In my last two years of high school I took part-time jobs. The first one being at a roast beef place. You know those great big sandwiches? I did dishes and helped make sandwiches. We had lots of fun there. Sometimes we would stay open all night long.

I was having trouble in school. What a joke. I didn’t learn anything there so, I worked there for about five months and had to leave. I then got a job in a restaurant on Ridge Road. Yes, I was another dishwasher. One thing I did learn was that the people who were in charge of authority you know the manager, the cook and the head busboy, I was the lowest of the low. My manager would tell me when I could work and what days to take off. Our cook, his name was Tommy. He was one of the first colored people I had ever worked for. He was fabulous! He always treated me well. One thing about him though, if the plates were not cleaned, he would throw them at our door crashing most of them. Most of that money came out of my pocket. So guess what? We did learn to keep the dishes clean. He would always feed us.

Then we have the pro from Dover, “Mr. busboy, clean this floor!” and then “clean this table!” ” turn off the lights” ” turn on the lights!” I wish I could remember his name but for some reason it eludes me like the plague. The things I remember from this restaurant were all the people who had put plates underneath their chairs. They were too drunk to eat. They couldn’t eat steak, baked potato, garden salad, king crab legs and just about anything without the drinks. Of course they were cooked! I can remember Tommy wanting to kill some of these people. He would chase them from the restaurant with his cleaver.

About this time, I had gotten my license to drive. My mother had a car. It was a small Ford two door car. Sometimes I got to drive it to work and sometimes I didn’t. Rarely did I ever get the chance to drive it around town or to my friends  house. Thinking back about those days I don’t blame my mother. She knew better! I was a crappy driver. At the end of my junior year I left that job and got another job. It was at a plumber’s place. It was owned by a father and son and all they cared about was money, money, money, and money. When I worked there I found out I could not go out with the plumbers so my main job was to pour chlorine in gallon jugs for the customers. I ruined a lot of pants and shirts. I wonder if all this chlorine ruined my head because now they do it with automated robots.

At this place the only time I got to go with a plumber was after I had been there for two & a half months. The partner was sick so I went. To be honest with you all I thought about was how much money I was going to make, working with tools ,cutting copper, fixing bathrooms and building houses with plumbing fixtures. Yeah, right. The only job I went on was down by the lake. Two elderly people were complaining of odors. This house had no basement and it was a crawl space.

That smell in that house was like being with two guerrillas in July at the zoo. When I crawled into this  space under the house, I couldn’t believe it. There was 3 feet of smelly, uh,  well let’s just say the septic pipe had cracked.  It took five hours to clean out that crawl space. I was absolutely covered in everything and so was my plumber friend but the one thing that did get me was when we sat down to eat lunch, I could believe this individual had been doing this so long. He just didn’t care. I never saw him clean his hands or face.  He just ate.

Well that was about enough for me!  I quit in two months. I can remember buying a table from our manager. After all these years my mother really had a brand-new kitchen table! She loved it. However, I was without a job again. So, I would do odd things around the house. My father had me clean out the basement and build him a great big bar.

I could never understand why, because my father never had anyone over at the house to begin! Oh well, my father had given me money to play golf with Bruce, John and Don. We had a great day and came home. I still remember like it was yesterday. My father was sitting in a chair by the front door reading the paper. My mother always doing what she did best; the dishes.

I walked into the house hot and sweaty and he looked at me and said, “You have a letter.”

My world changed forever.

I will never forget what it said on the outside. To Robert C. Wittmer and in big letters underneath my name it said Congratulations!

I open the letter and found out that I had been drafted. When I  read that, it felt like the sun had exploded in my face. After I had cooled off, I can always remember first there was Korea, Cuban crisis and now Vietnam. But wait! I only lived at 100 miles from Canada! As a teenager, I wanted to run. I know I could get there, but something snapped in my head.

My father talked about World War II and how he was shot. He never told me a lot, but what he did tell me made a lot of sense to me .

Love your flag and your country.

Be very proud in who you are .

You are free.

A lot of countries on this planet have never been free, so don’t take it for granted.

I want to sleep that night thinking of what I should do and I was up most of the night when it hit me, this is my life only I can do what is right.

My father took time off from work and drove me down to the federal building the next day. I checked and they told me that a week from Thursday, 200 people were going to Buffalo for our physical. Afraid yes, but my family was behind me they were always behind me.

I love them so much. Now let’s see what I can do with my life!