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
Ranger Rick's Wild Ride (Rick Burroughs)
From the opening moments when Charles "Ranger Rick" Burroughs reveals his childhood abuse at the hands of his stepfather, to the triumphant reunion with his son after a 45-year separation, this conversation captures the extraordinary resilience of a man who repeatedly built something from nothing.
Born in Detroit and growing up between Michigan and Iowa, Rick's journey begins with his decision to leave home at just 14 years old. His remarkable ability to survive on his wits emerges immediately as he describes cleaning restaurants, sleeping in garages, and working in factories while still a teenager. The story takes a fascinating turn when Rick joins the Army during the Vietnam era, where his entrepreneurial spirit flourishes in unexpected ways – sneaking out to buy food from catering trucks to resell to fellow soldiers, working angles in typing classes, and becoming the go-to guy for hard-to-find items like jump boots.
After military service, Rick's business acumen leads him through multiple ventures, most notably becoming one of Michigan's premier gun dealers with multiple shops. His detailed account of losing everything to eminent domain, facing organized crime threats, and rebuilding from scratch demonstrates a persistence that defines his character. Perhaps most moving is his decades-long search for the son he lost contact with when his pregnant fiancée left him at the altar, a search that finally ended in a joyful reunion just weeks before this interview.
Throughout the conversation, Rick's philosophy shines through: "Don't quit when there's still daylight." His father's advice to never stop working while there's still light in the sky became his mantra for success. Despite setbacks that would have crushed many spirits – from physical abuse to business losses to death threats – Rick's determination to keep moving forward ultimately led to his current contentment.
Want to hear more remarkable stories of resilience and reinvention? Subscribe to our podcast and share this episode with someone who needs inspiration to keep pushing forward even when life knocks them down.
Well, my name is Charles Richard Burroughs. I go by Rick, and then friends that I ride with in the American Legion Riders group know me as Ranger Rick. I was born in Detroit. I grew up between Royal Oak and Muscatine, iowa. Mom and dad went different ways.
Speaker 2:Okay, and how old were you when they uh proud ways.
Speaker 1:I was about two. Okay, all right, jeb, brothers and sisters, I'm the eldest of 13. Good lord, yes, 13. And I've, I know them all. I'm close with all of them. Um, unfortunately, some of them I'm the eldest, but some of them have already passed over. Uh, but, um, yeah, I've got a couple of them that are just amazing and I'm still in touch with, and so, yeah, I, I grew up back and forth, um, in fact, so did you?
Speaker 2:so did you live in um Royal Oak then with your mother, and then you just went to Iowa to visit your dad? Yes, that was the way it was, was it like all of you just head out to Iowa? What was that like?
Speaker 1:Well, no, it was me and my mother had remarried and it was stepfather and he was a bad dude. He was an alcoholic and he was abusive to my mother and he was abusive to me because he had other children from her and I was baggage, and so him and I we did not have a good relationship at all. He actually, when I was a boy, would put me up against a stanchion post in the basement and whip me with a leather razor strap about two and three times a week until a doctor saw the scars on my back and chased him around a table. This went on for years, but chased him around the table and he said if you ever lay a hand on that kid again, I'm jumping over the backyard fence because he lived behind us and I'm going to clean your clock. And that stopped that abuse. But that's what it was like growing up. And if my real father would have known about it which he didn't Right, oh, it would have been terrible. It would have been. There would have been some changes there. But I remember my mother was sorry that she had left him because she would stand at the kitchen sink and just cry and I'd say, what's, what are you crying for and she'd say you look just like your father. One time I found a picture of a man in a sailor suit and I went to her and I says I don't remember wearing this. She says that's not you, that's your father. So growing up was a little bit rough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was on my own at 14. I left home on my own at 14. I got tired of being beat up Right when my stepfather beat me up one time when I was getting out of the shower. Stepfather beat me up one time when I was getting out of the shower, beat me up down next to the toilet. I said never again and I left. And I was.
Speaker 1:I still stayed in the Royal Oak area, but we're talking the sixties. Yeah, so I'm that hippie kid out there with a guitar on his back, with his thumb out, you know, and I'm getting rides to friends, I'm staying at different places and, uh, I tried going to school for a little while and then they pulled me into the office and said you're not paying taxes and you don't live at home anymore. So one of the counselors found a guy that needed some help for a job and so I went to work cleaning restaurants on Woodward Avenue for him and I slept in his garage and eventually I made some money. So I got a room in downtown Royal Oak until his business went bust.
Speaker 1:And then I was back on the street but some friends picked me up that I had known from school and they helped me get my belongings out of the room where I had been staying that I couldn't afford anymore.
Speaker 1:It was locked up. So they helped me get my stuff out and I went out to Pontiac and I stayed with them for a little while and they helped me get on my feet and I started going to different factories on Stevenson Highway and eventually just grew and I could afford myself. And then I was working in a foundry in Clawson, michigan, and I don't know anybody, and, uh, they made pistons and parts for automotive uh, industry, for the automotive industry, and so they're an auto supplier. Then, uh, they were a manufacturer, okay, and one of my jobs was to grind pistons. And one of my jobs was to grind pistons, get the birds and flashings off of them, yeah. And then they decided I had it together enough that they put me on what they called an automatic polishing machine, which is about the size of this room maybe a little bit larger.
Speaker 2:For anybody listening.
Speaker 1:We're in a pretty big room, yeah, so you put parts on here, it goes through, the machine comes back out and then you take them off. Here there's big polishing wheels and everything polish everything, make them shiny before they can be chromed. So then one day I've stepped out into the main aisle, I've changed some wheels on this big polishing machine and I'm looking at my work to make sure it's angled right and there is a young man comes around a corner, about 30 feet from me. He's on a high-low and the forks are up in the air and he caught me in the mouth and he carried me for about 20 feet Another 10, I would have hit a beam, I would have been decapitated. As it was, I slid off the fork on the ground and everybody's gathering towards me. You know they've set an alarm off and I'm in a lot of pain. They came and they ran me up with morphine, called a hospital and off I went and so I had my teeth and my mouth all wired for like six weeks and then they did dental work to try and fix them. The ones in the front were capped and replaced and stuff.
Speaker 1:And then I was 17 and I had to sign a release so I could get back to work. I didn't have a parent around at that time to step up and say, hey, this, I would have been driving cadillacs, you know right. But um, I didn't have anybody and I had a room I had to pay rent on. So, um, I signed a release, I said you know, I'm not going to hold them liable for anything. And I, I had lied about my age to get the job. They thought I was 18. Right, right.
Speaker 1:So I got my job back and it's the first day on the job and I'm just aware of what's going on around me and I see this young man and I've been watching him and he clocked out early. And I clocked out early and I followed him out to the parking lot and he said hey man, hey man, I'm sorry, you know, I I didn't mean it was an accident. I says, I know, I understand, but it just hurt too damn bad. And so I beat him up, not a high point in my life, but I beat him up. And when I was doing that, I'm hearing the crowd saying the cops are coming. I could hear sirens in the background or anything. And the next thing I know I feel this hand on the back of me and it pulls me off. He says come on, man, you got to go.
Speaker 1:And this guy throws me in the back of his convertible and we speed out of there as the cops are coming in and he says well, I didn't like that job anyhow. What about you? I said no, and so he had seen the day of the accident. He knew what was going on, um, and he says what's your story?
Speaker 1:I says, well, I got to find a place to live and I'm going to have to find a new job. He says, oh, okay, well, I know where we can get a job. It'll take maybe about a week for us to get hired, but I know where we can get a job. My brother's already working there and you can come stay at my house. He lived in downtown Detroit, so I moved in with his family for a while and we got a job out in Birmingham delivering salt for water softeners and for garden supplies. Then he decided he wanted to go into the service and I says, oh boy, what am I going to do? Well, I might as well go too. So we both signed up and it was funny. We went down it was like six o'clock in the morning down at Fort Wayne and uh, so this is Fort Wayne.
Speaker 2:Detroit, detroit. Yeah, a lot of people don't realize there was a Fort Wayne in Detroit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like a step away from ghetto, yeah, yeah. And so we start going through the physical and everything and they're asking us all kinds of questions and things like that. Well, david, my friend that was his name, david David was done at noon and he was out and him and his brother were waiting for me, got tired waiting for me and so they were asking where is Rick? And I was only halfway through and so they said, okay, we'll come, let's go get some lunch. And then they came back and they waited all afternoon.
Speaker 1:Well, I came out and it's like six o'clock and they said where have you been? What happened? I says, well, I had to lie. They said what do you mean? Well, they kept on turning me down and I said if you're going, I'm going to. And what I said? Yeah, I get up to a station. The guy say no, you've had spinal problems and we're not going to accept you. You've had this or that problem and we're no. And I said they'd send me onto the next station, Then they'd sign. They wouldn't sign the paperwork, they just sent me on the next station, which was supposed to turn me away, right? And uh, I'd wait in the hall and they would change shifts. When the new guy came in, I'd walk up in front of him and I'd be all frantic and everything. Oh my God, I don't know what to do Now. This is a Vietnam era.
Speaker 1:All they really want is bodies Right and so they really don't give a care, but I'd be all panicky, oh man. They sent me back and I was supposed to have this signed and went through and I did this. And what do I do here? Give me that they signed it and I'd go. I had to do that like three or four times to get through, so I didn't get done until six o'clock that night, but I was in. It's a lot of work.
Speaker 1:And so then we were given like I don't know three, four months before we were actually supposed to report and they had us all on this, these bleachers, and they they were asking okay, who wants to go in the Navy? Guys would raise their hands and okay, you go, sit over there. And who wants to go into the army? Okay, okay, you guys, sit over there, marines, and I'm okay. So I got into the army. One, um, all my relatives have been Navy. I figured I'm going to do something different. And David's going to army, I'm going to army. So, um, there it was on the bench. And then they come along and they say they look at David and me. They say you two, you're from Detroit. Yeah, sit over there. They singled us out because we were from Detroit. They figured we're tough guys or something, right, they separated us. So, okay, fine, we sat over there.
Speaker 1:So there I was in the service. So there I was in the service and I had always, I had been a businessman already in my life. I was on my own for years. Um, there was always an angle that I had going where I was buying and selling something Right. And uh, before I had worked at Grant steel, I had a painting company and, uh, I had guys working for me, I was painting condominiums. People didn't know I was so young, you know they, they never saw me, you know, it was just over the phone or different things. And okay, I'll have guys on the job and something wasn't up to snuff. Well, we fix, we'd fix that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're a survivor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, making money. Yeah, so I got into the service there and it's like what do I do? You know where's the opportunity here? So we're in these barracks. We were in what was called the new barracks, so they're cinder block, not wood buildings, and we're up on the second floor. And they tell us that we're up on the second floor and they tell us that we're to stay in those rooms. We can never leave. So this is basic training then. Yeah, this is basic. And where did you go to basic? At Fort Knox, kentucky. Okay, all right, lovely, fort Knox.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I'm picturing where you're at now, yeah, so, um, they tell us that, uh, you can't go out to the mega wing and there are catering trucks that come onto the base at night and they just sit out in the opening. Anybody that's brave enough to get out there and give them money they're selling to and we're not supposed to leave the barracks. But what do they teach you to do in the Army? Crawl through things over things, right, be stealthy, don't get caught, yeah, yeah. So I'm down all the way on the end, me and David has the last bunks, and I climb out the window and I can step on the top of the kitchen door. I can then reach the railing for the back porch where the kitchen's at. Go down the steps, run out there, buy as much as what I can Come back in, climb back in, and then there's guys that will buy everything I've got At a profit, right At a profit. And wait a minute, guys. Here's the main thing. None of this paperwork can ever any of your trash. I don't care where you put it, but don't let anybody find it. We're all done.
Speaker 1:And so that was a good gig and I'd get put on KP. So I'm supposed to be out doing salt shakers or something. Uh-uh. I go to the storeroom. I say, hey, go do salt shakers. No, no, no. I'm assigned here and I'm telling you, go out there because you're going to do salt shakers, because I'm working in here and I would steal everything I could. I would steal boxes of cereal and apples and bananas and I'd put them down in my blouse pants and I'd be walking up back to the barracks bow-legged. And then, when I got up there, of course everything's for sale, right, and guys are hungry because they're working us hard, and except for now, bananas. You can have the banana, but you gotta give me back the peel Because you see, I'm gonna shred that peel, I'm gonna take the cover off of the radiator, I'm gonna dry those peels. I've been over to the PX.
Speaker 1:I bought candy that I sold all these guys. I had money. I bought rolling papers and I roll them up and make banana joints. I sell them for a dollar and a guy's off of work that day because of it, raises his temperature and makes him throw up, and then the rest of the day he's got off to go and do whatever he wants. You had quite a deal going here.
Speaker 1:I was resourceful, so I was a businessman. So then business came crashing down around me. You know, you do these antics and then you get in trouble. Everyone always gets caught at some point.
Speaker 1:That I was caught, it was that we had to write home to somebody and I wasn't writing home to. So they said you got to call, you got to write somebody. I'll write my grandmother, okay. So I wrote my grandmother and she writes me back. She says well, how are you doing there, you know, are you getting enough to eat? And you know what are they feeding you? And I said I wrote her back in a little letter and I says well, it's not like, you know, sitting at your table and you know there's no seconds or anything like that, right, and I says but you know, the child was okay.
Speaker 1:Grandma reads that and she says oh my god, sunny boy is not getting enough to eat. What? Just so happens that her cousin, my, my Uncle Bill, is William Broomfield, congressman for Michigan. Great, yes, I don't know Grandma's doing this, but she contacts Uncle Bill and the next thing, you know, I'm called down to the captain's office and it's like what I says what do I do, dave, dave, what do I do? He says what do you mean? You better get your ass down there. I says but I don't know what to do when I get down there. I'm just in basic, you know. And I says what do I do when I get there? Do I salute or what? And he says well, he's a captain, he's asked you to get down there. You better get down there. I said, but if we're supposed to be saluting somebody or not, he says go down there and just do that. They know you're, you know we're green, they understand, just go down there and do that.
Speaker 1:So I go down there and I knock on the door and the door is opened and I kind of do that on my hat and he says yeah, the captain says come on in here. He's got two sergeants with him, a staff sergeant and master sergeant, and he says what's your problem? I says I got no problem. He says no, you got a problem. You're making it my problem. What's your problem? I says I don't know what you're talking about. He says at ease, sit down here. He says you guys can go, I I got this, so it's just him and me. Now he says look, there's a problem here with you. Uh, something about your food, I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Takes his letter and flips it over at me and I see it comes down from congress, congress letterhead or anything like down the bottom. I says oh, that's uncle bill. He says that's what Bill. He says that's what, that's my Uncle Bill. He says do you know what you've done? I says no, I was able to figure out. Grandma got ahold of Uncle Bill.
Speaker 1:Well, back then there was a lot of graft going on. They had food going out the back door for money and into the community and that was their little side deal. Well, he says from now on, he says this is what's going to be the deal. If you want to go back to the chow line twice, you go back twice. If you want to go back three times, you go back three times. But you're going to eat everything on that plate or I'm going to cram it down your throat. Yes, sir. He says, not only you but your platoon, your whole goddamn company, is going to go through that. You get as much to eat as you want. Oh, okay, what am I going to say? That's bad for business though. Yeah, so yeah, that ruined his business and so mine was coming to an end anyhow. So, all right.
Speaker 1:He says why didn't you come to me? I says, well, I tried to. He says what do you mean? I says I went to the buck sergeant and the buck sergeant said if you don't like it, write your congressman. And I didn't know. I knew I didn't want to do anything like that. I didn't want no trouble. So I wrote Grandma and Uncle Bill and Grandma got together and here we are. So that letter followed me all the way through the service.
Speaker 1:Really, yeah, people would think, oh, lucky you. Uh-uh, you don't want to be the privileged kid, you know. You just don't want that. Under the radar is kind of where you want to be right. Right, yeah, just one of the guys. So the next thing I know is I'm sent to a cook school and business is good. I had been through a class for typing and for filing and with the typing class, david and I didn't attend. We marched up the stairs like we're supposed to. Instead of going into the classroom, we went straight ahead into the bathroom and out the bathroom window and over to the PX and drank 3-2 beer all day and goofed off. Then it came the day of the test.
Speaker 2:So, really quick though, I know what 3-2 beer is because my parents used to drive to Ohio to get it. So anybody that doesn't know 3-2 beer is you can't get drunk on it, no, it's 3.2% alcohol and you could buy it at a younger age and in, yeah, in other places, yeah, so, yeah, it's like no beer, right, right so anyway, I just want to sit there all day.
Speaker 1:It's something to do, you know but because I had things going, I had business and david was a pool hustler and so he was making money. It comes the day of the test and david already been talking to the two guys that were going home it was their last day oh, and he comes to me he says look, you know, here's the deal. So we went out and we talked with them because we couldn't pass the test. Uh, we didn't know how to type and filing abc one, two, three, come on, so um. But there I found out later, there was guys couldn't do that. Yeah, but um takes all kinds. So we get up there and we say so, how are you getting home? This is your last day. Yeah, when we're done with this test, we're out of here, we're done, we're discharged. Already, we're, this is done, it's our last duty thing. Really, how are you getting home?
Speaker 1:Well, one guy was going to take a bus to Texas. Another guy was going to take a bus to California. I said, oh my God, that's a long ride. Jeez, I've done some hitchhiking. You can make faster time hitchhiking than riding a bus. But wow, why don't you take a plane? Well, we don't have money for that. You don't how long you been in this army. You don't have money for a plane ticket home, oh, my goodness. Well, let me ask you a question what if you had the money to fly home? I mean you would, wouldn't you? Well, yeah, but we don't have the money. Well, what if let's just say, just just as just, we're just talking here, what if, say, some money just kind of fell out here on the desk someplace and all you had to do was just pass us, not make us first and second in the class, just get us barely by, but we pass? Do you think something like that could be worked out? Yeah, I think that. You know what do you think they're talking? Yeah, we could do something like that. Oh well, what's that over there? Money's out. Okay, well, thank you guys.
Speaker 1:You know, see you never Well onto a cook school ago. Businessmen's working away there. Guys, come in, give me a hard time. The shot record gets missing, whatever. They don't give you a hard time after that because they got to go and have them all done again.
Speaker 1:But the smart thing is they would bring me. They made chicken and pies there at this cook school and every day when they got done in the kitchen with their cooking, I got a tray of chicken. Now, a military tray is huge, oh yeah, and it's mounded with chicken legs and I would get four pies on a tray. Those come in. Okay, thanks guys. Well, of course I'd go to the company commander and say, sir, when you go home tonight because they're living off base, of course, when you go home today, I'd like you to take this pie for you and the family. You know, it'd be nice if, if you could do that. So I'm, I'm, I'm, thank you, sir, and uh, so things are smooth for me Right Now.
Speaker 1:At night I wake up a cookie and I say here's the deal. You get some bread, I don't care how you get it, you get some, some bread, get some mayo, and we're making sandwiches and we're slicing pie and we took them around to all the poker games on base and at fort knox. There's poker games going on everywhere at night and we're making money. I'm making the larger portion, but he's making money too. That was your idea, right, yeah, yeah, so, uh, everybody's happy, but he's making money too. That was your idea, right, yeah, yeah, so everybody's happy.
Speaker 1:Then I get transferred. We're separated, david and I. That went in on the buddy plan. He goes to Florida and I get sent out to Coventry, rhode Island, and that's where I am supposed to be a clerk typist. So I walk in not knowing that these two clowns that passed us made us first and second highest in the class. So you got a prime job right.
Speaker 1:So I get there and I report to the base commander and I said you know, here I am, I've reported. In it. He says, okay, I'll show you your duty, you can leave your stuff here. And he takes me out into the duty room and he says okay, there's four desks here. He's got that one, that one and that one and this one will be yours. Stuff comes in, it's put here, you type it up in triplicate and you file it over there. That's what you do, okay. Okay, stole your gear and get back to work.
Speaker 1:Stole my gear and came back and I'm sitting at that desk, jigs up. What am I going to do? Well, I better go see Lieutenant Colonel Logan. I thought I got rid of you. He says Well, sir, I've got a little problem. Okay, what is it? I says well, I want you to remember something.
Speaker 1:When I came in and I was still in basic, they told me that you, sir, we were to think of you like our mother or father. Is that correct, sir? What'd you do? Well, here, sit down. So here I am, sitting down in front of an officer again. He says tell me what you did. So I told him the whole thing.
Speaker 1:I told him the whole story and he says do you know what I could do? He's laughing so damn hard he's almost falling out of his chair. He says oh my God, I own you, I own you, I own you, I own you. He says I could put you in jail, I could send you back to square one, I could. There are so many things I could do. I could make you start all over again. He says but I'm not going to do that. I own you. Anything that I need or want you're going to get for me, right? Yes, sir? He said all right, as long as those three out there can do the work of four, you're off the hook. Tomorrow morning I want a car out front, gassed and cleaned and ready to go, and you're driving me.
Speaker 2:Yes sir.
Speaker 1:So then it started and I ended up like Radar O'Reilly I'm trading promises for stuff, and everybody back then the big thing was jump boots. Everybody wanted jump boots, and so we were going to different bases and after I dropped off, uh, the Lieutenant Colonel, I would go around where's your storerooms, where's the warehouses and stuff, and I'd go run find stuff and I'd make more promises and I would trade some stuff that I maybe had in the trunk, like some pie or some food or hot dogs, or maybe there were mechanic stuff, tools and things, other stuff that came along my way, you know making these trades, and then I get the jump boots. So then everybody would be happy. And then I was considered the guy to go to and business was good and the Lieutenant Colonel was happy and I was driving him up to Quonset Naval Base and we're getting great lunches and he wants to go off base to the bars and drink and he's buying. So hey, that's great. And so if there's an officer's meeting, I don't mind pouring coffee. That means I'm eating officer's chow that day, right, great, they put us out for war games.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm outside for three days. They've dropped me off, I'm in a hole. They say, okay, we'll come by, we'll drop you off food and just stay in the hole. Don't leave this hole. Okay, I heard that story before. Don't leave this room. Don't leave the base.
Speaker 2:Don't leave this hole. Okay, I heard that story before. Don't leave this room. Don't leave the base, don't leave the base.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got you. So I start walking around and it's summertime, there are blueberry bushes everywhere. Why would I want to open up those biscuits out here? Oh my God, they're terrible, and I'm not going to eat those lima beans, but I know there'll be some clown that'll want them Still those. So I'm eating blueberries for three days. They come back and they get me. Did we win? Oh, yeah, we won. Okay, great, great, get in. So then they take me back to base, but I still have half a helmet of blueberries.
Speaker 1:I am fed up with blueberries. I don't want to see blueberries anymore. But what am I going to do? I take that helmet half full of blueberries and I knock on the kitchen door and the cookie comes to the door. He says, yeah, what do you want? I says I've got these blueberries. He says, yeah, what do you want me to make you a pie? I said, no, no, no, no. These are for you, for me. Well, yeah, yeah, see, if I gave you these, I'm planting the seed for him, I'm helping him. If I give you these, you could make a pie and you could give it to the bc, the base commander, and you'd make some points. Right, yeah, but what do you want? Listen, man, man, I've been out in this hole for three days and I'm hungry. I want a steak. No, you're enlisted. You don't get steak. You don't get blueberries. All right, listen, sit over in that corner. Don't leave that. I suppose you want potatoes and a vegetable with that right, that'd be very nice. Thank you, don't leave that table. Okay, hi, child, it was great.
Speaker 1:So time goes on and the BC comes to me and he says all right, well, I've got orders, I'm going to go over the pond and so I won't see you for a while. I says I'm sorry, you're leaving, sir, and you know I'm gonna miss you anything. You won't miss me very long. I says what do you mean? He says You're gonna have orders this afternoon. I says no, no, no. No, see, you're airborne, I'm not. So I Says no, no, you're going to jump school. You're not gonna go all the way through, but you have to know of what goes on there for your duty. He says and then I'll be there when you get off the. You're not going to go all the way through, but you have to know of what goes on there for your duty. He says and then I'll be there when you get off the plane, shit Okay, and he was, he was a great guy, uh-huh.
Speaker 1:And uh, my brother was in country and uh, he was killed. And Lieutenant Logan came to me and he said I got to talk to you and uh, I got some news I got to tell you about and it's going to be tough, so brace yourself. Okay, your brother's been killed and you're going home. I said what do you mean? Well, again, there was that letter in my file. You see, when you're sent to Saigon, that's not in country, you're on US soil. So that's where I was at. They didn't want to have two brothers lost in the same campaign. So my brother came home and I came home and they discharged me early because of it. I got an honorable discharge, but they said you know I would be on um, I forget what it's called, but you're still in the army, but for a certain amount of time. If they call you for some kind of inactive ready reserve.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:And uh. So I came back and they sent me to um interesting, the East coast again, interesting, the East Coast again. And I went to a Navy base. I was discharged from a Navy base, they had all my papers there and they said you're here, you're free to go. And I said, well, I'll hitchhike home. Then, I guess. And I didn't have any money, and I remember I still had my uniform on and I walked outside the gate and I put my thumb out and two MPs came out after me and they said what do you think you're doing? I said I'm going home, man, I'm done. I got my paperwork, I'm done. And they said no, no, no, no, you can't, look, you can't hitchhike here. Go on down the road a mile, we don't care if we can't see it, we don't care, but you can't do it here. Oh, okay. Well, I was smart enough to know that if you're in uniform, you're going to get picked up. If you're not, then oh well.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, uh, I walked down the road and, uh, got picked up. I walked down the road and got picked up. The guy took me to a town and I said this is good enough for me, I'm just looking for a diner. And I went into the diner and I sat down at the table and waitress comes over and she says what do you want? And I says well, let me tell you what I want. I want a steak. You've got a steak. I want a steak and I want some vegetables. I want a bowl of vegetables and I want some rolls and I want some mashed potato and gravy. I want a bowl of mashed potatoes and a bowl of gravy. And then I'm going to want pie for dessert and I want a chocolate shake. She says what are you going to do with this food? I said I'm going to eat it. I want this food. I just got discharged, I'm out, I'm done, I'm going to eat this food. She says okay, that guy comes out of the kitchen, she's talking with him. She comes back over to me. She says the owner wants to know have you got money to pay for this? And I says, yeah, I pulled out my cash. I says I got money to pay for it, no problem.
Speaker 1:And they lined the table with food and I just pigged oh my God, I didn't eat it. I don't know we I could, but that's what I wanted, right, I was home in a way, yeah and uh. So from there I left and I hitchhiked and, uh, I got picked up in Rochester, new York, by some young guys and uh, they said where are you headed? I said I'm going to Detroit, because I was going to go back to David's family actually-huh. And so then they said have you got any money? I said no, that's why I'm hitchhiking, man. And the guy turned around to the other guys in his car and he says you guys got any cash? We need gas money. We're going to Detroit. And they drove me all the way to the front door.
Speaker 2:That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:And they said have a nice life, man. They were really cool kids. They weren't like you know, because I was military. I mean, when you come back and you land in california, they don't like you right, you know they throw stuff at you.
Speaker 2:Uh, you're a baby killer. And what year is this? That you, that you came home?
Speaker 1:I came home in 60. Well, I started in 68 and I came home in 70. Okay, all right. So Detroit 1970. Then yeah and uh. So I was around David's family for a little bit and uh, it was time to strike off on my own. So I struck off on my own and I ended up then coming back to Iowa and I spent time with my dad, um, and then I went back and saw my mom and uh, she had everything from my brother. Yeah and uh, I came back on the same plane, but I couldn't deal with anything. After that. I just split and uh.
Speaker 1:So I told my mom I says, listen, I'm, I'm between jobs and I'm just getting my feet back on the ground. Do you think it would be okay? Could I come and just stay here for like two weeks max? And she says, well, well, I gotta ask your stepfather, this is okay, ask me. And he said it was okay.
Speaker 1:So it's the very first night and I'm upstairs in bedroom and I hear some fighting going on downstairs and I hear what I think is my mom just got hit or slapped or something. I come running down the stairs and she's on the sofa and she's crying. And I say to her did he hit you? She says, never mind, never mind, let it go, let it go. I says I asked you, did he hit you? And she says just let it go, rick.
Speaker 1:And I walked out the front door. He's pulling down the driveway and I say, hey, listen, old man, let me tell you something this time. Um, you could just keep going now that you're in that car. You don't need to come back here. I'm home, I'll take care of this here. You just keep in your car and keep going. Nobody's going to beat my mom up anymore. That's not going to happen. And he pulled back up in the driveway. He says what's your problem? I says get back in your car and just leave. I'm not putting up with this. Get in the house, we'll talk about this. No, I'm standing right here. You got something to say. You say it to me. And then get in your car.
Speaker 1:He made a mistake of pushing me and then taking a swing at me. Well, I'm out of the service now. You're not a little kid anymore. Nah, you're right, I'm not a little kid anymore. Yeah, and I don't really feel any allegiance to you.
Speaker 1:And uh, he walked up the steps under the porch there. These were the sugar shacks that they built after world war two and and so he's standing on the porch and I don't know. I just blanked out. I picked him up mid-waist. My mom was at the door. She said, rick don't. She closed the door.
Speaker 1:We went through both the storm door and the inside door. It just went into pieces, stopped at the closet door and we're in the living room and tussling around and he pushed me back and I hit the couch and sprung off and drop, kicked him right out the front picture window and I stepped through the window and I told him I said don't get up, just don't get up. And he got up. So I kicked him off the porch and I got down. I said don't get up, don't get up.
Speaker 1:He was all groggy by this time. He's out of it and he threw a couple of punches and I threw a couple of. I just didn't have the heart to hit him anymore. The guy's done and uh. So I just walked away and I went and saw some friends on the next block and they put me up for a couple of weeks and I was off and running again and it wasn't long before. Well, I was asked to come back to the house after a couple of weeks. He would never, ever talk to me, right. But I was asked to come back for dinner and I did. But I went off in life. And then I met a nice lady and we were to get married. I bought a house and she left me at the altar and uh, no, she was, so we were talking off off camera.
Speaker 2:She was actually like the boss's daughter she ended up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you didn't know this. I'm working in a um schlesinger construction or something like that metal works and uh, I met this gal. Uh, she was. I was working there and I was in the parking lot and I whistled at her. She turned around. We Then we dated and I didn't know she was the foreman's daughter, my foreman's daughter, right, right. And so then she left me at the altar and she was pregnant with my child, right. And then I was let go. I didn't have a job anymore, and she had the child.
Speaker 1:I saw the child the next day after he was born at Providence Hospital, and for two years I was denied being able to see the child and they wanted child support and after two years I said I'm not paying. No more If I can't see my son, put me in jail, I don't care, I'm done. And so I hired Equal Rights for Fathers. At that time they were just starting, two attorneys were just starting and I didn't have any money. But I took a ring off my hand. It was a gold ring. I says will that start? He says yeah, puts it in his desk drawer. He says you can have it back when you give me the money. And off.
Speaker 1:We went, we went to court and on the second and third time she didn't show up. She had left for Texas where there's no extradition. That meant they can't legally make her come back Any other state. You can do that A couple of places. There's a place in California, a place in I think it's Nevada, I think it's Reno or someplace like that. That. That applies, but the entire state of Texas. There's no extradition. So my attorney said I'm sorry, son, but you lost this one and you're going to have to let this go because you could go down there and get residency, take six months, see her in court again, should just come back here. So you got to let it go. But I did trace my son's name across the country for several years by postmasters and then I got a lead. Once the computers came in, the internet came in, going back to the time between yeah, so you.
Speaker 2:You didn't see him for 47 years, right, so you?
Speaker 1:so you well, 45 years right, because he was two years with his mother.
Speaker 2:So in between that time you're still kind of trying to make sure you know where he's at. Yeah and then um, but you're. So what are you doing in in that?
Speaker 1:oh, I was 45 years. Yeah, I was a businessman.
Speaker 2:A legitimate businessman, though right, you weren't stealing food out of the back door.
Speaker 1:Well, I went working in factories for a little bit and everybody's always asking for more money. And we're out on a picket line and I'm telling them look, you guys are going to get what you want, but only half of you are going to be here next year expected to do the same amount of work.
Speaker 1:Guys, this place are going to be here next year expected to do the same amount of work. Yeah, it's not. You know, guys, this ain't happening. This place is going to end up closing. And they said, no, we don't care. Okay, well, that was time when I realized this ain't a place for me. I don't like this labor.
Speaker 1:So I took a layoff and I took my unemployment money and saved it up and started buying guns. And I had a house full of guns, man, I had them hanging on racks on the ceiling and I would take them to the gun and knife shows and I'd make money. And I was like, oh, my God, you know, I'd come home on a Sunday night and I got a lot of cash. This is great, yeah, and this is legit. And then I got a letter from the ATF and they said well, yeah, but you've got to do the majority of your sales from a business place. Well, I had a deal worked out with a store that was in town that every 1911, 45 that came through I would buy it. Every used one that they had come in I would buy it from. I go up and I told them I'll give you $500 for a gun, I don't care the condition, what it is, if it's a 45 and this is 1911, I'll buy it. And so I had built up a relationship there. But the guy that was the owner there had taken it over on a land contract from the original owner and he's spending money. He ain't getting no money back. He's, he's going in the hole. So I went to him and I said hey, look, I'll make you a deal. Um, everything that comes in the door I'll buy used. We can put it on my license I had gotten a license by this point. We can put it on my license or your license. Anything that's new that's yours, that's on the shelf, I have nothing to do with it. But anything that's used I'll give you half of the profit. So that's a pretty good deal for you. You're making something you didn't have to invest in, or nothing, right, okay, and that worked for about a year until he stuck me with a hot Luger, somebody's war souvenir, and that doesn't fly with me, right.
Speaker 1:When I found out that was the deal, I went over to a detective that I knew in Royal Oak and I said here's the deal, here's the gun. I don't want it, it's stolen. I didn't know about it. I told him everything that went down. He says just take it. I says but you know what am I going to do with it? It's a, it's a stolen gun. He says I never registered it, so there's nothing we can do. So you know, it's like a no crime. He says just put it on your books and sell it and get on with life. Okay, I went back to that store and I took every gun that I had in the place out of there.
Speaker 1:I emptied it and within a couple of weeks it closed. And I knew of another store that was a couple miles away that had just closed up. And I went to the owner there and I said hey, what's the story with your store here? I'd like to rent this store. He says, well, he had been closed up by the ATF Um and he had to sell his stuff off and they gave him a year. He said, if I sold his stuff off for him, I could rent there. Fine, great, let's make the deal. So I put my stuff in, I'm selling my stuff and his stuff and I'm going to the gun and knife shows. I'm still making money.
Speaker 1:And around the corner was a printing business and it was a cinder block business. The one I was in was the oldest building in Madison Heights and it was wood floor. I mean it was heated by a potbelly stove. I mean you had to feed that dragon all day long. So here I am, I've made a deal at the printing shop. They're closing up. I go in there with a contractor, we make counters and racks and everything, and I'm in business and everything worked out. I'm right on John R. It was great.
Speaker 1:But there were some people that were in the city that just were not anti-gun and they wanted me gone. Lesson to learn if they want you gone, just go. You're going to lose your butt fighting them and I fought them for two years. But then they came in by eminent domain. That's six cents on the dollar. You're going to lose your ass. Great, your best bet when they do that to you. Anything you can buy at a yard sale, anything you can buy anywhere, bring it in the door, put it on the floor, because the guy is going to come in, he's going to inventory everything there and that's how they judge their value and then they give you a check and you're done of course.
Speaker 2:How long were you in the business there?
Speaker 1:well, I, was there for two years and a year before at the place before and probably about almost a year at the one in Royal Oak. Okay, which interesting became Dr Kevorkian? Everybody knows about the old Dr Death Right, he rented an apartment upstairs from us. Oh yeah, he wasn't a bad guy, really Right, he gave out prescriptions for people on the street. Dr Death Right, he rented an apartment upstairs from us. Oh yeah, he wasn't a bad guy, really Right, he gave out prescriptions for people on the street that were poor. Yeah, he was German, but it's like, it's not like that. You know, he was actually a pretty good guy. He was helping people. He didn't charge anybody, it's like okay.
Speaker 1:That's an interesting side note, yeah, so here I am and I'm in a domain they give me the money. Okay, I'm going to buy that strip across the road on the other side. They can't say that they've got to widen the road there, right? I mean, I told them. I says I'm four cement blocks back from the road here, you know, and at the corner you're using half of a block and you put up a rail. Why are you doing this to me? Because they want you gone and I'm too dumb to realize. I'm just stubborn. So I buy the strip across the road and I come in and I remodel it and I put in two more businesses. So now I've got a gun shop, a pawn shop and a jewelry store Things. I put in two more businesses. So now I've got a gun shop, a pawn shop and a jewelry store. Things are going good. If they can't get you out of there one way, there's another way.
Speaker 1:An organized crime approached me and they wanted me to put some guns in the pawn shop. I told them. I said I've got a gun shop next door. I'm not competing with myself. And they said no, we're going to put them in here. And I said I got a gun shop next door, I'm not competing with myself and they said, no, we're going to put them in here. And I said I'm not putting them on the shelf without proper ID. And they left them there.
Speaker 1:And five minutes later a guy comes in with a gold badge from the state department. He's been following them. They've been buying guns in out of state, against the law, out of state, bringing them to Michigan. They're selling off the sporting arms and anything that isn't a sporting arms. They're running across the detroit river to canada. So, um, I got caught up in all of that. I was innocent. Um, I told the guy from the state department says you want to turn this over to local police? They work in the court. Says you want to turn this over to local police? They work in the court.
Speaker 1:The FBI had been in the city for years trying to catch all the dirt Right and a thousand other stories. But I said they're going to come after me.
Speaker 2:Nah, nah, you're all right?
Speaker 1:Well then they did. I'm in the pawn shop and I come through the door and a guy that I knew, who had been in the business, who I bought the first store from where I rented, actually he's there. He's working for the court my accountant. I had gotten from him. He came later in the day because if he wanted to check my paperwork, he said so he's there and he's there. And then came in organized crime, entered the front door and closed the blinds and said you're out of business.
Speaker 1:And I retreated back into my gun shop, pulled down a barrier we had in the ceiling. It had been a garage before I left that. Yeah, I had a plate glass put in a half wall, put up floors put in and I had cameras. I'm calling the atfs who said they were going to protect me. They're on another job, they can't get there two o'clock in the morning. They call me, are you okay? Yeah, I'm talking to you on the phone.
Speaker 1:They just looted out my jewelry store in my pawn shop. Okay, yeah, I'm talking to you on the phone. They just looted out my jewelry store and my pawn shop and I said, well, go home and we will be at your house tomorrow morning and we will interview all your employees, have all of your employees at your house. Well, by this time I've got not just that, I've got two other gun shops. Yeah, and you know I'm one of the one of the two largest dealers at the show, at the gun and knife shows at that point. And uh, so everybody's at my house. The next morning they come, they interview every one of my employees. Then they take me into the kitchen of the house and they in front of me says, well, everything's checking out. You know, to the kitchen of the house and they in front of me says, well, everything's checking out. You know he must be telling us the truth so you can let your employees go back to work. I says, okay, guys, you can go back to go open up and I'll be there shortly. They said no, no, no, no, no, your life is in danger, you can't go back. I says I'm the owner, I'm the boss, I gotta run the place. They said you can't go back. I had trusted employees. I was fortunate that way. Right, they don't know how to buy, they don't know how to sell. That's me.
Speaker 1:So the ATF put me in what they called a safe house. I was there for two days and they came to me and they said we have a problem, it's been breached. So do you have some place that you could go that you think would be safe? I said, well, I got a godfather in Gregory. Okay, they took me out to Gregory, my godfather, and then I'm there like four days and there's a knock on the door and it's the state department this time and they talked with my godfather. He comes to me. He says there's a problem. They know that you're here and so you're not safe here. And I've got kids, man. I said no, no, I understand, you know. He says they're going to put you on a plane. You can go to your dad. I understand, you know. He says they're going to put you on a plane, you can go to your dad.
Speaker 1:So, okay, they put me on a plane that night and I went to um, illinois, um, forget the airport, but anyhow, in the middle of the night my dad and a brother came and picked me up and took me back to the farm in Iowa.
Speaker 1:And, uh, that night my dad says don't know, don't tell me nothing, just we'll talk about it at breakfast. And so I ran it all down to him everything that had happened, because I had already built up a really great relationship with my real father at that point in life. And, uh, he was a businessman. He understood. Um, in fact, he had been through eminent domain in the town that he lived in and they filed bankruptcy because they didn't pay him right. So, um, there I was. I was there for eight and a half months. Uh, the first attorney group that I hired in manison heights, michigan, came to me and said whoa, whoa, whoa, it, whoa, whoa, it's too hot for us, we can't handle this. So then I, by luck, one of my employees' father had a relationship with the previous attorney for the city of Detroit's police department attorney.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:And I went and saw him and I told him everything and he says, okay, I'll take the case. And I told him everything and he says, okay, I'll take the case, go back to iowa. So I went back to iowa. While I'm in iowa they came in the front door of my dad's bar. As I'm going out the back, they asked the barmaid um, did they know where I was at? And I'm out the door, I don't know these guys. And I went upstairs and they're looking in the back alley. I could watch them out a window. They didn't know where I went. So then my father was called and my father moved me back to the farm and then from there around to some of the different houses, because he was very well, he did very well in business and he owned some homes and stuff. And he moved me around until I got a call one day from my attorney. I had been back a couple of times. My attorney told me do not come back to michigan unless I tell you to, because they they call me back for me to show them my records to the atf. Right, it wasn't the atf, they were at my front door. Um, three cars on the road. I'm looking through the curtains. I'm not moving them, I'm just looking through the curtains and there's two big men on the front porch. There's two big men in that car and there's four in that car and it's like no. So I hunkered down behind the front door with my 45. And I figured if they come through the door it's on. What have I got to lose at this point? I woke up about two o'clock in the morning. Everybody's gone Before in the morning. Everybody's gone. Before that I had called the cops. I said I was the neighbor across the road. Cops come around the corner. First car pulls away the other two guys. They wave, the four guys have ducked down and the cops keep going. I called them back. Hey, you don't know, you don't think we know what we're doing. Fine, so two o'clock in the morning, like I say, I wake up. No cars there. My dad had given me a car because he owned a dealership and iowa plates are the same color as michigan. I ran to that car and sped out of here fast as you could. Man, they were following me through the neighborhood. They had the house staked out. They were following I through the neighborhood. They had the house staked out. They were following me I'm zigzagging. I got on the expressway and hit that Cadillac and I was gone. So eight and a half months later I get a call from my attorney and he says you can come home. I said, what do you mean? He says it's all over with. I don't understand. You can come home. Then Just come home, everything's fine, everything's been worked out. And come to my office tomorrow and go to the day you get back and I'll tell you everything. So okay, I came back.
Speaker 1:By this time I've lost a wife. I've lost my store because of nobody. Eight and a half months nobody's there to run anything. Right, you know they've paid some bills from any money that came in from selling anything. All my inventory is gone. You get it from the wholesaler in the spring, you pay for it in the fall. I haven't got any inventory left.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I go to see the attorney and he says well, here's what's happened. Apparently, you need to talk to your godfather. I says, okay, let's get him on the phone. Okay, so he gets him on the phone. My godfather's closest friend was a multi-billionaire and because of that he had attorneys on staff all the time and he had called my godfather to him and said what's going on with Rick? And he said well, rick's gotten into some trouble and it's not his fault. This is what I know about it. He says, okay, I'm going to get involved and we're going to get this handled, because he had to know everything that was going about. Anybody around him a wealthy, wealthy man, I mean, in this circle iacocca is part of the circle and everybody knows that name. So, um, my godfather used to take iacocca's wife shopping. He gave him a car, you that kind of stuff. So my godfather tells me that this man I won't mention his name, he's deceased but for privacy, he got involved and he exchanged money with this crime group and my poor ass was bought off for more money than it has really ever been worth.
Speaker 1:And uh, so that was the end and and I had to try and start over in order to pay the bills. I was going back and forth and buying surplus in Iowa, bringing it back to Michigan on trucks, and I was making it, but then my wholesalers called me and said no, you got to pay us off. I'm giving them 15, each one was like four of them. I'm giving each one of them $1,500 a week and it's not good enough. So I was done and I get called in by the ATF and I said look, I'm there behind plate glass windows, oh my God, the door and everything. It's up in Troy. And they said I'm there with the director and he says you're done, it's over with. I says whoa, whoa, whoa. You guys know how deep and wide my ass is at this point. You know I've lost everything. Go get these guys. Why aren't you going and getting them? You know about they tried to use my license that you guys asked me to give. I wasn't even here to be able to give it to you. They stole it off the wall, took it to another place and tried to use it and you busted them. And they're both court officers and never even lost their job or their gun privileges or nothing. Come on, he says just relax. You want a cigar. He knew I smoked cigars in those days. He's handing me a Cuban. For God's sake, no, I don't want your cigar. He says look, it's over with. Just go start your life over again with what?
Speaker 1:So after that I was done, filed bankruptcy, lost everything, all my stores, and uh was grateful to a couple of my employees, that was, they were just outstanding trying to help. Yeah, and still I'm in contact with them today, and this is years and years ago. This is 30, 40 years ago. So I'm sitting in a house on a milk crate and I get a call. This is my godfather. What are you doing? I says well, I'm sitting here in an empty house on a milk crate with no money. He says you better come out to the farm and Greg will be here for a little bit. We'll help you get back on your feet.
Speaker 1:So I went out there and after a couple of weeks his wife gave me some utensils to come home and I could fix myself something to eat. I found a job selling fertilizer at night on the phone. So for four hours a night I'd be on the phone and I'm selling fertilizer. And one of the guys came to me and he says have you eaten today. I says no, I don't have any money. He says come on with me. And he took me down to the corner store and every day before work he'd take me down to the corner store and he'd buy me a sandwich. He says you got to eat, man. I said well, I don't have any money, you know, and everything's gone. And he says I'll help you. Well, then a guy comes to me and says you know, you're one of the best salesmen here. You make more money here than anybody. I said, but it's need a good job. He says be in this parking lot tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1:I was in the parking lot the next morning and he had a father-in-law that worked for Michigan Bell and both of us got jobs in sales. I ended up doing business sales for Michigan Bell, ameritech, sbc, until AT&T took it over. I was one of the two top salesmen in Michigan. For that Made buku bucks. They owed me $30,000. When the Pinkertons came through and took everybody to the front door and we were all gone, at&t the big gorilla came in and so then I had to start over again.
Speaker 1:So a very nice man whom I had known in the business I was one of the largest in the business at the shows and he was second largest or tied whatever, and he wanted to give me a job. Sure. So he had a newspaper. He wanted me to work getting advertising for that. It was a sportsman paper. He had his own store and he had taken over the gun and knife shows and he had turned to me and said do you want to work with me?
Speaker 1:I says yeah, what do you got? He says there's a show every six months. I want you to find locations around the state of Michigan. I want one every week someplace different. Okay, I'll pay you a weekly salary and I'll give you a big bonus. Any signed contract, okay. So I took it serious and I went and did it and uh, then I went to work with for him on his uh newspaper and then he wanted me in the store. So I worked in the store for a little bit and he came to me and he says listen, um, everybody is afraid to work on the range. I said why?
Speaker 1:He says well they're just afraid it's kind of dangerous. And I says no, it can't be. He says, well, they're just afraid it's kind of dangerous. I says no, it can't be. He says would you do it? I said, sure, I'll do it.
Speaker 1:One stipulation what's that? It's my house. When I go in there, that's my range. I run it the way I want. Nobody's my boss, nobody tells me what to do. It's my range. He says okay.
Speaker 1:So I did that for a little bit and then I went to him. I said listen, it's too damn boring in there. I want to do something. What do you want to do? He says I want to form a shooting team. You want to form a shooting team? Yes, I want to form a shooting team. What do you need? I'll give you anything you want. I says I'm going to need some targets. Maybe we'll have some competitions. I'll need some prizes. He says, yeah, sure, no problem. So I formed the number one shooting team in Michigan for national competition, not state, although the state they went to and I think it was national. They could go out of state. Uh, and we had the top team male, female and junior shooters for 10 years straight in a row before I retired after 15 years working in the store and it still kept first place for a couple of years.
Speaker 1:After that I was gone and it kind of went dissipated. But then I was home, I was retired. I was retired. I tried a couple of different places to, you know just part-time to, so I wasn't stuck in the house. You know Right. I tried Walmart that wasn't for me. I tried Roking that wasn't for me. And I heard that this man who had hired me in the gun business had had a stroke and so I called him. I says man, are you okay? Cause he had been my boss but he was my friend for 50 years, I mean we're close.
Speaker 1:And uh, when I didn't have anything, he put money in my pocket and said we're good. So, um, I says, what do you need? He says I need you. He says I've been trying to get you to come back for two years. He says, but I need you. I says what do you want me to do? He says I need you at the shows, not at the store. I need you at the shows.
Speaker 1:If somebody comes through the front door or back door or whatever with a gun and they start shooting anybody everybody, that's a vendor there is going to lose their livelihood, right, you know, and there won't be any more gun and knife shows. He says I know you, I know your capabilities, um, I want you. I said, okay, when do you want me? And so I went back working security for him at the gun and knife shows. And uh, it was just supposed to be for a little bit until he got on his feet. It's been three years now. He's doing just fine, uh-huh. And uh, he's moved me up in my position at the shows. And uh, so I work part-time, making more money than I would on a regular part-time job, and it's something I know how to do. You know right.
Speaker 1:People come in with guns, they have to make sure that they're cleared. Your average guy doesn't know about the different makes and models like I do, and at one time I was court certified for knowing in handguns European handguns especially but handguns not just what it was by model, but what period, how many improvements had been made on it and during what period. I knew all of this stuff because when I had my stores, every gun that came in I took apart before the gunsmith and cleaned it. Then I gave it to the gunsmith and if I couldn't figure out how to get it back together then he would show me. And I had the first certified gunsmith in the state of Michigan. I was very proud of that. He made just a lot of money.
Speaker 1:So because I've got this background, I know how to clear guns, strap them properly so that when somebody brings one into cell it's carried around safe. No ammunition is allowed to come in with it. We hold that until they're leaving. Sometimes they say I don't want it, I sold a gun. Sometimes they're leaving with the gun in here or maybe it's their personal handgun that they're carrying. Okay, I'm sorry, but it's got to be strapped. I'll take your magazine, any other bullets, okay, and I give it back to them when they leave.
Speaker 1:So that's been my life. I, because of my time in the service, some things I don't talk about, right, I choose not to. I suffer from what is known as PTSD that's the name for it today. They used to call it shell shock. They used to call it, from a lot of different names, combat fatigue, yeah yeah, but um, I won a uh, a claim with that uh a year ago and got a buttload of money and I had tried three times and the third time was a charm. The person over in Howell for the VA resources is just phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Livingston County takes really good care of its veterans. I think Above and beyond is crazy. One of the best counties and I think that started with Bob Bazzat when he was a sheriff here. Yeah, and it just sort of carried on.
Speaker 1:And this last guy that has come in, this guy he has seen more combat and been decorated more than anybody that I have met personally. He is phenomenal. And so I told him about what had happened with me and I had turned in these claims and I'd been turned down twice. Um, they said records didn't exist and blah, blah, blah. He says you got to let this gal, I got you got. You got to go, come on into the office and talk to her. And I did. And it took almost a year. Yeah, but she followed it monthly, then weekly and then daily. And when it was stamped denied, she called up the person who denied it on the phone directly and chewed him out and said what the heck are you doing? This guy is so entitled to it, it's crazy. And he says well, but he was supposed to go and see this doctor. She said that was the second, second set of doctors. He went to the first set. Why would he have to go to a second set? It's on page da-da-da-da-da. And he looked back in the paper. He says oh my God, yes, he has, he's met all the qualifications. He says I'm stamping this and walking it myself personally right over to accounting now Done.
Speaker 1:She called me on the phone. She says well, I've got some good and I've got some bad news for you. She says what do you want first? And I says I don't care, I've been turned down twice. I'm expecting bad news, you know Right. And I says turned down twice, I'm expecting bad news, you know. And uh, I says just, just tell me. She says well, the bad news is, it's done. I says yeah, I figured you know. She says and you won. I said what? And she says you won. I says wow, that's phenomenal. She says now do you want to know how much money you're going to get? I says okay. She says are you sitting down? I says no, she's just down. I'm not going to tell you. Let's just sit down, okay, I'm sitting down in the dining room. My wife is in the kitchen making dinner and she says this is how much you're going to get, and it was thousands and thousands. And thousands.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she read me the number and I went what she says you will be getting a check inside of two weeks and it's been set up to go into your bank account. Plus, I also added at the last minute, so it didn't go afoul, that your wife is your caregiver and so she gets as well, and you are going to see in your account this much, and monthly you are going to receive this much as well, which also includes her portion of it. I says really, and I started laughing, and I started laughing and I set the phone. I'm laughing. I was laughing for five, six, seven minutes and I said I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't talk, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And she says no, no, no, she's kind of laughing a little bit. On her side of the phone she says I understand, this is my favorite part of the job. Yeah, she says, go ahead and get yourself together. And I told my wife then and she's what, what? Yeah, we're supposed to get all this money. It's coming no way, you know. I said I'm telling you, this is for real, this is for real, we're going to.
Speaker 1:So life changed. We no longer need to go to a food pantry to get food Right the front of the house gets a new porch. A new porch where the dog goes in and out. He's gotten old, can't do the standard steps, so let's make him some five inch steps, All done by a contractor. New front, big porch on the front of the house. Oh, my goodness, A new door wall on the back of the house that was letting air in in the winter.
Speaker 1:Um, new landscaping. And they said they came out and they said what does your wife want? And I says I don't know. I got to go get her and brought her outside and they said well, we could suggest some things. She says I don't know, you know she's. They turned to me and I says well, I like roses. They said, okay, put roses down. Okay, what else do you like? I says, um, I don't know, there's big flowers. I like big flowers, yeah, and my wife started naming a couple of things she liked. They said, okay, we'll landscape the whole thing. We're going to bring in mulch. Um, the whole thing is going to have flowers in it and small little flowering shrubs. It's going to have flowers in it and small little flowering shrubs. The sidewalk will be straightened. It was just patio blocks.
Speaker 1:We were in the country, Right, it was like, oh my goodness. And so we got to watch all of this being built. And then I hired a contractor and didn't have a garage. I had him build me a barn. Nice, If we built a nice big barn, you can only build it to half the size of your house. But he might have fudged over the line a little bit. It passed and it's a wooden barn. They won't allow where I live steel barns, but it's a beautiful barn with cement floor and everything. My motorcycle is safe there. They tried to steal it twice from a woodshed. Sheriff said I didn't think that anybody would booby trap a shed like that. I says I do, I'm a non-vet. No, you ain't getting my bite. So we got a beautiful barn, gravel in the driveway, the house all fixed up and I get to take my wife out once or twice a week to dinner and we don't go to the grocery store anymore and say I don't know, maybe we should wait a week. No, it's like you want that.
Speaker 1:Yeah get it? Yeah, get that. Yeah, okay, good, let's get a ton of fruit and yeah, we need more meat. You know, it's no longer a problem. The bills are paid, no problem at all. If we need or want something, okay, and if it's more than what we have that month, no problem. There's another big check coming besides. Our social security pays all of our bills, now Right, and then gives us a little bit left over. That's the way I set it up. But then we get this check that comes from the VA every month dependable from the VA every month dependable. You can count on it, oh my gosh. And it hits the bank account and you can buy big things.
Speaker 1:This fall I'm going to buy me a tractor. I'm going to buy me a six foot wide, zero turn. It's not going to take me four hours to do the lawn. It's going to take me an hour and I'm going to get more gravel. I'm going to build in a little side part on the barn. I'm actually going to carpet part of the barn where I keep my bike and all of its trophies, because it's a rare bike. I got lucky when I found it.
Speaker 1:So life is good now, and a week and a half ago, my son that I've been talking to and texting, whom I found seven years ago, whom I did not say a bad thing about his mother. I said you got to go ask her about that. Well, about a week and a half ago we met for the first time and it was great. I have my son back. I found my son. I have my son, I have my boy. The last thing for my bucket list was to find my boy and get my boy back. So I traveled down to Huntsville, alabama. He works for the Defense Department, he is a director, he makes buku bucks just bought a half a million dollar home this week. He's smart, he's big and there's no question.
Speaker 2:um, he's smart, he's big and there's no question, he's my boy and I. I'm just well, we're going to have a future, yeah well, so I I really want you to talk about too. Um, when you say you know he's your boy, you were telling me about dinner oh yeah, we went on. Tell me what his wife was saying.
Speaker 1:Well, it was his girlfriend or his girlfriend. Yeah, and, by the way, I am a great, great grandfather. Oh yeah, that was pretty cool, yeah. So when I'm down in Huntsville, he picked me up and we did our first meeting and stuff, and I bought lunch and everything like that and he said he had to go back to work. He was supposed to have the whole week off but they were working on a project that they asked him to take over because of what he's done and his accomplishments in the past. He's wanted, he's needed, he's very smart. So he came pick me up for dinner and we went back to his house that he was leasing at that point and, uh, I met his girlfriend and we all went out to dinner to a nice swanky place right downtown that's called rocket city, by the way, lots of contractors, lots of defense department there, research. So we're in this restaurant and he's ordered, I've ordered, she's ordered his girlfriend, and we started eating and everything like that.
Speaker 1:And his girlfriend starts laughing and he looks over. He says what, what are you laughing about? She says everything the two of you do is the same. What do you mean? Your mannerisms, everything that you two, you hold the fork the same. You do the same hand gestures, the way you guys walk, the way you guys talk, everything is the same. And I said, well, that's my boy. And that was the first time I could just out and out, say that straight like that. It felt great.
Speaker 1:But um, he said my son sitting across from me. He says show her your arm. I says, oh, well, here's my arm. Yeah, I had cancer removed there. And she went oh my God, that's the same arm where he had cancer removed. And he says well, tell her the rest of it. I said, yeah, I had cancer three times in my head. Uh, one under my brain, one at the back of my neck and one on the top of my head. Uh and uh. She says, oh my god, you had two on your head too, in the same place. And he just laughed. He says, yeah, okay, my son and I at this point have been able to talk about growing up and the way he grew up and his stepfather and the way I grew up and my stepfather.
Speaker 1:They're the same story. The only difference is he didn't beat his up, he, his father, died. Yeah, um, so, um, so, yeah. I when I say I've got my boy back. It's in so many ways it's I'm I'm kind of completed because of there is and then his son. If you take a picture of one of his sons who graduated from the university down there, if you take one of the pictures of his son and me at the same age, they're like looking at twins, it's crazy. So, yeah, I'm on cloud nine because I found my son, I have my son back and everybody, everybody that knows me and I do mean everybody, because I've worn a lot of hats.
Speaker 1:Another hat I wore was in the ministry. I founded the Garden Path of Spiritual Light Church in the city of Detroit with the sole purpose of helping orphaned children and after nine years 19 years of speaking around Detroit and serving churches from Canada to Lansing six different churches every month, pastoring a church over in Roseville I retired and moved out to Fowlerville after 19 years. So people know me. I put on motorcycle shows and so people know me, and so people know me. I've been with the american legion and built things there that brought members in from. I was the seventh rider, active duty, active rider in howell, and it grew to 130 because I started doing the blessing of the bikes there. Now, now I'm over in Brighton. I was asked to go over to Brighton and start the group up over there help, and I'm the assistant director for the riders in Brighton. So people know me and everybody that knows me knows Rick found his son, rick got with his son, rick met his son and they're all congratulating me, they're all happy for me.
Speaker 1:I got so many smiles, I got so many texts and I shared pictures with so many people. What can I say? I'm a proud papa, grandpapa and great grandpapa. I have a family out there, proud papa, grandpapa and great-grandpapa. I have a family out there that I hadn't known and I've got life on the clock yet that I can meet them and know them, learn about them more.
Speaker 1:My son's going to be coming here in the spring and I'll be going back and forth Once he gets settled in his new home. He wants to get a car and, uh, he wants to build a hot rod. And I told him. I says, let me know, I'll come down and help you because I'll have the means now, right, and I didn't have the means before, but I do now. And uh, besides that he's, he's well healed. Oh my God, right. So, um, this half a million dollar home that he bought. That's all brick, just gorgeous, huge rooms in it are just absolutely take up my whole house. But, uh, but I'm on cloud nine. Life is great right now, yeah, and the things that I learned while in the service have served me well. Only now they're legit.
Speaker 1:You know, after I came out, everything went legit and so I'm known. I was working in Mason, michigan, and I was teaching people how to shoot. I was helping people get their concealed pistol licenses. My wife and I will be all the way over in Heartland shopping at a Rural King and somebody comes up and says, hey, you're Ranger Rick. Yeah, that's how I'm known, because I was the range officer there.
Speaker 1:The manager thought he was going to kind of stick it to me a little bit by teasing me. Because I was the range officer and my name's Rick. He started teasing me, calling me Ranger Rick, like a little raccoon children's thing, and I didn't know about that. I just took it to heart and I said, yeah, okay, I'm ranger rick and to this day, even when I'm riding on my vest, it has um here someplace. Oh, there it is. It's got a ranger rick. That's my road name. Everybody knows r Ranger Rick, I can walk into a club, a motorcycle club. People know who I am, even if they've never personally met me. They know of me so many places. So anybody that knows me or knows above me about me knows I found my son, cause I talked about it my whole life. And here you are and here I am. And so now I'm 75 years old and, uh, I'm living the dream. It took a long time to get here, but I'm living the dream.
Speaker 2:Well, and I want to. So I want to ask you a question. I mean, uh, you know, uh, all the way the way back to you know, you found that picture of a guy in a sailor suit and found out that was your dad, and it sounds like the genes run strong in his family, because you all, you all look like each other. You know, you have gone from leaving home at 14 to time in service, serving in Vietnam, running your own business, having it all and having nothing, and having it all and having nothing. And here you are today we're having this conversation.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't have guessed you were 75, to be honest with you. But it's all come together. You're married, you have a nice place to live, you have the means to take care of your family and now you've found your son. So that's a really good story. But I always want to ask one final question of everybody that I interview as we kind of wrap up our discussion today, and that is you know, when you look back on all of this and when someone listens to your story or watches your story years from now, when neither one of us are still around, what message would you like to leave for people?
Speaker 1:Well, two things, first thing. Two things, first thing. While I was in the service, they said why did you enlist? And I said because I want to hear the other side. There's all these anti-protests. I wanted to learn the truth, I wanted to see the other side, and so I've learned it.
Speaker 1:I believe that was a war that never should have been fought. I believe that war makes money and bails out economies at the expense of children. When you have the capability of doing it without using soldiers on the ground in the field, why in the world would you lose so many lives? Don't tell me about population control, because we've got the science to be able to feed everybody. That would be number one. Pay attention to who you vote for. Learn, listen, be involved. That would be number one. Pay attention to who you vote for. Learn, listen, be involved. Don't just listen to what somebody else said. Do the research. Your vote counts. You're free because of you get involved, not because of a war. People talk about the Declaration of Independence and all this. No, you're free because you pay attention and you get involved. That's why, if you're a vet, get to an American Legion Hall or a VFW hall. I don't care what your feelings might be about it, but go and check one out.
Speaker 1:I didn't for a long time. I didn't go to the VA for health care for a long time and then I found out there's good and bad ones. The one in Detroit it's a sewer. The one in Ann Arbor they give me such great care. I've had operations that didn't cost me a dime Cancer care, doctors that stood on a phone yelling at surgeons why haven't you seen and done something about this? Go to the VA, they really are there for you.
Speaker 1:Now again, there's always good and bad. There's good and bad people. There are lazy people out there. Don't be one of those. And then the other thing is people out there. Don't be one of those. And then the other thing is I'll pass along a lesson that my father taught to me.
Speaker 1:My father was successful in oh, so many ways. He had so many businesses all at once and we would go to work in the morning. One of the things was he was a contractor, he had a bar, he had a restaurant, he had apartment buildings, he kept and raised horses, he had a car dealership. I mean so many things he was involved with. But we'd go to work in the morning. We always met first thing in the morning, had breakfast and then we'd all go out to work Different assignments, different places, wherever he needed us.
Speaker 1:You see people come home at three, four, five o'clock. Put their feet up, grab a beer. They're done for the day Boy, they're glad they're home. Put their feet up, grab a beer. They're done for the day Boy, they're glad they're home.
Speaker 1:If you're doing a job you don't like, find one that you do and do it. You'll be more successful. You don't think you can Get somebody that'll help you. Take an idea and don't be afraid. Get out there and build something for yourself. And you don't stop work at three, four or five o'clock. There's still daylight. What are you doing? Sitting around? Find another job.
Speaker 1:If you can't get everything you want in life because your job ends at three, four or five, go and get another job. You're telling me you can't work till nine, maybe 10, but go and do something. That's the way it was I was raised. My dad said no, you're not done. There's horses to feed. There are so many other things. Right, go help out in this other job. Go help out in the bar. Uh, go help out in the restaurant. Um, come with me.
Speaker 1:We're going to the car auction tonight and three, four nights a week at least we're going to the car auction tonight, and three, four nights a week at least we're out at the car auction. Saturday comes we're at an estate sale. We're at another auction. You buy things and you sell things and you do things, but you be involved. Don't quit when there's daylight, because otherwise you're just throwing your life away and you're going to get old and you're going to be poor and you're not going to have anything. Go and do something more.
Speaker 1:I had an ex-wife she said to me one day. She said nobody would believe that you work a full-time job during the day and then you go out and do this ministry at night. Okay, she says I can't keep up because of four or five nights a week. When I was here in Michigan, I'm out, I have an agent and I'm speaking religion to different civic groups around the Detroit area. I serve churches, six different churches, from Canada to Lansing, pastored over in Roseville, and she said I can't keep up. From Canada to Lansing, pastored over in Roseville, and she said I can't keep up. I had Bible classes twice a month Wayne County and Hazel Park Okay, but I did what I was called to do.
Speaker 1:And when you're doing something that you like, you don't feel tired. You can get tired but you're having a good time. And if you can do it and help people, that's another thing. And if you can do it and help people and make money doing it, maybe you've got a product that you've thought about. Somebody should do this or that. Do it.
Speaker 1:I'm an ancestor of the man who invented the adding machine. He failed. But today everybody knows of burroughs corporation. A lot of people in michigan know that one time there was burroughs farms same family, yeah. And I'm registered at the ford fairlane estate as being an ancestor of john burroughs, another family member, horticulturist, one of the four horsemen ford firestone, edison, edison, john burroughs and Ford.
Speaker 1:So don't quit halfway through the daylight and say I'm done for today. Anybody can have a day off and say you know, I just wanted a break. Sure, but keep your shoulders to the grindstone. If you want to make it, it's out there for today. You know, start a second business at night doing something, you know. Start a second business at night doing something, you know.
Speaker 1:I even thought at one point. I thought I wonder what would happen if I bought a bunch of apples and I started going door to door and say I'm selling apples, would you like some apples? I wonder if a guy could make money doing that. I mean, they used to have fruit carts that came down the streets in Detroit, right, and people complained about going to this store or that store and they can't get good vegetables or fruit. Well, go down to the Eastern market and buy some. Try selling them, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But find your own idea and, instead of quitting at three, four or five, go work on your own idea. Maybe it's just something you think. Build yourself an airplane. I don't care what it is, but go and do something. And you never know, as people see you being steadfast, having the will to do, it 'll say what can I do? Can I help? And next thing you know you're off and running right, because they'll find that idea good too right. And if the idea fails, fails, well, who cares? You tried, find another one to do it again. Keep doing it until you're a success. I've been a success. I've lost it a couple of times, but I've been very successful in my life. Now I'm at a point in my life where god has blessed me and it's not about money anymore. I'm 75.
Speaker 2:Bless me, and it's not about money anymore.
Speaker 1:I'm 75. But that doesn't mean I don't think about. I wonder what I could do. You know, I wanted to have a bakery at one point. My wife says nope, so okay. But there are still ideas that people can grow to make themselves prosperous and to help their neighbors and help this country find one. Just think of one. Go do it, even if you only start part-time. I've never had any job that I started full-time. Right, everything always started out with the first one and then buy another, and then buy another and then buy another. But just make sure you sell them at a profit. And sure, sometimes you're going to have to break even, just so you can. I learned a mistake. I'll do better this next time.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:But just don't quit. That's what I would say to anybody. I would say don't quit.
Speaker 2:I think that's great advice for people.
Speaker 1:That's absolutely that's what life really is. Yeah, you will be happier in so many ways. You'll have the reward and pride of your work, not somebody else's, that you're working for your work. You'll have that hot, that pride. You'll have the pride of the responsibility of being able to help others to lift themselves up and you'll be known that it gives you a little bit of attention. And just remember, when it comes to that, be humble. It's hard, but just be humble.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great message for people. That's my story. I'll stick into it All right. Well, thanks for taking out time today to sit and talk with us. It's been great to meet you and hear your story, ranger. Rick, we appreciate it. Thank you so much.
