A Little History
I have had a lot of jobs over my life. I have worked in a beauty supply house; was a radio announcer, radio ad salesman, started a jingle company, which led to a advertising agency, I spent two months locked in a van on top of a building in downtown, New Orleans, a stock broker, I franchised businesses. I was a graphic designer, a business consultant, an owner of a software company, I also owned a nutritional company. With my brother I owned a chain of tropical plant stores and I owned a company that created the Kitty Whiz Transfer System and other products which I sold first on TV and then through retailers. But when I was only 17, I was in the US navy and designated a ADJ, which translated to mean I was supposed to be a jet mechanic. So here’s what really happened. I was 17 and had just finished a 16 week boot camp in San Diego, CA. Before you leave boot-camp you take a battery of test and then they assign you to a school, job or a area where you can get on the job training. Around 2,000 recruits were graduating in December of 65’ and it turned out that I received that second highest results from the combined score of the test we took. Because I had not finished high school, I was instead assigned to a squadron in Barbers Point, HI on the island of Oahu. I was able to go home for a 13- day leave before I was to be sent to Hawaii. As it turned out, my leave ended on December 24th and I was sent to a base in Los Angeles, where I spent Christmas in a deserted barracks. Everybody else had gone home for Christmas and some misguided person simply didn’t have the intelligence to have me stay until the 26th. So that was Christmas in 65’, warm and very lonely.
I few days later I flew to Hawaii on Continentals Champaign flight. By the time we landed I was just starting to wake up. We drank a lot of Champaign. When we arrived at the gate, a big Hawaiian came on board and in a monotone voice, saved just for military personnel, he announced, “Welcome to Honolulu” and quickly departed to get to real tourist.
I remember how sweet the rain was in the warm tropical night. It was like taking a warm pleasant shower. We found a few girls wandering the terminal and tried in vain to impress them in our new Navy uniforms. It didn’t take us long to figure out that we were the lowest of food chain in Hawaii.
I arrived at our base late and was assigned a bunk in a Quonset hut barrack. The next day I reported to my new commanding officer in a humongous airplane hangar. I was now officially a member of VR21. I don’t remember who the commander was, but he was very friendly and since I was from Chicago and he had served at Glenville Naval Air Station, we were like father and son. He asked me if I liked the assignment they had given me, and I said no, I wanted to be in computers. No problem. He then assigned me to the data processing office of the hanger. As far as I know it didn’t actually have a computer, but it did have key punch operator and a machine that separated reams of attached folded computer paper. Did I mention how young I looked? I was 17 but looked closer to 12. The petty officer that headed up this detail took one look at me and let me know that he didn’t want me to ever come back. He said that he would mark me present everyday and all I had to do was cover a watch once every 45-days.
So what was a 17-year old sailor to do, but go to the beach every day; within just a few short weeks I was black with white and virtually lived on the beach from sun-up to sun-down. I did have one problem and that was we were only given $87 a month to live on and even in 1965 that wasn’t enough to sustain life.
So that was what I did the first few months in Hawaii.
Unmarried and Pregnant
Both my mother and sister were unmarried and pregnant. My sister’s baby resulted in the birth of her only child and my only niece, Sherri Patten. My mother’s pregnancy resulted in her giving birth to a baby girl she named Deborah. The baby was born with some serious deformities and died in a few hours after birth.
I went home on emergency to attend to my mother and the death of my half sister really had a very negative impact on me and I didn’t understand why. The result was that I was able to get a honorable discharge from the Navy to help my sister and mother. I was home in July of 1966.
High School Certificate in 15 Minutes or Less
When I returned home in 1966 I decided to get my GED. I went to Loop Junior College prepared to take the test. After taking the first of 6 or 7 sections, I was not so excited. This was challenging and I was not prepared. That’s when I noticed that the test booklets had all the multiple choice questions circled. It appeared that it was fairly easy to determine the right answer by the answer that had been circled the most. Each booklet came with a separate corresponding sheet where we were instructed to put our choice to each of the multiple choice questions. I didn’t have a lot of patience in those days and I liked around and I was fairly confident that most of those taking the test were well prepared, so I went up to the desk and asked for the remaining test booklets and proceeded to mark on the answer sheet the answer that had been circled the most. In less than 15 minutes I completed all of the test booklets and was later informed that I not only passed and received my GED, I also had the highest test scores ever recorded. Valedictorian of my GED Class? I can only dream!