My father had been layoff from his job in oak ridge where he worked at a nuclear plant [ K25 ] so we moved to west palm beach Florida where my father won a job with a larger aircraft co that was building rocket engines for the space program . Funny today to think that my father had his hands in the space program that put the first man on the moon, his job in testing the engines was done late at night and the sound could be heard for 20 miles away.
Now they were not always testing engines day and night so my dad would tell me how they would catch alligators [ small ] ones 3 feet or more tape there mouths closed with duck tape so they could not bit you and lead them around like dogs
I was 12 by this time an my expressions of Florida at that time were not all ways good, it was hot, there were mosicagos , cock roaches ever where .
But I guess Florida is was where I learned to make my own money for I used my father lawn mower to mow other peoples lawns, $2.00 per lawn and I could find many a day to mow, a wagon to carry are tools and extra gas an I was in business of course this was only on the week end, school during the week days , crap I thought, why do I need to got to school.
Me and my brother would go on are bikes to a local store and buy [ RC ] cola, me sitting on the handbars and him steering it was on one of these trip that my heal of my foot got caught in the front wheel spokes , a nice 4 inch cut was the result, my father sewed it up him self , he had training in the army during world war two as a medic this would not be the last time he sewed me up it would be often over the next 20years, as I may have told you he was known to be able to fix anything including me.
My brother did get a chusman mopped, an we had great fun with that, but as I reminder there were many problems with it, so it life with us seemed short lived, I don’t reminder what happened to it
A quick check of history about 1962 will tell you that year America discovered that Russia was putting ICBM missiles in cuba, then president Kennedy would have no part of this an American was on the brink of war.The Cuban Missile crisis was the crisis-point of the Cold War. It was the time when the world came nearest to annihilating itself.
Florida the closes state in the Americas to Cuba was the staging area that the American army took up an I watched miles after mile of army trucks drive by on highway 331 the interstate highway had not been finished in florida in 1962. we lived in west palm beach Florida the trucks heading ever father south. The TV was non stop of the build up an what was happening a American u 2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba,
a Russian ship trying to by pass the americium fleet that stood off of Cuba defying them. It was 10 days that we all lived in fear, and the whole world held it breath hoping for cool heads would prevail.
Anyway cool heads did prevail good thing I might not be sitting here today if they had not.
As I said earlier that my father had been laid off from his job at the nuclear plant that was early 1962 the thinking there was American had enough nuclear weapons, after the Cuban Missile crisis the thinking was America we did not have enough and my father was called back from Florida to began again that lasted for the next 30 years.
My brother still works there today in 2009 . my grand father worked there during war war two, my mother worked there during world war two, an when my father came home from the war he got a job there his younger brother [ ken ] worked there an his wife now my brother for more than 30 years ,
Im the only one that ran off to the air force and excaped spending the next 26 years checking out the world . my travels would take me far as you will see later. But I knew my god was with me, my father told me once there were no atheists
in fox hole when bullet were flying over head, this I know is true from my own personal expenses . But now there are no bullets but I will still belive remembering when there were.
