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
From Detroit To The DMZ (Gerard Krenzel)
A sunburn that almost became a court-martial, an M60 that felt heavier than the moment, and a van painted the wrong color because there were no wheels to move it—Gerard’s life stitches together grit, humor, and unshakable work ethic. We sit down with an Army mechanic who asked for Vietnam and got Korea, learned fast under air-raid sirens near the DMZ, and found a second home on a Korean Air Force base where Mohawks, helicopters, and better chow shaped his days.
From Detroit’s service stations to Fort Ord’s cold mornings, Gerard maps the transition from young wrench-turner to the guy who keeps the motor pool running when parts are scarce and inspections are strict. He opens up about culture shock, kimchi buses, off-base living with a sergeant’s family, and a village visit where strangers treated him like royalty. Returning stateside, the story turns to layoffs, strikes, and a tough lesson in corporate indifference—then pivots to reinvention: certifications earned, a Buick bay claimed, and decades of solving problems as the auto industry evolved from carburetors to sensor-rich diesels with particulate filters.
We talk shop—engine swaps then and now, why the backyard chain hoist has given way to scan tools, and how quiet, clean diesel systems changed the game. We also talk life: the uncle who survived an explosion, a father who helped buy a 63½ Galaxie, a daughter running the only pizzeria in her county, and the relationships that left marks both proud and painful. Gerard’s closing note keeps it simple and strong: be adventurous, stay in a good mood, go do the thing, and remember your country comes first.
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Today is Tuesday, November 25th, 2025. We're talking with Gerard Krenzel, who served in the United States Army. So good evening. Good evening. So I'm glad we could finally get together. Yes. Alright. So we'll start out very simple.
SPEAKER_01:When and where were you born? I was born in Dearborn, Michigan. Um I grew up in Detroit.
SPEAKER_02:And uh oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:It's uh it's been uh I I had a lot of uh jobs different jobs when I was growing up and I got one heck of work ethics. I uh started working when I was in school, yeah, at a gas station. And uh it was uh called Mel Shell. And a friend of mine got a job there, but he quit and that guy asked me if I wanted one, so I used to come home from school, he used to go in well, he used to go in in the morning and open the place up for the guys. That's when we had gas stations and repair places instead of uh grocery stores. And uh then I went to school and came home and uh I worked the rest of the evening and I closed up the place, done the books and then got it ready for the next day. And uh unfortunately when uh my mother died before I graduated out of high school, but she told me, she says, she never wanted me to join the service and because of things that happened to my dad, battles that he was in, and uh but since she died I waited two years, and a friend of mine went into the service and we were joking and having a we to them a going away party and everything, and we said, well, you know it was it turned out to be I I waited a few months and then me and my cousin went in. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:And we went in on a buddy system and that's when you could go in and you know stay buddies. Well we didn't boot camp together and he was a lot bigger than I am, so he had a little rough time in boot camp uh doing the mile runs and everything like this and uh we did our boot camp boot camp uh training and then for AIT I forget where he went, but I went to uh California.
SPEAKER_00:What was your uh what was your job in the in the army?
SPEAKER_02:Um I was uh uh a mechanic. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Uh I forgot the uh MOS that we were. Uh I feel like they changed them on a regular basis, so it's hard to remember. So you so you went to California for your training then?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I went to California and and uh uh for my training.
SPEAKER_02:And for uh I had a lot of experiences there.
SPEAKER_01:I I enjoyed myself. Um I if there was something to see, I wanted to see it. So I I it was a while since I was out I knit you know on the coast, so I was uh stationed in Fort Ord, California.
SPEAKER_02:And when I went over there I had my uh uh shirt sleeves and uh my what would you call them, uh khakis. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:And I got there and it was cold. I said, this ain't California. And so but I spent a lot of time on the beach on my times off, and uh then I uh I got real sunburned one time and I decided to go and see my aunt in Phoenix. So I got on a greyhound bus, all sunburned, and it really hurt, and I went out there and came back and then I I guess we had some kind of leave or something, and when I got back, my CO said that he could court-martial me.
SPEAKER_02:And I said, What for?
SPEAKER_01:And he says, that's if uh you know destroying government property. And I says, Well, I didn't destroy anything. He says, yourself, you got sunburned. Oh, yeah. So I couldn't miss any exercises, anything that was going on. I had to uh, you know, perform my duties and everything like this. And I graduated. And then there was uh uh they had us all in a formation and they asked us where we would like to go. And I says, uh when it got to me, I says, I'd like to go to uh Vietnam.
SPEAKER_02:And he says, Well, I'm sorry you're gonna go to Korea instead. So I was over in Korea.
SPEAKER_00:And uh So what ye around what year was this, do you recall? This was during the Vietnam War?
SPEAKER_01:This was they were pulling troops out of uh I went in, I think, in around early 74. Okay, okay. They were it was sort of winding down at that point. Yeah, it was winding down. I figured they put us over in Korea just in case something happened or something. And uh so I enjoy myself over there, but I remember when I first got there, my MOS, I remember it was a 63B20.
SPEAKER_02:And I I got there and I was in culture shock. You know, they had box carts and buses, uh they they just drove crazy.
SPEAKER_01:And uh, but I was stationed over at uh the around the DMZ. I forget what exactly uh it was. It was right outside Seoul. And and uh uh they were really army guys. This was uh, you know, they put a M60 in my arm, my my hands, and because they said, well, he wore glasses, so he you know, he you can find something to shoot at, you know. Right. And and I remember the first first day I was over there, we had an air raid.
SPEAKER_02:And I of course didn't know what was going on.
SPEAKER_01:I decided to look up and everybody was you know taking cover, and I went out looking out the window, and boy, I'll tell you what, you don't do that, I found out. You know, so I got yelled at and reprimanded and everything for doing the uh window peeking. If we're having an air raid, I want to see what was flying over. Right, of course. So but that wasn't what you're supposed to do. So I learned right away real fast. Uh you know, they done us marching around the DMZ and all this other stuff and uh carrying my M60 while everybody else had one of these late M16s, and I felt like I was being picked on. But you know, I felt safe anyhow. Right. But then we uh they transferred me right away. Yeah, I was there for maybe a couple weeks, and they transferred me down south to Piantec, uh south of Seoul uh south of uh uh the Air Force Base over there.
SPEAKER_02:Osan Air Force Base. And I was hanging out there uh for about a month and I I don't know if they they transferred me up close to DMZ again.
SPEAKER_01:But I was on uh uh Korean Air Force Base and there was it was kinda nice. It was like there was fifty of us between Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines, and we we just uh kinda hung out and it was uh we had a couple Mohawks.
SPEAKER_02:Uh they were um reconnaissant planes and we had a lot of helicopters and of course the Korean Air Force Base was right there, so you know we got to uh see how they uh you know operate as far as you know in the ranks and everything and they were a little meaner than us. I I gotta say it was almost like a mass unit. Well there was a uh hospital on the other side of the hill, and but we were kind of like low-keyed and you know we he we worked out a van.
SPEAKER_01:Oh and we only had a barracks to sleep in.
SPEAKER_02:Well, when I stayed there, I uh eventually I found a place off base and I lived there. Uh it was fun. Um but when I was uh when I first got there, you know, i it was uh pretty good.
SPEAKER_01:We had Air Force food. We didn't have army.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, so that's completely different. Yeah. That's a little bit better, actually, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was a little bit better. And and uh uh we were able to go to NCO Club and uh hang out there, and of course I didn't do that much hanging out over at the NCO club. But that was our night entertainment.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um we had jets flying all over, you know, because we were on the Air Force base and helicopters and some came kind of on flatbeds all crumbled up and everything like this. But uh when I was um when I got a little familiar with the place, I I had a um uh a sergeant.
SPEAKER_02:Uh his name was Ed, Ed uh Frazier. And uh he was a nice guy. And there were uh we had a motor pole, there was uh uh me and two other guys that operated under him. You know, so uh we had seven trucks, we had uh uh big five ton, we had a deuce and a half, a uh a Jeep, uh smaller uh or bigger, a little bigger than a Jeep, but it wasn't much in our motor pole and what it was was basically uh even though we had five or six fans, um we had uh only one truck to pull 'em. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Uh I was really kind of nervous there a little bit because they had all the the uh mock jets over on our side, you know, that were out. And so if they started anything they would hit them and it would be close to our barracks and everything like this.
SPEAKER_02:Uh but uh we made do. I had uh uh a warr officer for a seal, which was uh kind of nice.
SPEAKER_01:Uh when I did live off base, I lived with the sergeant guy. Oh. And his wife, he was married to a Korean, had a Korean wife.
SPEAKER_02:Uh they were married in the States and then went over there. Oh.
SPEAKER_01:How he got in the States, I don't know, but you know, they they met over in the United States and then they went over there. Her brother, who was uh chief of police over there, and I lived with uh Ed, his wife Sue, and uh I forget her sister's name. Um she was a a nice girl. She wasn't one of these uh uh fly-by-nights.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um and uh they went a lot of places, she went a lot of places with us, you know. One of the things that I liked about it is whenever our off time was, we went out adventuring. Uh we had a scout, uh a little deep-like thing, and uh we had a hutchier hooch area or whatever you call them, and and I had a dog. Really? Yeah, I had a German shepherd, her name was Purdue, and uh then we had a one of her dogs that was a little thing, and uh I remember I Ed used to go, uh that was a sergeant friend of mine, he used to go to work on time and everything like this, and I would I I would be late all the time. So I would I wouldn't go to work with him, I would ride the bus, one of these kimchi buses they call them. And I'd walk all the way down the hill to catch a bus, and the dog would somehow open the gate and get out, and uh they eat dogs over there. So I had to you know, I was extra late because I had to go back up and block her up and things like that, and uh there was something else I was gonna say. On the buses, they they had goats and pigs and sheep and everything. Really? Yes, it was uh quite adventurous, but you know, it was kind of you had to watch what you eat over there as far as their food, you know, because of the different stuff that was going on. And uh but you know, tangerines. I I like tangerines and always had a bag of tangerines. So if you miss the bus stop wherever it was stopping, and you go to the next one, you always had your tangerines to eat, you know, lunch. Yeah. Uh and uh I remember uh a lot of times when uh uh we went to uh uh our our uh w when we were in in camp uh there was we kind of like flacked off on our uniforms, we didn't blouse our pants or you know wore our boots regular t-shirts and stuff like this. And I remember my sergeant me saying one time to me, he gotta make roll calls in the morning a little early, earlier, you know, because I was always, like I said, I was always late. Right. But uh, you know, I done my job, and uh uh one time we had a uh IG inspection. I don't know if you ever had one, but IG inspection the general comes and checks out the place. Well, our main base was down in Piantec, and I was at K16 up north. Uh so they had the main uh inspection down there, but he decided to come up and check us out. So here we had to, you know, uh be a little prepared for him.
SPEAKER_02:And I had all the trucks uh fit shine and everything like this, and uh he asked me, he checked out the tree. He says, uh, one thing that I noticed on your trucks, you don't have any governors on.
SPEAKER_01:And I says, Yes, sir, I know. I said, but isn't our main objective to get the heck out of here as fast as you can? And I says, we don't need governors on. And he says, you know, I could fail you for this, you know, not having a proper stuff. I says, well, I said, I don't know where they are. They were never on things in the first place, because I didn't take them off. And he says, well, says at least you're honest with me. He says, so he says, I won't give you, I won't write you up on you.
SPEAKER_02:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:So that was pretty decent, and uh and we went on doing our business.
SPEAKER_02:All right, when I was at this K-16, I didn't have a gun.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't have no weapons, I you shouldn't call them guns, these are weapons, and and uh uh I just had a plastic helmet. Really? Yeah, they they were uh I don't know. It like I say, we weren't supposed to we're supposed to head in our trucks if something happened and head down south.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So you got to you got to trade in your M60 anyway, you didn't have to carry that around.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I didn't have to carry it. Um there was a protocol on what to do in camp, you know, because we had a lot of electronic equipment and stuff like this in the vans.
SPEAKER_02:Uh and the vans were all okay.
SPEAKER_01:They uh he kind of didn't like my van when he did because I had my van didn't have wheels on. You know, a motor pole didn't didn't have the only van that was there, you know, the big truck band.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it didn't have wheels on it, and and uh so I painted it Air Force Blue instead of green. Oh so it really stood out, and I didn't repaint it before the inspector came, but I, you know, like I said, we had kind of an easy go at it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:How long were you in Korea? I was just uh for about 14 months or something like this. I wanted to really join back up. Um but I was, you know, thinking about coming home, seeing my girlfriend and stuff like this.
SPEAKER_00:She had a girl back home.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I did.
SPEAKER_02:And uh so I just uh decided not to.
SPEAKER_01:I sh I should have. It was a toss-up because I could have seen a lot more.
SPEAKER_02:Um but like when I was over there, um the uh the basically when I was ready to leave ETS out of there, um I was gonna come back to Fort Riley, Kansas.
SPEAKER_01:And when I got to when I would get there, they would get ready to go on reforger over to Germany. So I would have to get off one plane and go on another plane and go out to Germany for a while, for a month or so I was uh month or two months, something.
SPEAKER_02:It was a long time. So I decided, you know, uh my CO gave me 15 days extra leave.
SPEAKER_01:They docked me all my pay when I was getting ready to get out, but I didn't care, you know. Uh but I had I had a lot of fun over there. I s I seen a lot of things. We were like I was saying, I was able to um uh go a lot of places.
SPEAKER_02:Uh I went to uh a lot by myself.
SPEAKER_01:I had a friend that was Korean, I met in the states, and he says, go see his family when I was over there. So I got on one of these buses, didn't exactly know where I was gone. I was the only American. Uh walking through town, I remember his little village uh was something, but they treated me, I I ran into his parent, uh, not his parent, his family. Uh-huh. And uh uh they treated me like I was king. Uh and uh I left there, spent a day there, got on a bus, and went back home. But it it was the I was only American in the village and stuff like this. Now I guess the villages turn into towns and everything like that.
SPEAKER_02:Uh and when I was over there, I had a friend that was in the Philippines.
SPEAKER_01:That gentleman that I talked to uh that joined the Air Force, well he was in the Philippines, and he wrote me a letter asking me how the duty was over in Korea, and I says, he said they had a lot of brass and stuff walking around there, and uh so he got transferred and he was over in Korea with me. Real good friend. Oh, that must have been nice. He's still a friend of mine, and we grew up together, you know, we were kids together.
SPEAKER_02:Really neat.
SPEAKER_01:Um and uh but when I came home, it was like a culture shock because I wasn't used to going around with all this brass and everything like this. And we were on, everybody was in Reforger, then I was in um then my duty over there was driving this uh uh uh preacher guy around. So this is Germany now, or this is This is uh in Fort Riley, Kansas. Oh, in Kansas, okay. Because you didn't go to Germany. No, I didn't go to Germany. Okay, okay. I waited for everybody to come back. There you go. I was the only one there. Well, I don't there were a few of us that didn't didn't get there. Right. Uh didn't get to go to Germany.
SPEAKER_02:And uh but when I was uh uh over there uh in in Kansas then uh I was uh uh I kinda skipped a lot, but when I was in Kansas I was uh driving him a the uh captain around or whatever he was.
SPEAKER_01:And and I remember they they had artillery there bigger tanks.
SPEAKER_02:And we were driving by one of the tanks and we didn't know
SPEAKER_01:Exactly where we were. Um, and I think we were captured too, but one of these tanks went off not too far from us. Oh boy. And our our ears rung. I remember that. And I heard say, Oh, he said, Yeah, let's get out of here. And uh but uh getting back to Korea, I had a lot of uh uh I went a lot of trips to uh when I was there. Uh this uh unfortunately I had uh uh this chief of police this guy he was uh he went with us a lot. We went on a fishing trip close to DMZ and these little villages and everything like this.
SPEAKER_02:It was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01:I went to uh uh a park that was uh you had to go in your dress greens or something. Oh you you or a suit. You you couldn't walk in there just casually. And uh they had marble bridges and everything like this. I remember there. I went by myself and it was very exciting. There's you know, a lot of nice things, nice parks, nothing was out of place, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Uh I forgot the name of it though, but it was a great place. Sounds like it was beautiful. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So um that's basically all I'd done over there. Mm-hmm. Gas was six dollars a gallon, so we used to all chip in and put our monies together, what little monies we had left, and um go in uh it was expensive for gas.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's a lot of money at that time when gas was what, like maybe 35, 40 cents a gallon, or no, it was a 70s, so it was still up there, but it wasn't six dollars a gallon back in the states.
SPEAKER_01:Like a buck a gallon or something like that. Yeah, but six bucks a gallon was really something. That's a lot. But like I said, we saved our money, we and the only thing I didn't like about it was you know the bathroom. You know, the the hole in the floor. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:There's nothing better than an American bathroom. Yes, to be honest, right?
SPEAKER_01:You you uh you kinda think back like uh like the malls and everything like that. Soul Korea, you'd think they would have something. They it was uh we went to a mall one time. It was like inside, it was an inside mall. And the bathrooms were right in like the back alley or something like that. It was something. It was yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So that's the one thing you didn't like about Korea then was the was the bathrooms. Yeah. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So you uh you left Korea then at the end of that tour and went to Fort Riley. Yeah, Fort Riley. Then how long were you at Fort Riley for?
SPEAKER_01:I was at Fort Riley for about five more months. Okay. And then I uh left the service. When I was at Fort Riley, I remember leaving Fort Riley, I was I had uh a lot of souvenirs, like big rounds of uh shells and everything like this. And when we left there, we were on a plane that was it was a Cessna. A bunch of us popped in a Cessna, and you know, I couldn't carry any extra weight, so I had to leave it all there. Oh, geez. Yeah, it was something, but uh I don't know. That was basically my experience. Uh now did you come home to Detroit then when you got out? Yes, I did. Okay. And I I lived in Detroit at the time. Uh and uh uh one thing that I was uh that I remember I was I was working at Cadillac motor car when before I went in to service. And my aunt got me in there, and she had 30-some years in place. And when I got there, they were doing all these layoffs and everything like that. It was really bad back then.
SPEAKER_02:And I got laid off and I was home and uh not doing nothing. I couldn't get a job, couldn't I something, I don't know exactly what I was doing. Um, but there was uh um that's when they still had telegrams.
SPEAKER_01:They got a hold of you personally or something like that. Uh I got I w got out of the service. I went back, I thought I could get my job back. That excuse me, at General Motors, but uh they said that I got fired because I didn't tell them I was going into the service at the time. They didn't even know I was they said they called me, but they never called me. So I got upset with them and uh I thought it was pretty cold what they did to me. And even even though my dad was home all the time, right? Uh they never sent no telegram or got a hold of me or something. So they didn't even know I was gone. I didn't know they don't know that I was uh terminated. So uh I had a lot of friends that were working at General Motors at the time and I was pre-ups saying. Yeah. So uh Frank Reynolds was a union officer at the time. He was a union leader, and they later on, a year or so later, they got him for embezzlement and stuff like that, and put him away for 10, 20 years, really, I gotcha. Right. But uh then I got a job at Lear Siegler's and we were making machining axles and everything like that. And uh that's where I met my wife's father, he was working.
SPEAKER_02:And he always uh showing everybody his daughter's picture. Yeah, I was just getting out of uh divorce at the time, very bad one.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And he said, No, I ain't showing her yet you ain't seen her. I showing it to her to you. And finally I got to see her and uh we were married when she was uh sixteen, seventeen years ago. That's a long time. Yeah. It's a long time. Uh and uh I had a daughter with my previous wife um and uh we didn't last that long.
SPEAKER_01:Uh uh a friend of mine married her sister and I thought he was her sister was real nice.
SPEAKER_02:And the other sister that I married was we didn't make it. Yeah. It was very sad. But uh unfortunately I I don't have nothing to do with my older daughter. Um not that I don't want to, it was just uh uh things that happen.
SPEAKER_01:And but my brother-in-law and uh he got divorced also and we we were friends growing up and we still kept friend being friends and I always called him my brother-in-law. Right. Yeah, it was uh uh pretty good. He he died though.
SPEAKER_02:He was town of Florida. We used to go on a lot of fishing trips long. Things changed. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So did you stay at that job for a while then?
SPEAKER_01:Did you I was there for four years until they um had uh they were uh they had a y a strike and the union said at the time at Lear Sieglers, they said that um we can s give you what you want and and uh but we won't be able to stay in business. That's exactly what they did. Uh unfortunately I didn't want to go on strike. Right. Uh but they had uh uh a lot of uh funds in the in the union fund that they uh everybody got paid, you know, not you know, severance pay or something like that, they called it. But when it came to me, I was one of the ones that stayed at the company, I was the longest to stay there. Uh me and her dad, matter of fact, we were doing our finishing up stuff, and so I when the time came I got laid off, I didn't have a job. And so that's why I decided to go and I was always good at turning wrenches, so I decided to uh get my schooling and go back to school and uh over at Madonna College and they had special uh uh thing that they sent out for people who were uh they called it a stop program. And they uh paid you for going to school. Oh. And it wasn't much, but it was it was help helpful. And um I kind of like aced it one, two, three. I graduated out of there, got all my certifications, and went to uh a uh Buick dealership.
SPEAKER_02:And so I was working ever since. So how how many years did you wrench on Buick's? Long. Long time.
SPEAKER_01:About uh in 1980. I remember because I remembered Adventure Carburetors and the X-Body Buick Skylarks. And yeah, so it was a long time. I would have been working at the same place, but uh the guy that uh had the franchise, he had a Dodge franchise too, and he let the Buick franchise have somebody else buy it. Oh and so it was down the it's still in Plymouth, um, but it was down the street. So um I worked in Plymouth all my life.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:So now did you live in Plymouth while you worked there? No.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I drive from here to Plymouth every day.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I'm 71, I've still been doing it.
SPEAKER_00:So you're still working? I'm still working. Oh, I got I s silly me, I assumed that you had retired. Not yet. This year. Yeah. Well, the next year. So you know a few things about cars.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'll do.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. What's it what's it been like? So you if I think about this, right, you started working on cars when you were in school. Uh you continued to be a mechanic in the military, and then you got into uh automechanics uh after your time in the military. So you've seen like the evolution of the car.
SPEAKER_01:I did. I yeah, you went believed uh uh diesels have particular particular filters, they call them, or something. And uh they can they're quiet. Uh it ain't you can uh go behind them and they don't smell. Yeah. Um I'm working on a couple of them now. I worked on one, I uh had a mishap. A guy had a thousand miles on it, he had a bad crank in it. And uh I I put that one, I put a new engine in that one.
SPEAKER_02:And the sensors are phenomenal. It's pretty amazing what they do, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:And I there's a guy there that he uh he started with us and he worked on these heavy trucks. I think he basically, you know, the diesels, the old diesels and the brakes and everything like this, the big box trucks, and he came over uh to they got rid of the um department that he was in, so he came over to us. And he's still getting a little familiar with the situation. I don't think he could handle the the that next job that came up, the next engine transplant that we had. So I volunteered for it. It takes me about a week, but uh I get it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the the gone are the days when you could do that in your backyard, right? You got all the right machinery. They're gone. Yeah. Yeah. I remember as a kid uh throwing a uh block and tackle over a tree limb and pulling motors that way. Yeah, shade tree mechanics. Oh, yeah, yeah. Had to do what you had to do. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Couldn't afford to pay somebody. No, that's how I learned.
SPEAKER_02:You know, my father uh he uh got me uh to uh he helped me get my first car.
SPEAKER_01:Uh-huh. Which was five hundred dollars, it was a used car we got on Grand River in Detroit.
SPEAKER_02:When a it was a nice car. I it it was a 63 and a half four galaxy black. And I was 16, 7, 16, 17 back then.
SPEAKER_01:That was I was oh I was held my head up. Yeah. And and uh wish I would have still had that car, but I tore it up with a few other ones. But he he helped me get it, which five hundred dollars was a lot of money back then, too. Yeah, and but I had to keep it running.
SPEAKER_00:So I remember you I remember the cars that you could buy for 500 bucks. Yeah, they were pretty. Yeah, you could buy nice. My very first car was a 72 Owls Delta 88. Yeah, and it had hardly any miles, and it's just a beautiful car, 500 bucks. Yeah, it was a cream puff, yeah. Yeah, you can't you can't do that for ten thousand dollars now. No, wish you could. Yeah, you know, I think every car guy though says the same thing. I wish I still had that car. My dad had a 59 uh Chevy convertible, and uh there's a picture of him and my mom when they got married in the back of it, and that's the car. That's the one car he says he wishes he would have kept. Wow, I think we all have that car in the back of our head.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I remember he I had an uncle, he was uh worked for burners, and he was a maintenance crew or something like that.
SPEAKER_01:He he done a lot of machinery there and everything. He was pretty inclined and to do things and uh mechanically inclined, and I remember he used to he was working on some tank over there and got burnt or something a little bit. And uh something exploded on him or something. But he made it through there and kept on going. He was a a bull. So I don't know, I got my worth ethics from him, my aunt. My daughter still has she inherited them. She's uh moved to Tennessee, and she's got the only pizzeria in Plate County, about 40 miles away from every other pizzeria place.
SPEAKER_02:She's she has that uh you know, same worth.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you want a pizza, you gotta buy it from her. You darn right. Oh, that's excellent. So is she your only daughter then? Or do you have other children?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I have the older daughter that I don't see, but I have a son and a daughter. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And uh she's my little sweetheart. She's uh 36, 37. And my son's forty thing like that. Yeah. What does your son do? He's a brother.
SPEAKER_01:He's uh he's uh trying he's doing uh uh working at uh uh uh managing some car washes for this guy. Uh you know how these car washes are building up and everything like this. I guess the guy owned two or three of them and he managed. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like they're putting a car wash in every corner now. Every time they tear down a building, they put up a car wash. Yeah, they they they're going up. I'll tell you, I go to the same car wash that my dad used to go to on Cedar Street in Lansing. Oh yeah? And it's the only place I'll take my car. Because it always comes out clean.
SPEAKER_01:Well, there is a place on Grand River right up here in Brighton that the original car wash that uh we go to all the time.
SPEAKER_00:You find a good place, that's where you gotta go, I think. Yeah. Absolutely. So uh we've talked quite a bit about your life over the last hour or so. Um, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to talk about?
SPEAKER_02:Uh no. Um basically that was uh my whole thing in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So I really just have one uh last question for you, and that is, you know, when people are listening to your story um, you know, years from now, what message would you like to leave for people, or what would you like them to take away from your life?
SPEAKER_02:Uh be adventurous. You know, stay in a good mood. Uh go and do things.
SPEAKER_01:Uh you want to do something, go and do it.
SPEAKER_02:Uh and the one thing don't remember that your country comes first. All right. Well, thanks for spending the evening with me. I really appreciate it, Gerard. I hope it was interesting anyhow. It was.
