speaker 2:We had a hurricane one time in Atlantic and then a hurricane right in Norfolk, right in the bay. There we had to pull away from the pier and go out in the middle of the river there and drop both anchors and run the engines to keep steady. Two hurricanes.
Speaker 1:You know I think that's something people don't realize either like when a hurricane hits, they, the ships, go out, you don't. You don't stay in in dock and hope for the best. No, yeah. So is there anything else about your time in the navy that you'd like to share? Any other experiences or memories about that?
Speaker 2:well, I enjoyed all the people we had and I enjoyed, uh, working on the engines and stuff and I was in the landing craft. Every time we had a landing I was in the landing craft. So, uh, so that was good and then, uh, I just enjoyed it. Yeah, now, did you drive the landing craft? No, I wasn't. I was the engine man, I wasn't the cox. Oh, okay, all right, so now, did you um?
Speaker 1:did you ever cross the equator? Did you get? No, never got to be a shell back oh, okay, you know I I missed that part. I didn't get to do that either, so, but uh, talk to a lot of people who have some great pictures from their shellback initiation, I think that's what they call it, yeah, anyway. Well, very good. So you were in the Navy for four years. Your enlistment was up. What made you decide to get out of the?
Speaker 2:Navy. Well, four years was long enough. And then my dad wanted me back real bad to go to work. Yeah, he wasn't too happy until I got back it was time.
Speaker 1:What was it like when you left?
Speaker 2:the base for the last time and you knew you weren't going to be in uniform anymore. I didn't miss it. I didn't go to. You know, they gave me a card to go to. What do they call it? Forget what they call it.
Speaker 1:Oh, the exchange, the what was the.
Speaker 2:No, you go to meetings and stuff. It's not.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, like a, like a transition program, yeah, Okay, I never went, didn't see any need. Yeah, you knew what you were going to do, right when you got so, did you when you left, when you left, when you left Norfolk, then you just flew straight home. Yeah, okay. And you weren't married at this point, were you? Okay, all right. So you got home and talked to me about you know what was it like to come home after being gone for so long?
Speaker 2:It was good. My young brother there, he was glad I got back. You know he's glad to see me and and, uh, yeah, I was glad to get home. Yeah, absolutely, I did enjoy the navy. I enjoyed being at sea, especially when you come out of a city or something, go out, the water's nasty. Look until you get to a certain way.
Speaker 1:Then it's like a line across the water and that's nice water, clean water yeah so you have those days when it's like a mirror, yeah, where it's just still and yeah. Yeah, it's been a long time for me too, but I still remember those days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't talk my wife into going on a cruise no no they're great I wish I could good food and all the other shows, yeah, music everything you could want right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a whole lot different from being on a on a navy ship oh, yeah, yeah the entertainment was completely different. Yeah, yeah. So you, uh, you started working for your dad um in the excavating business then. And is that that what you, uh? Did you continue doing?
Speaker 2:that, yeah, he retired in 71, I think, moving up indian river, and I took it over and run it until I quit 2012,. I think there wasn't any commercial jobs coming up on the screen and there wasn't any housing going on then. So I said, well, it's time to close the doors. And my son wanted to keep going. I said, no, we can't, there's no work. You know, it's time to close the doors, right, right so tell me about, uh, when?
Speaker 1:when did you meet your wife, and, and how?
Speaker 2:ah see, I met her in boy 68 or 69. I got married in 71. And she went to Waterford High School. I went to Clarkston. So one thing that surprised me I went to her 50th reunion and she said I wanna introduce you to one of the guys. I said okay. So we went over there and she says this is my husband, gary scott. He said gary scott, he's a legend. What he did was poured footings and poured walls. I dug basements, level them. They didn't have to fill in, they didn't have to dig a hole, it was level. I used a transit or something like that, so I kept it level. So they loved that all and cement guys loved me. Oh yeah, make their job easy. Yeah Well, that surprised her. Didn't even know you were a legend. No, she said did you have fun at the reunion? Why not? I'm a legend, that's right, yeah that was fun, yeah.
Speaker 1:So how many children do you have? Uh, two boys, okay, and were they born fairly?
Speaker 2:close together? Or are they close in age, three years apart? One's 50 and one's 37.
Speaker 1:All right, what was it like? What was it like? It like running a business and having boys run around, Because boys can be a handful can't they?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, sometimes I didn't have any trouble at all. Sometimes they went with me.
Speaker 1:Now did your sons go into business with you as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, no Well, my young son did well. Okay, no well, my young son did uh-huh. That's when, when we closed the doors, we just that's when I closed the doors on it.
Speaker 1:There wasn't any work. Yeah, the well. You had the bust in 2008 and it took a long time to come back from all that, didn't it? Yeah, so, uh, what did you do after, uh, after you closed the doors?
Speaker 2:I drove cars for Jack Ralph's for nine years.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I went to a place. They had new cars from Chrysler and some foreign cars and you go in in the morning, they give you your paperwork, what car you was getting, and they had a GPS on the the dash. You just followed her out, nice and easy, all by yourself, nobody with you. So once in a while you had somebody check, checking the stuff on the radio, make sure you worked, and done that for nine years. So where'd you? Did you take the cars to dealerships?
Speaker 2:then, no, we just drove them around, test drove them oh, okay, come back, write a report on what was wrong with them stuff like that okay, now that's.
Speaker 1:Is that roush engineering? Is that who that company is? Yeah jack roush yeah, okay, they actually do a lot of work with veterans. Yeah, yeah, I see them at a lot of different meetings and things like that, so that's kind of interesting you get to. These are all the newer cars then that you're driving Brand new right from the factory.
Speaker 2:Wow, you test drive them. You know, write up a thing on the end of what was wrong with them, what was good with them. So the softest seats, though, were in the Dodge pickups, not in the cars. Really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I like the Dodge pickups myself.
Speaker 2:I had one too Just until recently. My wife said too much money in insurance two cars, so got rid of the pickup yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I think I got rid of my pickup about eight years ago. A little secret my wife accidentally hit the mirror on the garage too many times, so I thought it was time to get rid of the truck, so we moved to a car as well yeah, we do a lot of traveling.
Speaker 2:So we got a new hyundai that's six passenger and I told him I said I don't want six passengers with little kid seats in the back because we call six adults when we go somewhere, go down south or go to branson or goes to, you know, all over the place. So, yeah, we got that. That we're gonna working out pretty good for you yeah, it's a nice car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you get a tickle when you go down 75 from here, they'll say check your directions, you're going the wrong way. Really, yeah, because they, you know, they shifted the lanes. Oh, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's right yeah, yeah, they're fixing all the roads at once as a matter of fact northbound lane used to be north, now it's south.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they tell us every now and I told us two or three times coming home yesterday well, you know it's funny, I didn't think about that.
Speaker 1:But when I traveled to detroit, my uh, my gps does the same thing. It's like I didn't think about that, but when I traveled to detroit, my uh, my gps does the same thing. It's like trying, keeps trying to shift me, shift me over, like I'm doing the wrong. This car talks to you.
Speaker 2:Oh, very nice. When you get out it says check the back seats, make sure there's no kids or anything back there.
Speaker 1:This nice car yeah, well, you back to your excavating business, though. So you did a lot of the excavation for, like, the Detroit area then, or the Clarkson area no mostly in Oakland County. Okay, all right, yeah, so there's probably a lot of houses out there that you can drive by, and you know that you did that basement I've done that one, I've done that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that a source of pride for you, being a legend and all?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that shocked my wife. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you've been married for how long? In 54 years? 54 years, wow, congratulations. Yeah, thank you. What's the secret?
Speaker 2:Well, we're total opposites.
Speaker 1:So but we do get along well. They say opposites attract for sure. Well, you, um, you have some paperwork and stuff here. What do you want to talk about any of this, uh, that you have?
Speaker 2:well, I got that cruise booking.
Speaker 1:Look through, yeah, I've been kind of flipping through it. As we're talking Some stuff here on the Capricornus they can read All right Now was this a fairly new ship.
Speaker 2:Then when you got to it, no, it was in World War II in the Gulf of Laity, and I just got a book yeah, tell me about that On that. I just read that book. It was one of the biggest decisions in the war, once they took Laity and got the Japanese out of there. They pretty much done. Yeah quite a history. So that was a. She was in the pacific then, and when I got her in the atlantic, and, um, she did they.
Speaker 1:So back in 77, when she was decommissioned, did they? Uh, do you know what happened to it from there?
Speaker 2:it went overseas, somewhere to be scrapped.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I, um, I saw so my ship had been commissioned in 59 and it saw action in Vietnam. And then by the time I got to it in the 80s, it was pretty used up and they sold it and I just saw pictures on the internet where they were scrapping it. It was kind of hard to see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't see it, but that's where it went.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you spend a lot of time on those ships, you really get to know them, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I served watches in the engine room making fresh water for the showers and for the boilers. Then I had a watch and after steering, sat there and watched the rudder move. I don't know what that was for.
Speaker 1:And then I had a lag boat watch occasionally. So three different watch schedules, watch schedules well, how many evaps did they have on there then to make just one? Just well, really wow.
Speaker 2:So if that went down somebody on it constantly, me or somebody else yeah yeah, because I think we had.
Speaker 1:We had two, but I remember one was always down, so you'd get halfway to wherever you're going and no one could take showers, unless you want to take a saltwater shower, which, by the way, I don't recommend. I'd rather stink than take a saltwater shower. Yeah, so talk a little bit about that, because I don't know that people understand that ships make their own fresh water. They don't have these big freshwater tanks. They refill all the time to actually make it. So how does that work?
Speaker 2:Well, you boil the salt water and it makes steam. Then they condense the steam in the water. So that's how you get fresh water from seawater.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you guys make a lot of it Because your boilers need the fresh water, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, well, we had a vial with purple stuff in it. You had to test each batch. If it wasn't clean enough for the boilers, it had to go to drinking water. It had to be absolutely pure to go to boilers. They didn't want to get lime in them tubes right, right, because the heat and the lime caused.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting. If it wasn't good enough for the boilers, you guys got to drink it. Then Wow, it was still good, oh yeah yeah, yeah, I don't know. It never really tasted all that great, but it got the job done for sure. Yeah, so it sounds like a simple process, but it's a huge piece of machinery that does all that.
Speaker 2:The only thing is down in the interim was hot. Yeah, I found a big cast iron thing about this high a round thing. I'd pull that right under the vent that comes from the upper deck so the oil would blow right on my face. Well, that was good, that helps.
Speaker 1:Found a way to beat some of the heat yeah, now did you guys have to worry about steam leaks too? Yeah, they're dangerous, yeah, they'll cut you right because it's all high pressure steam, right, yeah, and you don't. You don't see it or necessarily hear it, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, well, they took pretty good care of those, wrap them and paint them. They're pretty good.
Speaker 1:Well, good, good. Well, is there anything else that you wanted to talk about that we haven't covered here, about your time in service or anything else?
Speaker 2:No, I enjoyed being in the service. I mean, you know, it's just some things I didn't care for, but mostly I had a good time yeah. Did my job.
Speaker 1:You could say that about any job, though right, there's always going to be something you don't really care for.
Speaker 2:I like to be on the landing craft taking them Marines to the shore and dumping them out. You know we could haul their trucks and their trailers and everything in one of the big 53-footers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, I don't think people realize how big those things are too. I mean, that's a lot of equipment and people to haul back and forth.
Speaker 2:Well, just like they see in the US. You run to the beach and bam goes the ramp and out they go, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I can imagine how those guys felt in World War II, hitting the beach at that point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wouldn't want to have been there. No, not at all, not at all.
Speaker 1:Well, good, I mean we've covered pretty much everything. Your time in the Navy and is there anything about after the Navy that we haven't talked about? That you'd like to? No, not really. Like I said, I didn't go to the what the haven't talked about. Do you like to?
Speaker 2:No, not really. Like I said, I didn't go to the what the heck they call that.
Speaker 1:Can't remember now. Well, you'll remember it about an hour from now. Yeah, that's what happens to me, yeah, yeah. So the other question is that we talked a little bit about this before we got on camera. So you're originally from the clarkson area, but now you're here in holly um and for the audience listening, it's a beautiful home.
Speaker 2:Um, talk a little about how you ended up here and and where you live now well, we searched everywhere to find a vacant property to put a house on and we finally found this one. And linda kept saying I want to be close to town so I can walk to town. So this one worked out. It was vacant and we bought it and while it was being built we lived in a condo north of town and then, when it was done, we moved here and we've been here almost five years now.
Speaker 1:Did you come watch and supervise the excavation?
Speaker 2:I dug the basement. Oh, you did. I was gonna ask. I borrowed a friend's machine, dug the basement myself, wow yeah. And then my son run the dozer when we were working. I run the excavator, mm-hmm. And so that's what happened here. It's got here.
Speaker 1:And then your son built this house too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a builder now. Yeah, he went back, got his builder's license. He had a college degree in something I don't remember what it was when we closed up. He went back and got a builder's license and went to work building, doing remodels and building.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, so it's sort of running your family. Do you think, though, went to work building, doing remodels and building? Yeah, so, so sort of running your family. Do you think, though I Mean your dad was an excavator and you, you were an excavator.
Speaker 2:And now your son is in the building trades. Yeah, mother son, my oldest son now works for Mitsubishi. He helps design the cooling systems for the air conditioning and stuff for the engine. And my youngest son, well, I said he's a builder. Yeah, you have grandkids. I got a bunch of those. They keep you busy. Yeah, I forget how many.
Speaker 1:Probably easy to do. I only have one, so I can't forget or I'm in trouble. But yeah, no, I have more than that. Yeah, how do you like being a grandpa?
Speaker 2:That's good, they like me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you find yourself exhausted when they leave, though Not really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember yourself exhausted when they leave, though Not really yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember my granddaughter, my youngest son's daughter. He only had one daughter. We used to play, have a tea party. I'd sit down with her when she was little and we'd have fake tea. And where we lived in Clarkston our old house was on one road and then I got on the main road, on Mabee Road, to build a house. Well, my granddaughter would come through and she called that the secret way because she could walk from her house to our house without going out in traffic. Oh, so that was good. Yeah, so that was nice Tea parties and secret passages Mm-hmm Well, it was nice Tea parties.
Speaker 1:And secret passages Mm-hmm Well, that's kind of cool. Yeah, seems like life's been pretty good to you.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so far, yeah, other than recently. I had a couple falls, so Uh-huh. I was at the National Cemetery one day standing up next to this guy's's car and all of a sudden I'm on my butt on the ground don't know what happened. And then my wife was doing something here with a hose, watering something. She said I was sitting on the deck there. She said come and help me. So I got up and, boom, fell down, hit my head and I had 12 stitches, went to the hospital for two days. Oh my gosh. So I'm trying to get through all that. So I don't know what caused it. Yeah, I don't know, they haven't found that out yet. They took away a bunch of my medicine, that's that causes that dizziness or whatever it was. So they took away a bunch of those. So I'm getting better. Well, good, so I use this walker pretty much, but uh, now I'm getting where I can go without that if I have to yeah, you don't seem like the complaining type of guy, so very good.
Speaker 1:Well, all right. We we've talked about a lot of things. We covered, uh, your life, um, I always ask this one question before we close out a conversation, and that is when someone's listening to your story years from now, you know, when neither one of us are still here. What message would you like to leave for people? About my time in the service, your time in the service, or just about your life in general, or a piece of advice that you would give to people, just anything like that.
Speaker 2:Well, I had a good time in the Navy. I enjoyed that. Now that I'm home, I don't work anymore anymore. We go a lot of places, we travel a lot. We go to florida in the winter, every winter, and go all over florida different condos and different places, and it's been great well, good, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for taking time out of your day, gary, to sit here and talk with me. I really appreciate it thank you that's good.
