When you are younger, you tend to always remember the big events that happened to you. Whether it is a death of a loved ones, or a birth of a new loved one. When I was younger, a lot of events happened to me; some good and some bad. Out of my four brothers, Isaac, Sam, Tom and Jacob, and three sisters, Martha, Anne, and Rose, I was the youngest, and the only one born in a hospital. Being born in a hospital was very rare.That hospital was Bryn Mawr Hospital, on November 5th, 1927. When my brother Isaac was two years old, he passed away due to whooping cough. When my other brother Jacob also turned two, he too passed away from whooping cough. Whooping cough was not a curable disease, and if it was, then my family could not even afford it. When I was 22 years old, in 1949, my father passed away from cancer. Cancer was a big thing, and we did not have the technology to make medicine for it like we do today. If you got cancer, you are most likely out of luck. Yet, one event that really influenced me was something with my mother. In 1943, when I was only 16 years old, my mother passed away.

Before my mother passed away, my life was decent. My childhood was full of enjoyable memories. My family (brothers, sisters, mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and cousin) and I celebrated Christmas together; birthdays were not celebrated because they were not as big. Train sets were big, and I got my very first one in 1936, when I was 9 years old. Every Holy Day and Sunday I had to attend church; church was a very big thing, and would be frowned upon if you missed on any given Sunday. For fun I would swim in the creek and play cowboy and indians in a field with my neighbors; not a lot we could do anyway. I had a job to be a cadey for golf at Merion. I made one dollar and twenty five cents an hour, but I had to give the one dollar to my mother, so she could put it towards our house and food and all, and I got to keep the 25 cents. I attended school at St. Denis, and I played baseball and football. I was good at baseball, I signed a contract with the Eagles; I played right field. Since my mother passed away, I only got to attend school till 8th grade since my mom was sick and I had to help out. After I quit school, I got a real job at Sun Ship Yard in Chester as an electrician. My hours were from midnight to 8am, and my income was two dollars an hour, which was considered good pay. In 1949, I started working for Havertown Township for a blast inspector in the Llanerch Quarry (present day Giant & Lowe’s). The moment from when I was told what happened to my mother, I was angry and would not talk to anyone; very soon I became moody.

Most of my life I lived in Ardmore, with the exception for when I went into the service. When I was 18 years old, I met my wife, Jean. She was 16 years old; we met each other in the neighborhood. On April 22nd, 1950, we got married. The year 1951 changed my life. My two brothers, Sam and Tom, went into the service, and they got me into it. The first time I went in the service was 1951, and was there for four years. After those four years, I was in the Reserves for another four years. When I was in the service, my wife had to ‘follow me around’ to be with me, since I was constantly moving due to my positions I was given.
After the service, I came out as a Third Class Gunnersmate. I worked in the township as a mechanic for 43 years. My life after the service consisted of playing golf, working, and helping my wife with our house. We bought our first house for $12,000 in 1956.

I never liked cancer, and will never like it, it does nothing but take innocent peoples lives. During my life-time, my mother, father, three brothers, and one sister were all victims of cancer. Cancer was considered a common disease, and there was nothing you could do if you ever got it. Sadly, I knew a lot of people that got cancer, and it is painful to see someone suffer through that. In some cases of cancer, it can relieve that person from the pain they have felt due to the disease. Even though a lot of my family members got cancer and passed away, my mothers death was very hard for me to take in, and I will never forget it.