From Boot Camp to Building a Life: Mike Mickus's Journey Through Service and Family

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today is Tuesday, april 29th.
We're talking with Mike Mikus,who served in the United States
Marine Corps.
So good afternoon, mike Goodafternoon.
Great to have you here.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
All right, we're going to start out real easy.
Okay, when and where were youborn?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I was born in Dearborn, michigan, in 1959 at
Oakwood Hospital.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Okay, did you grow up in Dearborn then?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
No, I grew up in Belleborn then no, I grew up in
belleville, michigan, um farmcountry.
Yeah, so it was a differentlife being a kid no friends
around, no, nothing.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
We're just 27 acres to play on.
Wow.
So how many like where was yournearest neighbor?
It was between a little over aquarter mile away okay, so you
really had to work if you wantedto meet the neighbors right
didn't really have friends untilyou were 10 years old yeah when
you could actually venture outa little bit.
Well, what about brothers andsisters?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Four sisters and one brother.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Oh, good Lord.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
So there were six of us.
Should have been nine of us alltogether, my mom had a few
problems and would have been abig family.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, I think six is a big family.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
It is, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Where'd you fall in the food chain there?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
uh, third okay, right in the middle of the pack so
you were the middle kid yeah,one of them?

Speaker 1 (01:09):
do you have all those middle kid problems?
Oh yeah oh yeah so.
So um, were your brothers andsisters kind of close in age
then?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
yeah, we were all pretty much.
Uh, my oldest sister is rightnow 67 or 68, I'm sorry.
My next sister down was 67, soI'm going to be 66 this year,
and then my brother's two yearsyounger than me, and then my
other sister was three yearsyounger, and then my last sister

(01:38):
was probably about six yearsyounger than me okay, so on your
27 acres were you guys eachother's friends quite a bit we
were to a point till they gotsick of me.
Right, you know I was kind ofthe brute of the family.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, you could say yeah, I can, I could see that
would, so tell me a little bitof what was it like growing up
on the farm.
Talk, you know, maybe a littlebit about your parents and all
that it was sure.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
So we, like I say, we lived on 27 acres and there
were no friends around.
So you would find me any dayafter school or on the weekends
out in the fields playing in theditches, and that's what we did
.
You know, you go out in theback and make trails through the
woods.
The farm used to be a 27 acrestrawberry farm.

(02:24):
My grandparents lived next door, sold my parents three-quarters
of an acre so we had the wholething, but they did that for the
longest time, making money onthe side, until one day a truck
came down the road and took outthe fruit stand after they
worked so hard to gaineverything.
But pretty much for us it wasjust playing in ditches and

(02:46):
riding our bikes.
My parents were.
My mom didn't work.
My dad worked for the DetroitFree Press and the Detroit Times
back in the day he was adistrict manager and pretty much
we didn't see him.
He worked nights, so my mom wasthe law enforcement in the
house and if we were able tocatch up with my dad a couple

(03:07):
hours a night, that's what wehad, you know.
So a little bit differentfamily life, wherever the kids
had their dad stuff home all daywith them around the weekends
when we didn't really have that,because when he was sleeping we
were in school and he'd get upand go to work yeah, yeah, my
dad worked third shift atgeneral motors.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
I get it.
It's like they're there butthey're not really there.
So you guys are kind of otherthan your mom making sure no one
got hurt.
You were kind of left to yourown devices yeah, pretty much.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, it's a little bit different than nowadays, I
mean.
I mean, literally, we would gooutside at probably seven
o'clock in the morning and if,if we were lucky, we'd come back
in it's around something to eatand then head right back out
again, come back when it wasdark, we would stay outside so
much that my parents said, whenwe were I can remember being
little like seven, eight yearsold, six, seven, eight my mom

(04:01):
telling me to get back in theshower and go scrub that dirt
off.
And it wasn't dirt, it was justhow dark I was from being
outside the sun all day.
So that was uh, I can rememberthat vividly, wow.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
That's quite a tan, right, right, that's amazing.
Yeah, yeah, so, uh, so you uhstarted going to school.
Did you go to school inBelleville then?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, in Belleville.
Then, yeah, I went to school inBelleville.
Again, that was a tough one,because I went to a Catholic
school and so all my friendswent off and went to the regular
grade elementary school andhere I was being shipped off to
another school so you didn't getto hang with them or you didn't
even really know the kids inyour neighborhood.
Because of that fact you didn'tgo to school with them.
So I did that probably until Ithink I was in sixth grade, and

(04:43):
then that's when my life kind ofbusted open, because after
sixth grade then you were oldenough to where you could
venture out.
I would ride my bike and takeoff, but we lived on a major
road, e-course Road.
The speed limit was 50 mile anhour, going to Hydromatic right
down the street.
So it was scary but I don'tknow, I survived.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
I used to take E course road into um Taylor Yep
Uh when I drilled out of Taylor.
I know that area pretty well.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
We grew up right at the corner, pretty much a B
course in Hagerty.
Okay, yeah, right in that area.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Surprisingly, I know exactly what you're talking
about.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, it used to be Chet's Bar on the corner.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, the only thing I remember down there is Tim
Hortons, but I don't thinkthat's there anymore either.
Yeah, so sixth grade thingskind of opened up for you then.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, because I had free reign.
Then you know I could go prettymuch wherever I wanted to, and
you know, then I would startriding down towards Haggerty
Road and I started meeting allthe kids in the neighborhood.
Well, once I did that, you knowthey all had bikes and so we
would hang out at each other'shouse and again, it was an open
house policy.
They'd come to our house, I'dgo to their house and you know

(05:53):
it wasn't even a knock anymore.
You just go on in and see who'sthere, you know?
Yeah, so, and we had, like Isaid, we had 27 acres out back
and we would all meet in thewoods and so I had trails cut
through and they had trails cutthrough from their side and we'd
meet out there.
They had horses, so we'd ridehorses out there.
Many bikes build jumps, forts,growls for the horses.

(06:15):
And I mean, we were, we werestill young, we probably should
be having saws and stuff likethat, but we were doing it oh
yeah, well, in, in, you know thethe jump, like the bike jumps
that we used to make.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Oh yeah, kids today just don't get it no I'm sorry
they don't you know we should.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
We probably should be missing arms and stuff for the
stuff that we did probablyshouldn't be sitting here.
I'll tell you that right nowthat's a fact, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
So you did.
You continue at catholic schooland through all of school no,
just for up until the sixthgrade.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
And then they pulled me out Because at the time, you
know, back then parents weren'tmaking a whole lot of money and
Catholic school was prettyexpensive, especially with six
kids.
So the younger three lucked out, they got to go to regular
school, for the most part aftersixth grade.
Then, like I say say, it allbroke open.

(07:05):
We were able to do pretty muchwhat we wanted to.
Then you start making friendsand you know elementary schools
and junior high and things likethat.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
So it was pretty cool was it a pretty big change from
from sixth grade not being inthe catholic school to being in
the in the public school verymuch, six very much because of
the fact that we were taught bynuns.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Okay, and I mean you could go to elementary school
and the teacher would holler atyou a little bit like that look
at these knuckles, man.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
I used to get wrapped with the rulers you answered
the question I was about to askoh yeah, we had.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
We had sister mary poncho train.
I can remember her for a factthat she used to look there and
she, I'm so mad I could spit hotlava, you know, and if you
didn't have your homework thatwas worth a whack with the ruler
and I mean, it was brutal backthen sister mary poncha train
right.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
That sounds like something right out of serenade
live I know you you think aboutthat.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
That's something you read in a book.
You can't make that stuff notat all.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
So you get into junior high and um, what kind of
student were you?

Speaker 2 (08:08):
you know I was.
I tell you I didn't like school, it's I mean I did.
I did what I had to do to getthrough and I guess that
probably really wasn't the rightthing to do.
I probably should have studieda little bit more.
But you know, back then all youcould think about, I want to
get home, play and that kind ofthings.
Uh, so I wouldn't say I was abad student, but more than once

(08:34):
a week I wouldn't go with myhomework on it all that's did
this phrase get used a lot.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
He has a lot of potential yeah, yeah, yep, yeah,
yep, yep.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Sure was I mean.
But you know the things that Ididn't learn in school, I think
I learned at home.
By the time I was 10 years old,I was tearing apart engines off
of mowers and you know, with 27acres, we probably mowed five
acres total, and I was mowinggrass by 10 by myself um,

(09:05):
getting paid to mow theneighbor's yard, things of that
nature.
So I mean I could tear enginesapart and by the time I was 12 I
was changing oil in my parentscars and stuff like that.
So I mean a lot of it and Ithink a lot of it was
self-taught, because my dadwasn't really around, or he was,
but not for us to utilize and Idon't know if he could have did

(09:28):
that stuff anyway.
But I just learned, you know,reading books or looking at
pictures, and okay, this is howyou do it.
I've made a few mistakes.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
That's how you learn.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Mike Made messes and cleaned them up.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, yeah.
So you have like an aptitudefor for motors and things that
yeah, I think so.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, I mean reading a reading a book or looking at a
book.
I think I can see what's in thebook and then go at and do the
project.
Yeah, you know.
So I don't know pretty good, Iguess.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Uh, it's fun, I just, I like tinkering things and
fixing things and putting thingstogether so you, when you were
in school that's still in theera where they had like shop
classes and things like thatright, yeah, was that where you
excelled in school I think sobecause you know, most of once
you hit high school and juniorhigh, they had vocational tech
and all those other things andmost of my days were taken up

(10:26):
with that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
I had welding classes , auto mechanics, uh, auto body,
so I mean I was working oneverybody's car.
I had my car and they'reworking on it and so I don't
know.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
I had buddies that needed help so I would go do it
and I was kind of good at it, soit helped out you know, I
remember years ago when my songot I think it was like his
first or second car but uh, itneeded brakes, and so we went
out in the driveway and we putbrakes on it and he was just
amazed.
I was like dude, like when Igrew up, like you could just

(10:58):
barely afford the car.
Right, if you wanted stuff towork right, you had had to, you
had to be the one to do it.
So, um, it was kind of nice toteach him to do that stuff, but
I, but I, it was just somethingI always did.
So I didn't think that someoneneeded to learn this.
You just know how to do itright right, and that that was
me too.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
You know, by the time we started having kids and
stuff, it was just, everythingwas second nature.
Yeah, you know what do you mean.
You know how to do that right.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, we're gonna put a stereo in this car.
Let me show you how that worksexactly.
No, I remember those days.
So you, uh, you make it throughschool, uh, did you play any
sports or anything like?

Speaker 2 (11:32):
that in school I was a motorhead.
Yeah, yeah, all through school,I mean all of us.
We were back in the year uh,you know, 77 was when I
graduated, so 75, and we all hadhot cars.
You know, we had a, I had a 70Cuda with a three 40.
And of course you put the bigtires on it and ladder bars and,
um, all my friends had Camarosor Firebirds or chargers or

(11:55):
something like that, and sothat's kinda that's what we did.
We, we would hang out with ourcars.
Um, we even had to the pointwhere, when going to school, my
nickname was Arer, because backthen you didn't have cell phones
, there was no way to get a holdof anybody, so we all put cb
radios in our car.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
So you know, well, that was the time too right.
That was when the cvs were yeah, because I was a little bit
younger, but I remember going.
Yeah, I mean we went to like cbcoffee breaks, did all kinds of
crazy stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, yeah, so we would contact each other in the
morning on the way to school wegoing to school today or what we
do.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Well, the nice thing is, no one else can you know, no
one can check your CB to seewho you've been talking to,
right?

Speaker 2 (12:36):
So that was, that was an interesting part in our, in
our lives with the CBs and nophones and stuff.
You know, lives with the cbsand no phones and stuff.
You know your phone was hookedto the wall so everybody heard
what you were saying, right anduh, so I was just nice and I
mean every one of my friends hadthem so we could get a hold of
anybody at any time now, did youhave that home phone with like
the 90 foot cord?

Speaker 1 (12:57):
oh yeah, so you go like all the way down in the
basement you stretch it to 110right I know, I remember and
then we get all coiled up andridiculous.
Then your mom would be able toget off the phone exactly I
remember those days.
So you get through high schooland you graduate.
What's what's next?

Speaker 2 (13:14):
so during high school , um, I wouldn't say that me and
my dad didn't really get along,because I really I could
honestly say I probably reallydidn't know get along, because I
really I can honestly say Iprobably really didn't know him,
yeah, uh.
So I told him one day.
I said you know, think I'mgoing to go to college, just a
community college or whatever.
And he looked at me and he goesyou're too stupid to go to

(13:36):
college.
And I went, hmm, okay, sothat's the way this is going to
roll.
And thought about it for alittle bit and within the next
week or so this was probably injune, no, it was probably in
february of 77, and that's whenhe said this to me and didn't

(13:57):
know if he was joking or not.
But it sticks with you, yeah,being being young, you know oh,
that's your dad yep.
So I went down, talked to mybuddies and we were out and I
said so what would you?
What's your plans, what are yougonna do?
He goes I don't know.
He says I want to be a dogtrainer.
I go, where are you gonna getschooling for that at?

(14:18):
He goes I was thinking aboutjoining the military went.
Hmm, sounds different.
He goes I'm going to a meeting.
You want to go?
I went sure, let's go, you know.
So we went down there and talkedto the recruiters and haven't
even talked to my parents yet, Iwas still 17.
And so he's talking to himabout his stuff and he goes.

(14:39):
The recruiter looked at me andhe goes what about you?
And I go I'm just kind of herelistening to see what you guys
got to offer and all this stuff.
And I says what do you like todo?
He says well, I like working onmotors and things of that
nature.
And I says I wouldn't mindworking on airplanes or
something of that.
And he goes well, that's prettycool, we got stuff like that
that we could offer with you.

(15:00):
Well, needless to say, by thetime I left there, I was already
signed up.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Oh yeah, yeah, you said, it gave your parents
permission at this point, right.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Right 17, no parents permission.
He goes well, just take thesepapers home and get them filled
out by your parents and we'llget you going as soon as you get
out of high school.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
And took the papers home and nope, they wouldn't
sign them.
Didn't want nothing to do withit.
So, luckily enough, my birthdaywas july 30th and I graduated
in may.
Got out a little bit early so,but I was already signed up, so
I was on delayed entry and allthat and shipped out august wow
so was there a reason why yourparents weren't on board with
this?

Speaker 1 (15:40):
I mean?

Speaker 2 (15:41):
I don't know, I really I know.
I just maybe they figured Iwouldn't follow through with it.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
You know, but there is, once you're in there, man,
you follow it through.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, there's only two ways that's going to work
out.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, so funny story here with that.
So we, we, you know we bothsigned up at the same time and
we went down to Detroit and hadour ASVAB tests, or whatever you
want to call them.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Did you stay at the Mariner Hotel downtown?
We were close enough, so wejust drove.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
So we went through there and did all the testing
and you signed the lastdocuments that you needed to
sign.
So I had to sign up for delayedentry because my parents
wouldn't sign for me.
We come out of the meetings.
And he went one way, I wentanother and I said I'll meet you
back here towards the end ofthe day when we're all done and
we go.
Okay, we had to get physicalsand all that stuff, yeah, and I

(16:31):
was worried I got flat feet, soI was worried.
Back then they took anybody, soyou know.
So we met up towards the end ofthe day and I said so when do
you ship?
He goes, yeah, I failed, I'mnot going.
And I went like what, what doyou mean?
You're not going?
He goes yeah, I failed my test,so I don't get to go.
And so there I was, all signedup, ready to go and nobody to go

(16:55):
with.
But wow, yeah, that was.
It was kind of a shocker.
You know you, you take it for,you take it to heart and you
know you thought was good.
And I don't know if youpurposely failed him or what, if
he got scared or whatever, butit wasn't no big deal.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Well, and here you were, thinking that you were
going to be the one that wasn'tgoing to go right.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Sure, sure.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, everything turned around, yep.
So you get into delayed entryand you're not really in delayed
entry that long no, just abouttwo months, I think at the time.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
And so then you know, basically they said all right,
report detroit down here at suchand such a time had my buddy
drive me down, so my parentsstill wouldn't do it, and so
they were still not on boardwith yes still not on board, wow
, so went down there and hedropped me off and all right,
see whenever you know yeah newcamp was 13 weeks back then now,

(17:46):
where did you go?

Speaker 1 (17:47):
san diego hollywood marine yeah, right right behind
the airport there yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
We used to watch them .
Planes take off every singleday, just wishing you were on
one of them.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
We can I got a funny story about that.
I know this is your story, butI'll show you.
So I went to basic training atthe naval training center there
it's Back's right up to theMarine Corps Recruit Depot and
we had this kid, probably likefour weeks in.
He just had enough and hejumped the fence because he was
going to go run to the airportand fly home, right.
But he jumped the fence rightinto Marine Corps boot camp Nice

(18:19):
.
They kept him for a couple ofweeks Right and when they
brought him back he was the bestsailor ever.
I'll bet that kept him for acouple of weeks right and when
they brought him back he was thebest sailor ever.
That guy did everything he wassupposed to do.
But uh, yeah, yeah, it's kindof torture.
You're out there because weused to watch you guys and and
your boot camp was no joke.
But then those stupid planes.
You look at the planes all daylong every day.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
You watch them planes take off, as you know.
It's 90 degrees outside andwe're shoveling snow, you know,
because that's what they told usto do shovel the sidewalks off.
It snowed last night.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Okay, I guess whatever you say sir do what you
do, what you say, yeah, so so Iwant to ask so, like when you
got to basic training, was thatsomewhat of a culture shock for
you?
Or just like show up and you'relike, yeah, here I am no, it's
always.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
I think it was a culture shock for everybody.
Yeah, because you're used todoing what you want and you know
you're riding the bus and wegot our long hair and all this
stuff and you know you got yourpack of smokes in your pocket,
no, so you're sitting on the busand it pulls up and there's not
really nobody around right nowand next thing, you know, here
comes the drill instructors andthey come marching out and they

(19:24):
open up the door and just allhell breaks loose.
You know they're screaming,they're hollering, get off the
bus right now.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
And so we all did it, and thatwas the start.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, you didn't keep that long hair very long did
you?

Speaker 2 (19:37):
No, no, probably we were waiting for our platoon to
build, so we probably got tokeep it for like three days and
then we got enough people tobuild our platoon to an 1104 and
uh, we got that, and then theymarched us all right down and
they go.
You know, you sit down in achair, so how do you want to cut
leave?

Speaker 1 (19:56):
a little on the top a little off side.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
You know that they did just put the clip around and
they buzz it right down tonothing and, yeah, you got that
white head out there in the sun.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
How many guys cried?
Anybody cry?

Speaker 2 (20:08):
I think probably we had a couple.
Yeah, I don't remember, butyeah.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Late seventies, people were pretty invested in
their hair.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, yeah, mine was down to my shoulders.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, yeah, have you had it that way since.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
No, okay.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
It.
Okay.
It's pretty much like it isright now Number three on the
sides and clip the top a littlebit.
Once you get used to that, it'shard to get unused to it isn't
it?

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, I went this morning to get a haircut because
it was over my ears.
I just can't stand it, can'tstand it.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
My wife likes long hair, I don't, so this is our
compromise.
I get it cut like every two tothree weeks.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
I would three all over, but my wife doesn't care
for me I was a high and tightguy.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
You know, right razor cut all that stuff.
Sure sure loved it.
So you, uh, you get to basictraining and you're there for
quite a while.
Um, what was it?
What was basic training like?
Like once you kind of got intothe group it was.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
You know, every day wasn't something new.
That day we didn't figure onlearning.
Um, I'm not a runner, I don'tlike running, I don't like all
that stuff.
But you know we had five mileruns and you know they'd start
you off with the one mile andthen the three mile and a five
mile, and then your force 15mile marches, excuse me, and uh,

(21:19):
I mean I I enjoyed it otherthan the running.
So, like I said, I just don'trun to this day.
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Somebody's chasing me .

Speaker 2 (21:27):
But every day it was something new.
I mean, you go out there andyou fight with the pugil sticks
or learning drill, and you knowit's funny because most people
show up to boot camp and theyassign you drill instructors.
And I mean I've talked to otherpeople and their drill
instructors.
They had a sergeant, a couplecorporals and things of that

(21:48):
nature.
We showed up and they told usokay, today you're going to get
your permanent drill instructorsfor boot camp and we had five
staff sergeants walk in andwe're going holy crap, we're not
supposed to have staffsergeants.
You know, maybe one right thatwould lead you, but we had five
staff sergeants show up and wejust go.
This can't be good, you know,and they were strict and they

(22:11):
were well-worn in their, intheir ways and it's their way of
the highway, which of course italways is.
And you know you would go tosleep at night and of course you
laid in your bunk and attentionwas singing the military, you
know the Marine Corps hymn Yep,yep and uh.
You would wake up and weweren't allowed out of our racks
at night.

(22:32):
I mean this is still in a timethey they were probably not
supposed to touch you whenyou're, you know, for training
and stuff.
But we had a foot locker or aboot, a closet that they would
take you in and tune you up alittle bit.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Give you a little wall-to-wall counseling?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah a little wall-to-wall counseling, right,
yeah, I mean, I can remembersome stories, but you'd wake up
in the middle of the night andour drill instructors would
leave their light on in theirone office, because one person
stayed with you in the barracksall night long, yeah, and he

(23:10):
would be standing out just inthe light, where the light's
being cast out of his doorway,and he's doing all these karate
moves and you're going.
Man, I don't know, is this forreal or is this just a scare
tactic?
you know probably a little bitof both right yeah, but he's, he
scared us enough that we didn'tscrew up and we get out there.
And you know, we want all.
We want a couple of uh paradesand stuff for our marching and
all that stuff.
And it just seems like if therewas a time to get in trouble, I

(23:30):
would find it, even in bootcamp.
And you know, we in marinecorps I don't know what, I don't
know if the army does it, butwe have to slam our heels into
the ground when you march.
So that's just that's thecadence.
You know you make that noise andso it wasn't uncommon for four
or five people a week to haveheel contusions, you know,
bruised heels and things.

(23:50):
So one day we were doing thatand I'm going, man, my feet are
killing me, because every nightyou'd have to stand on your
footlocker and they'd rub theirhands up and down your Achilles
to see what's going on.
And if you flinched you'regoing to sickbay.
So I got put out and I don'tknow now, no marching duty for
two days, two days off.
So I was sitting in thebarracks one day.

(24:11):
You sat there and you couldwrite letters or something like
that, or clean the barracks.
So I'm sitting in the barracksand I'm writing a letter, I got
a pen in my hand and here comeuh I think it was a second
lieutenant or something in thecorner, come around the corner
and I'm like, oh man, this guy'sgot bars on his shoulder, you
know now, what do you do?
yeah, now what do you do?

(24:32):
So I stood up and saluted anddressed myself and, needless to
say, I had my pen still stuck inmy hand as I was saluting him
and he just looked at me andcome over, got about six inches
from my face and give me theonce over up and down, and you
know, after that it was prettycool, but it seemed like I
always ran into that same guywhen we're in a run or something

(24:54):
like that.
And you know, at the point atthe time I really didn't care
for the guy because you know hegot in my face and blah, blah,
blah we're still pretty earlyinto boot camp but it was like
the point where you almost wantto pummel a guy.
You know, take him, take himout, and I'd see him somewhere
we're on a run or march orsomething like that and I'd look
and every time I looked off tothe side he would catch me

(25:17):
looking man, and next thing, youknow he's at my drill
instructor and putting my facein the dirt.
Give me a hundred here, and youknow.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
So, yeah, I would get in trouble sometimes I think we
all found trouble in boot campright right.
So when you got done with basictraining, um did your family
come out for graduation oranything?
Were they like at least alittle bit on board by now?

Speaker 2 (25:41):
no, wow, no.
So we graduated and uh, I wasin san diego again and uh, we
went through the ceremonies andI pretty much jumped on a plane,
flew back home.
I was home probably for a weekbefore I went to my a school and
, uh, that's when you know, whenyou're graduating boot camp

(26:02):
they're telling you all thethings that you can do.
This is what you signed up for,we're going to get you this,
this, this and this.
And then on the very last daythey go yeah, that's really not
available.
You know, my recruiter lied tome Kind of story yeah, so, yeah,
so I was at the last couple ofdays.
He says so what do you want todo?
I says I want, I signed upgoing, want to work on jets.

(26:24):
And he goes well, we don'treally have any openings right
now for jets, but we gothelicopters.
And I go all right, helicoptersare probably even a little bit
better because you can go forrides in helicopters.
It's kind of hard to get a ridein a jet, two seater or
whatever.
And so I said that's cool.
And so we signed up for thatand went home on leave for 10
for a week, I think it was andit was off to a school in

(26:47):
Millington Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, so tell me a little bit, what was it like to
come home after being inbootcamp?

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Cause you changed, but a lot of people don't Right
when I, when I was in, when I,when I went into bootcamp if you
can picture I don't know, maybethe nerdy kid with a squirrely
voice, real high-pitched voice,going into the Marine Corps.
That's how I went in and I cameback with this voice.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
You came back, a man.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
And I think it's just all from the hollering and
yelling and doing what they say.
But everybody was surprisedWhose voice is that when you
walk in?
But I don't even know that.
I got picked up at the airport.
Wow, tell you the truth, justkind of showed back up at home.
I probably had one of mybuddies pick me up, I don't
really remember.
But when I was in bootcamp theonly thing I can say is that my

(27:39):
dad would write, so you wouldlook forward to those letters.
He would write so you wouldlook forward to those letters.
He was the only one never gotanything from my mom, but my dad
would write me a letter,probably once, twice a week, and
of course he would slip a pieceof gum in there that the drill
instructor would find and get anextra workout for that.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Did you find that you learned something about your
dad through those letters?

Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, I did, you know , and a lot more probably than I
even knew.
Growing up, you know, he wouldtell me stories and things like
that and my dad was kind of ajokester and he was always
making fun of things and youknow the return address on it
was Captain such and such, youknow, and my drill instructor

(28:27):
would look at it and explainthis.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Just trying to get you in trouble.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yep, trying to get me worked out a little bit, that's
right.
So came back a whole differentperson.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, did you have a girl back home?

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Not really not at the time Dated a little bit, but me
and the guys were too busyhanging out.
There was no time for that yet.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
You got your priorities.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Plus, we really didn't.
I mean back then, I mean when Iwas in high school, I would
work and do odd jobs.
I worked at McDonald's for awhile and I just really didn't
cut it.
But then you know, minimum wagewe were working for two dollars
an hour yeah you know, twodollars an hour.
You work and you work for twoweeks and they give you a check

(29:11):
of 160 bucks and you go.
All right, that's paying for gasyeah, you fill up your car and
you go on your way yeah, youhave a little bit to do stuff
with, but yeah, so we reallydidn't have a whole lot of money
to play with, so we would doodd stuff and get extra money to
work on our cars and yeahthings like that.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, so you uh leave michigan.
You head to millington,tennessee yeah so how was that?
That was pretty good was that anavy school?
Yes, okay I'm not saying thatto pick on you no but I know
that the marine corps and thenavy do a lot of stuff together
because we're part're part ofthe Navy, the best part.
I want to tell you what I wastold one time One of my Marine

(29:50):
Corps friends.
He was giving me a hard timeand I said you know, if you look
at your ID card, you're theDepartment of the Navy, right?
He said, yeah, the men'sdepartment I've heard them all.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
So you get to millington, tennessee, so we get
there and you know, we get allset up with our barracks and now
it's getting.
You know, you're still not surewhat to expect, you know, but
now it's.
It's almost another relaxedatmosphere because we're in
school now we're learning aboutwhat we can do and things of
that nature, and so we do ourschool and I had my sister was
going on a trip and so shebrought my motorcycle down for

(30:27):
me, towed it behind the car, andso at least I had a motorcycle
on base and that at least gaveme some ways to get around town.
But I did well through theschools.
I put a lot of effort into thoseschools.
It's something I wanted tolearn.
So I don't know where Igraduated in class, but it's
pretty close, high up to the topand uh.

(30:49):
So pretty much we got ourchoice of pick of where we
wanted to go.
You know, while I was there Itook up remote control aircraft
flying, oh, built my, built myfirst plane while I was on base,
flew it one time and crashed itokay an expensive hobby right,
expensive, but even still onbase.
We'd get off work, we'd get outof school and I'd head right

(31:10):
over because they had automotivedepartments too and we'd all
work on our cars and yeah, didthey call them auto hobby shops
back?

Speaker 1 (31:18):
yeah, sure did.
Yeah, it's still I say backthen I went into the military in
83, so it wasn't too far behindyou, right?
But yeah, the auto hobby shopwas awesome.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, it was great.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Every tool you could ever want.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yep, that's a fact.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Now did you still have the Cuda?

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Nope, I had uh at the time.
Then I had a 77 Chevy Monzawhich was a hatchback and it was
a nice little car.
It sat low, but of course wepulled it and put a v8 in it and
, uh, it was souped up and I canlift the front tires off the
ground about six inches, youknow that monza was a great car

(31:54):
because it was so light, but youcould stuff a 350 in there with
no problem easily, easily.
So we did that and that's wherewe.
You know, back when I was, Ihad that still when I was in
high school and went throughclutches about four or five a
year.
You know not that we were hardon them right, not to mention
tires and everything else.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, and what kind of bike did you have?

Speaker 2 (32:14):
it was just a little suzuki, it was a 400, yeah, um
something I found a deal on, soI I bought it and it was just
something to get around town andit was easy on fuel and it was
fun.
It was a nice little bike, loud, of course.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
So how long were you in Millington then?
How long was your school?

Speaker 2 (32:33):
I think our school was, I think, six months.
We did six months training inMillington and that was um, I
went into the height, I wentinto hydraulics, okay, so it was
all hydraulics, um, learningyou know the different parts of
helicopters, and it was cause itwas all geared towards
helicopters.
They knew that's where I wasgoing and, uh, learned all about

(32:57):
that.
And then pretty much graduationcame and they said where do you
want to go?
I go what's open.
And, of course, jacksonville,north carolina, new river air
station okay you know, part ofcamp lejeune yeah same water
yeah, my, my brother went tocamp lejeune this whole story

(33:18):
about that but yeah, yep, so,and I think, I mean I don't even
think I went home after school,I went right to the, my duty
station and that's where Iserved my time now did your dad
continue writing to you whileyou were no?
no, once pretty much I got outof boot camp then that was
pretty much it.
You know I would.

(33:38):
I would call home every once ina while and get to talk to
people and take my vacationswhen I could.
And you know I used to ridethat Suzuki excuse me, a little
400 and I'd take off from NorthCarolina and I'd ride it
straight through to Michigan.
Yeah, that's a long ridethrough the mountains and all
that middle of the nightfreezing your butt off just to

(33:59):
go home, but it was all worth it.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
There's nothing better than being on a bike,
though.
No home but it was all worth it.
There's nothing better thanbeing on a bike though no, it's
as close to flying as you canget still be on the ground.
Yep, that's fact.
Yeah, loved it.
So tell me about your duty.
So you, um, this was the onlyduty station that you went to
then that's where you served outthe rest of your time, so tell
me about that.
What was that like?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
okay.
So, um, with the scores that Ihad, I had pretty much a choice
of what I wanted to do or how Iwanted to do it.
He goes you want to work flightline, do you want to work
different levels?
And I go.
So the choices are you can workflight line, you could do
intermediate level maintenanceor depot level maintenance.
Depot level maintenance wassomeplace way off in the

(34:40):
boondocks and I go, we're notgoing to do that, but
intermediate level.
Intermediate level maintenancesounded pretty good.
So, basically, when they wouldfly the choppers and things
would break, they would, if theycouldn't repair them, they
would bring them to our shop onbase, which is just right next
to all the hangers, and we wouldrepair them.
We had all the test equipmentand, uh, we did everything from

(35:02):
valves, pumps, struts, wheels,landing gear, the rotor
assemblies.
So it was just the next step upfrom what they could do on
ground level.
Right, and that was a lot offun.
Made a lot of friends there.
You know, being there for thebasically three years that I was
there four years made a lot offriends and you see people come,

(35:28):
you see people go and, ofcourse, as soon as I get there,
I met this one guy.
His name's Sergeant Kennedy.
It was RL Kennedy was his nameand pretty much took me under
his wing and became my mentorand changed my life.
Yeah, talk to me about that.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Yeah, wing and became my mentor and changed my life.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Talk to me about that .

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yeah, so um if you need to take a breath, take a
breath.
Mike, that's okay, I can tellthis guy meant a lot to you.
Let me get some tissue no, I'mgood okay, I'm just asking yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
So you know, of course we're spoiled young kids
still, just, you know, nostripes on your arms.
You know I went in a privateand, yeah, you know, I met him
and he's like you know, he catchme doing stuff and he didn't
know that's not what we'resupposed to be doing here.
So, like I say, he took meunder his wing.
I met his family.
Instead of hanging out at base,a lot of times I'd go hang out.

(36:28):
He'd invite me to his place.
He lived off base and justtaught me the ins and outs.
A lot of the guys that didn'thave that.
I mean, it was rough on them,it was really rough.
But, like I say, he mentored meand brought me along through
the whole thing, showed me howto get, how to gain rank, you

(36:51):
know, which was a tough, toughto do in the marine corps, and
uh.
But I followed his rules, Ifollowed his uh example and
within two years I was sergeant.
So, but every little, everylittle duty that you could sign
up for, that was me.
I signed up for it all.

(37:11):
Um, within a year of being there, I became a collateral duty
inspector.
So any parts that were fixedhad to be signed off on, to be
put onto the helicopters, so itmeans we had to inspect them.
So I went and I got all of thatand uh, pretty much that states
that you know you're willing togo fly in that shop for any
time that they put these partson, because they can come to

(37:33):
your shop and go.
We just put these on, let's go,yeah, you know.
So you got all those guys handsin your life, your lives in
your hand and that kind of thing.
So yeah, without rob, withoutbob, um, I don't know if I would
have had such a good time,because I enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
I really did again, it probably would have been easy
to go down the wrong path ifyou didn't have the mentor right
sure, because you get in thewrong group.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
You know you got the one guy that's in your shop
that's been a private six times.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
That should should be telling you something right.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yeah, and he's about ready to get out.
We just got busted again, butyeah, so that was, that was a
good, that was a good duty there.
I really enjoyed hanging outwith them.
While I was there, we had to goon Mediterranean cruises, okay,
okay.
So on our helicopter.
So I was on, I did three.

(38:24):
I did three med cruises.
You know, I figured I'm goingto do something.
I might as well go see some ofthe world.
So we did three Mediterraneancruises.
I was on, uh, iwo Jima, the USSGuadalcanal and the USS Saipan.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
I'm familiar with all three of those I was, so I
before I was in the army, I wasin the Navy, okay, so I was in
Norfolk for four years.
Okay, those are all veryfamiliar to me.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Right, right.
And so I mean you know mysquadron would get assigned to
go out and they would go, okay,so you're shipping out with them
and I'd go, that's cool.
So we would go out there andwe'd do our thing on the ship
and we'd come back from thatcruise and you know, the next
squadron's getting ready becausethey got a three-day delay or

(39:08):
whatever, and they're gettingready and these guys are going.
Man, I don't want to leave myfamily and all this stuff.
And I go all right, let's gotalk to your captain.
So I'd walk over there andswitch squadrons from one
squadron to the next and shipout in three more days, go back
out why not right?
you're a young guy, you're notmarried, right, so right as well
exactly so I would keep alittle bit of spending cash for

(39:30):
myself, and the rest of it wasdeposited in a bank account at
home, you know.
So it was kind of amazingbecause I mean, I've been all
through the med, the whole med,from one end to the other, you
know, um spain, portugal.
We went up through thenetherlands, uh greece, italy
been in italy more times than Icould imagine, the same with uh
spain.

(39:50):
So now my wife's trying to getme to go on cruises through
there and I've been there itmight be different.
It might be different, but I'msure it probably is still sure I
can remember being in spainwhen they were having an
uprising with Americans, and youknow the shopkeepers and
storekeepers, when the shippulls in, that means money for

(40:10):
them Because I mean, we'regetting off with our pockets
bulging and heading to bars andshops.
And we all started walking downthis one aisle alley and we
came to an intersection alleyand we came to an intersection.
When we got to the intersectionthere were probably 500 spanish
people with, uh, these bamboorods, probably 12 foot bamboo
rods, and they're just whippingthem through the air.

(40:32):
We're going all right.
Well, there's only like 20 or30 of us in this little group.
We're going all right.
So what do we do?
Do we go through this or do weturn around and go back?
You know, if we go through it,I'm sure there's going to be
repercussions when we get backto the ship.
And so we kind of stood therefor a little bit and then out of
a doorway, from a little placeright next to it, out of a

(40:54):
doorway, here come all the shopowners, and they had bigger
sticks, you know, and theybrushed everybody back and so
they gave us our leeway and wecould go spend our money.
But a lot of good things I'veseen in all these different
countries and that was prettycool.
One of the cruises we did was anine-month cruise.

(41:15):
I forget what they called thatone, but it was at the time when
they had our hostages in Iran,and so we ended up going down
through the canal and crossingover the equator.
So, golden Shellback, wecrossed at 0-0.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Oh really.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah, we went out of our way.
We had a little bit of time, sothe captain did that and we
went out of our way and crossedat 0-0 to become Golden
Shellbacks.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
And that's a little story right there yeah, tell me
a little bit about that allright.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
So you have to go through an initiation, you know,
with, uh, the kings of the seaand all these things, and I mean
pretty much they.
You're down to your skivvies on, crawling on the flight deck,
you know, and it's, it's allrough stuff there and you're
bleeding everywhere.
They're hitting you with firehoses and all these other things
and putting you in water tanksand spraying hoses on you.

(42:10):
But it was pretty cool.
The best thing about it was theday before of the initiation
you could get back at the peoplethat you think are going to do
stuff to you.
We knew one of the guys thatwas participating.
So about four of us got togetherand of course she was a CB.
So we didn't know much aboutCVs back then.

(42:33):
So we, we get this guy and Ithink five or six of us grab him
.
We had a hundred foot of ropeand we tied this guy up and we
wrapped him up.
I don't know how he could evenmove a pinky he was.
So we looked like a mummy andwe grabbed him, we threw him
into a closet and before wecould get the door closed he was
coming back out.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
We're going oh it's not a guy you want to mess with
we tried to be friends afterthat.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
But he knew it was all in fun and yeah, you know,
gave us a little bit of extraharassing during the initiations
and stuff.
But, like I say, you got to gowith it, just flow with it.
It was all good.
People were complaining theycan't do this to us and I go go
with it already.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Right, it's camaraderie.
Yes, that's what I think.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
It's building a team.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah, did you have to kiss Neptune's belly?

Speaker 2 (43:20):
oh yeah, of course you did, and he would grab you
by the back of the head and rubyou right in there yeah, because
he had like all kinds of greaseand everything.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Oh yeah, disgusting the tubes.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
They take all the food from the chow hall that was
left over and throw these tubesand you had to crawl through
them.
And pretty disgusting.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
It was fun yeah, it's a great time.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
I mean really yeah, it was yeah, yeah yeah, and were
there?

Speaker 1 (43:42):
were there a lot of your fellow Marines that had
gotten their shell back then?
Or was this kind of a?

Speaker 2 (43:48):
You know, I don't think so.
I think I was the only one.
Maybe one other person in ourshop, yeah, had a shell back and
I think he was a.
We're just a shell back, not agolden shell back at zero zero
Cause that's pretty, I heardit's pretty uncommon to do that
and for our captain to take us alittle bit out of the way and
do that was pretty cool.

(44:09):
So on that mission, on that oneright there I think it was
Operation Eagle Claw we werejust a support ship so we didn't
get ribbons or nothing for itbecause we were on the outskirts
of it, but our helicopterswould fly and they'd land on
another ship, but we were thesupport ship out there for the
parts and we'd get parts andkind of send them back in there

(44:31):
for that, and that was a prettygood one.
Then we turned around from thereand we went back, going back
through and nixon was visiting,uh, and for some reason they
ended up killing their presidentin Libya.
So we had to get Nixon out ofthere.
So our ship went over there andwe evacuated Nixon, but during

(44:54):
the process Libya put two planesin the air and shot at two of
ours and so we splashed both ofthose, put those in the drink
and then we all had shirts madeup Libya Zero, usa Two, you know
, and of course the captainwould come over to speak or
these shirts will not leave theship and all this stuff so we

(45:15):
don't cause other conflicts.
But that was kind ofinteresting and that's pretty
much the closest I ever got toany live conflict.
I mean, we were locked andloaded on a ship with our, you
know, in our hydraulic shops andthings like that, just in case
something happened, but neversaw any actual fighting or
combat yeah, well, I mean that's, you guys shot down two planes.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
I mean that's, that's not nothing right right, not
nothing.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
You know, and I say I people say so, you didn't see
combat, I go.
You know, when I signed up Ididn't know I wasn't going to
see it right, right, you sawwhen you sign up.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
This is what people don't understand, so I I tell
people this all the time is thatif you served, then you're a
veteran, right, you know?
It's not about combat oranything like that, because you
signed a blank check you don'tknow where you're going, you
don't, you don't know what'sgoing to happen right you know,
and I mean when I was signing up.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
At the time we were just getting out of the draft
and they were talking to put thedraft back in right, and when
my buddy started talking aboutgoing, I might as well, we're
gonna probably get the get thecall anyway all right, might as
well go do it on your terms,right?
Right and just do somethingthat we want to do, versus, uh,
being out there pounding theground right, right.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
I mean you might get stuck in the marine corps or
something, right, right?
Exactly so did you do?
How many cruises after that onethen?
I did a total of three okay, soyou did two back to back yeah,
two back to back.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
and then I think that even the last one I wasn't
supposed to go on, but again,guys didn't want to leave their
families and I was single, justdoing nothing but drinking beer
all night.
So I'll go, you know so youmight as well leave guys at home
with their families.
That didn't need to go.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Yeah.
So I'm curious was was yourfriend Rob there?
That's like this whole timethen while you were we did two
of the three cruises together.
Okay.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah, so while you were, we did two of the three
cruises together.
Okay, yeah.
So I mean that was fun and he'sout.
He already did one before meand so we would go out and he
would show me different parts ofitaly and spain.
And you know, they got the redlight district to stay out of.
Don't go there, but that's thefirst place we go, and never
tell, never, ever ever tellsomeone in the military not to
don't do this, don't go there.

(47:24):
Okay, it must be good must befun, right, we're going exactly
yeah.
So yeah, he was with me prettymuch the whole time.
Um, I think six months before Igot out of the service he was
transferred to quantico and didpresident's duty.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
So so he was really squared away.
Yeah, he was squirrelly yeah,did you keep in contact with him
?

Speaker 2 (47:44):
you know, when I got out of the service, um, the
first year was kind of awhirlwind and you kind of forget
about certain things, kept intouch with a few people, um that
I went back and that was thetime I don't even we didn't have
facebook, we had myspace orsomething, maybe oh yes, I don't
know, and so trying to findsomebody on that.

(48:05):
You couldn't do it right, so ittook me a while and I finally
caught up with them, did you?
Yeah, probably it was.
I was probably out for 10 years.
Uh-huh, you know, back inliving life and, uh, I found him
on facebook, I think it was,and then a whole new life
started again.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, that must have been pretty amazing.
Yep, all right, so you do yourtours, you get on a couple of
really good cruises, actually,right, and then so it's time for
you to your enlistment's up.
So did you come, assuming youcame back to Michigan because
you're sitting here now?
So what happens?
So you came back to Michigancause you're sitting here now,

(48:43):
um, so what happens?

Speaker 2 (48:44):
So I came back to Michigan, um, and just thinking,
all right, what am I going todo for work now?
So I figured out okay, well,I'm in hydraulics and I love
hydraulics, so I'm going to goto school.
I went to, I went to communitycollege and I went for a
robotics Cause that was theupcoming thing back then,
robotics was and I was workingat a mortgage company just to

(49:07):
help me pay my bills, to getthrough college, and kind of
went through the classes and alot of math, I'm going, holy cow
, what do you mean?
I don't need this forhydraulics.
I need a little bit.
I don't need trigonometry andplane trig and all these other
things.
And so I went through and I gotpretty much all the way through
and then, when I was just aboutdone with my bachelor's degree,

(49:30):
they decided that they weregoing to drop all the courses
for robotics.
So I think I'm like six, sixcredits short of having a degree
, wow, but don't need it now.
So right, I mean so, anyway, Icome back from, I came back from
the service and went back home,got that job at the mortgage

(49:52):
company just for something, andagain, I think that was paying
675 an hour or something.
Back then, yeah, big bucks,yeah, big money.
Um, while I was working there,it working there.
You imagine it's an officebuilding and it's just full of
women.
Yeah, so you're scouting aroundlooking.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Because you're a guy and that's what we do.
Right, that's what we do, let'sjust be honest.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
So I got my eye on this one girl and I'm watching
her.
I'm still a little bit shy.
I don't know why I was shy, butwas a little bit Finally got
the nerve to talk to her andwent and sat with her for lunch
a couple times and decided I'mgoing to throw a Halloween party
at my house, at our house.
So I threw a Halloween partyand invited her, and so that was

(50:35):
really the first time at theparty that we actually got to
sit down and get comfortablewith each other, talk to each
other and stuff like that.
Three months later we wereengaged.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
That's pretty fast, Mike.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yeah, I know you sound very shy to me.
Yeah, that was pretty fast.
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
So were you living with some other folks, did you
have roommates or something then?

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Actually, back then I moved back in with my parents.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Until I says I'm going to stay actually back.
Then I moved back in with myparents.
Okay, until I says I'm justgonna, I'm gonna stay here for
just a little bit, get back onmy feet.
Yeah and uh, they were allright.
They lived in nova.
They moved when I was in theservice, didn't tell me, sold
all my stuff, gave it away a lotof times.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
They just changed the locks, but they just moved.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Wow, okay pool table that I come home to was gone.
Yeah, we left it with the house, but nice yeah, so pretty much.
Anyway, anywhere there, um Imet her, we had the halloween
party.
Um gave her the first kissafter the end of the night of
the halloween party and wehaven't been apart since that
day that's pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
Yep, what was about her?

Speaker 2 (51:43):
She was just down to earth.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
You know comfortable.
We could talk and we just gotalong great.
You know, if there was things,you know you're going to go out
with your friends tonight.
I don't know what you want todo.
You want to do something everynight.
For the first full year we saweach other every single day
after work, other than even inwork we hung out for until we

(52:08):
got married.
We got married in a Catholicchurch, so we had to know each
other for a year.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
You had to take the classes?
Yes, we did.
Did you guys pass the test?
Yes, we did.
I'm just curious Yep.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
So we had to wait a year to get married, but we got
married on to the day, october29th.
Wow, from the day that we met,had the party to the day we got,
we walked down the aisle.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Yeah, when you find your person, you just know them
right, Right, you know and youtalk.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
you talk to your kids and they're talking about, you
know, getting serious after ayear and you're going.
I don't know, Are you serious?

Speaker 1 (52:50):
And then they look at you, go yeah, three months,
right when you know you knowyeah, three months, yeah, that
was amazing.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
So you, so you get married, you're blessed in the
church and then what, what,what's next?
So after that I was I'vealready worked my way up through
the company and and I took over, was pretty much running the
supply department, supplies andstuff for the whole company,
shipping stuff out.
So we were making a little bitof money.
I think when we got married ourcombined wages I think we were

(53:16):
$16.59 for both of us, and youknow people nowadays I wouldn't
even get out of bed for that.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
No, you could go buy a cheeseburger for that much
money, right?
So this job that you took thatwas just going to kind of get
you through is you've actuallyjust excelled at it do you think
?
That some of the things youlearned from Rob helped you be
successful.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Yeah, at your job, because he pretty much he taught
me everything that you do.
Do it with all you got, andthat's what I did.
So I mean even starting out atthe bottom of the guy pulling
pens and paper and shipping themto places.
Next thing, you know, I'msupervisor there and these big

(53:58):
buildings, they all havecubicles that the people sit in.
So I'm going well, what's thatdeal about how, who, who does
these cubicles and things ofthat nature?
And he goes, well, we have alittle group that gets together
and you know, we'll show you howto do it if you're interested.
Well, the next thing, you know,I was running that crew, um, and
we'd installed steel caseoffice for toronto, grand rapids

(54:18):
, um.
So then, on the big moves, wewould hire an outside company to
come in and give us hands andwe would work with them.
And so I'm looking at theseguys and I'm going well, you
guys probably make better moneythan what I'm making here, and
so I quit there and I went intowork for contract interiors out

(54:39):
of southfield and wasn't long.
I was project manager, um,running crews and just excelling
at it, and I loved it.
So that was pretty good, um,and this all took place within a
couple years of being marriedand stuff right you know, we got
married.
We bought a house in kensingtonhill, on trailer, up on the hill

(55:00):
uh-huh, you know, right acrossfrom the lake, yeah, and we
lived there for I don't know two, three years and from there she
goes, I go.
I think it's time to get out ofhere.
You know, housing was at thepoint it was.
It was affordable, but we werestill scared.
Um, interest rates wereextremely crazy.
So we found a house and at thetime, houses, if you found a

(55:23):
house, you better buy it now,because they were gone in eight
hours, just the way it was.
Um, so we went looking and wefound a house out in union, like
west bloomfield.
It was a small 936 square foothouse, three bedrooms.
Barely had enough room for, youknow, the two of us.
But that's where we raised, westarted off with four kids.
Out of that house had abasement.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Luckily, four kids, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
So like we had a basement in it, uh-huh, um, and
we fixed, I fixed it upcompletely, gutted it outside,
inside, new furnaces, airconditioning and I mean, that
was the first time I everinstalled a furnace in my life
and I go, I don't, I think I cando this Right Air conditioning.
So from drywall to whateverdidn't matter.

(56:10):
So we bought that house andyou're talking to my son,
brandon.
He's got pretty good memoriesof living on Maddox street.
We had our four kids there andthe the neighborhood had just
flipped over from older peopleto all the younger people moving
in.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Okay, so everybody that lived there had little kids
.
You know we paid $40,000 forthe first house, with a 14 or
15% interest rate.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Yeah, you know okay, so this might be lost on people,
but there was a time where ifyou got like 12, you were doing
pretty good, you were doing good, yeah, yeah, you were doing
good yeah you know we gotspoiled for a lot of years with
our three percent, two percentyeah.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
So we, we bought that house and you know we fixed it
all up and the kids would, uh,they're, they're coming up in
age and so I mean we got, we'repushing two strollers because
our kids are all close in ageswith four kids.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
So did you like have them one right after the other?
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Yeah, my wife always complained because she couldn't
have a beer for six years.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
How about that beer tasted great, though after six
years From start to finish Right.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
So I mean we had our group, our whole street.
We would block off our streetat both ends.
It was probably equivalent tomaybe two city blocks and it was
paved, and so we would do whatwas called stroller blading and
we all had strollers, becauseeverybody had little kids and
the parents would put on rollerblades and the little bit older
kids would have their own and wewould push strollers up and
down the streets all day and goaround the subdivision that

(57:46):
sounds like a great time it wasit really was.
Yeah, we had our block partiesand all the kids became great
friends and I think the kidseven still hang out with some of
the friends that they grew upwith there I know brandon talks
about them all yeah, like, yeah,like they're part of his family
yes, he does.
Yeah, so I mean we live therefor I think everything's been 10

(58:08):
years so we lived at, we livedon maddox street for 10 years
and then my wife's brotherlooked at her and she goes.
You know there's a couplehouses over here for sale in
brighton.
I'm going man brighton's one ofthem up and coming places.
You know they call it the hubbecause you can get to Lansing,
ann Arbor, flint and whereverit's a great location.

(58:28):
Right and I'm going.
I don't know, I don't know ifwe can afford that.
And he says you go take a lookand if you like it you let me
know.
So she runs out to Brighton,takes a look, visiting her
brother.
She goes the house is gorgeous,we're going on, yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
You're done.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
So I went out and took a look at it and it had a
nice lot.
It was probably a half acre lot.
Um house needed work.
It was not run down but it wasdated.
You know talk?
Dated in the seventies, you'retalking 50s.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Right, right, yeah, you buy a house now dated like
the 80s you're lucky if youdidn't have a yellow toilet and
refrigerator.
You know I think it's harvestgold, yeah, something like that.
So crazy, the avocado and theharvest gold yeah, yeah, so
ended up buying that place.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
Um, so at the time now when we bought that place,
where, where was I working For awhile there?
After I did the steel case,furniture and stuff, I went off
on my own.
Okay, because it was getting itwas the childcare.
What we paid for childcare backthen.
It's like now I don't know howpeople afford it.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Right.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
And so I went off into business on my own.
That way, I could pick thetimes when I wanted to work.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
I could do a lot of stuff at night and then I would
I played mr mom, yeah, you know,during the day.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Um so we did that.
So what was your wife?

Speaker 1 (59:52):
doing.
She was working at the mortgagecompany other other than being
pregnant, right she was pregnantand keeping the insurance
flowing, yeah god bless herright, right.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
And so I would do construction, have my own
company.
It was carpentry by Mike Mikusand I worked everywhere and I
wouldn't say that I wasn't goodat managing it.
But you know, by the time youget done at the end of the year
with taxes and everything I'mgoing.
Why am I even doing this?
I can just work for somebodyand, you know, make the same

(01:00:22):
amount of money and not have allthe headaches.
And so I think I was workingfor Donovan Construction at the
time and she says you want tomove to Brighton?
Well, I was driving to Brightonanyway.
It was kind of a bonus, right.
So I started working for themand we bought the house out
there.
Funny fact is that every one ofour kids, when they were born, I

(01:00:44):
was in a cast.
I was either had my arm in acast, um.
When I worked for Donovanconstruction we were raising a
wall and a brace slip and hit mein the back of the leg and snap
my Achilles, um.
So I went down to the groundfor that one.
And then I had another brokenwrist.
So every one of our kids was ina cast.

(01:01:05):
And so I'm at home with fourkids crawling on my hands and
knees, holding a baby in one arm, you know, dragging a foot
along and right cast on it, andI don't know if you ever snapped
an achilles tendon, but that'ssix to eight months on a cast,
wow, you know.
And I had my foot pointedstraight down so they had to put
a heel on my cast to make it awalking cast.

(01:01:25):
Yeah, and it was a five and ahalf inch heel, and so then they
took my other shoe and put afive and a half inch lift on it
so I could at least walk.
But yeah, that was all.
That was a lot of fun too,raising kids and casts and arms
and legs and was that just karmafrom your wife not being able
to have beer?

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
probably probably yeah, yeah, but you know what
you're.
It's funny they, because when Ithink about those times with my
kids too, right, it doesn'tmatter because you're smiling
like these are great times Idon't okay, I have a cast on or
what's going on.
These are great times I get tobe with my kids, yeah yeah, and
so we, we moved out to brightonum ended up.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
Uh, kids walked to school if they wanted to.
We had a junior high on oneside, elementary school on the
other side.
One of barb's cousins moved inacross the street from us and so
now we had cousins that theywere playing with and the kids
had a great time.
I mean, it turned into everybit of maddox street again
because it was a kind of aclosed off sub.

(01:02:25):
There was no traffic through it, so the kids did whatever they
wanted to.
You know, at the same timewhere we were doing all of this,
I was working for donovanconstruction, but me and my mom
were building houses also oh, soyou had like a side business
going on.
So my mom decided that shewanted to get in help help
people that couldn't affordhomes.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
So she started building these box homes, I
guess you could say, and so Ithink we threw up five of them
and she did that.
And then they ended up movingto Tennessee.
When we were living in Matt, onMatt or in Jane Street in
Brighton, they moved down toTennessee lake tansy to retire.
I think they just wanted to getaway from all the kids well, I

(01:03:10):
could speak as a grandparentthat I love having grandchildren
.
I do too, they wear you out?

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
they do, they do.
I got my granddaughter for aweekend one time.
Yeah and uh.
My son and his wife went backto alabama and that sunday I
couldn't even get off the couch.
I was like what the hellhappened to me?

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
right, right, so I don't even think I ever
mentioned that.
You know it was.
We had brandon was the oldest,and we have my other son, justin
, and then christopher afterthat, and then my daughter,
lauren, and so proud of all ofthem, they're all doing great.
Um, well, you know, brandon,military and um, with everything
that he's got, runs fourbusinesses out of his house, I

(01:03:49):
think he is.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
He is one of the most and I'm not just saying this
because you're his dad.
I tell the people this all thetime.
He's like one of the mosttalented people I know I got it
from me.
Yeah, that and people just lovehim like he.
He somehow connected with myson because my son was in the
army.
Somehow they connected and andthey're best buddies now and
brandon got my son into umhockey, right, but.
But, but brandon's verytalented right, like I think

(01:04:13):
that guy could just do anythingthat I'm gonna do this today and
right, and when we get done,I'll show you some of his work.
Yes, he's done some work for me.
Okay, I'll show you what he'sdone.
So, yeah, so Brandon, and thenBrandon and Justin.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Justin's a welder.
Uh um, he works for Donovanconstruction out in Brighton and
moved up through there and hedoes all their welding.
They build houses on his bighelical spheres and things that
they have to sink in the swamps.
Yeah, um, christopher, rightnow he's playing Mr Mom.
He's playing Mr Mom, but hebuilt, if you remember, back
there Chevy put out the CopoCamaros.

(01:04:45):
Yeah, so he was working at ashop that they would bring the
Camaros in and Chris would doall the cutouts and reinforce
the frames and weld all thestuff on them.
And he's welding on these carsand then the people that are
purchasing these cars would comein to look at them and they
would have to bring chris andpush him off to the side and
they'd bring an older gentlemanin there and do a little bit of

(01:05:07):
welding.
And, uh, because they didn'twant to see an 18 year old kid
welding on these, you know, twohundred thousand dollar cars,
right, but he was good enoughand that's what he did, and so
that was pretty good that's adream job yeah, he loved it.
he loved it and they startedhaving kids and the everything
else came into play there.
And Lauren, my daughter, sheworks, uh, where I was, where I

(01:05:29):
worked at for a while.
Cadillac asphalt is where Iretired from.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Um, I think by the time we moved to Jane street,
that's when I was switching jobsand my wife was switching jobs
too.
So in one year, you know, webought a house, both of us
switched jobs and we're going.
I think we're crazy.
I don't know what we're gonnado here if this doesn't work out
it doesn't sound like themickis family's afraid of change

(01:05:54):
at all yeah, I mean, we bothjumped in with both feet.
Um, I started off at pretty muchentry level in the asphalt
business and uh with.
And they said you know, if you,the highest you can go is
running a plant.
And so that's where I set mygoals.
But, mind you know, I was stillmaking the same money as a

(01:06:17):
plant operator because we werenot union.
I had a choice to go union ornon-union.
I elected to go non-union andmanage my own money.
But they said you know, withina year you could probably apply
to run a plant.
Well, two months later I had myown plant.
So I was running the plant atnight out in Clarkston Michigan,

(01:06:41):
the Cadillac Asphalt.
Back then it wasThompson-McCauley.
So I did that and again puteverything I had into it, became
a plant operator and worked myway up the best highest.
I could, had every award thatyou could get for running a
plant, best in this, best inthat.

(01:07:01):
So one day I had a falling outwith one of our bosses and he
didn't like the answer I gavehim.
But again I come out of theservice and I was no BS.
You can't tell me that this isgray when it's either black or
white and I.
They would always try to playthe gray line and I don't play
that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
No, some people can't handle the truth, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
So we got into it and they took my plant away after I
think it was 15 years.
I was there and they took myplant away and they go.
We're going to make you aloader operator heavy equipment.
I go, whatever you know, bythat time I was already getting
fed up with it and so I did that.
And that was about the sametime that we were switching jobs

(01:07:45):
.
You know, my wife was getting anew job.
She worked for a fabricatingcompany in Milford still does
this day.
She won't give it up.
I don't know what's wrong withher.
So I was doing that and itactually moved me closer to home
because I was working out inBelleville at the time at
Rossonville Road, and itswitched me up here to Wix.

(01:08:06):
I'm living in Brighton, I go,that's a no-brainer.
That saves me 40 minutes a dayjust to get to work and I go.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
That's a no-brainer.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
That saves me 40 minutes a day just to get to
work, especially in that traffic, right right.
So that was a godsend there.
And you know everybody at theplant thought I was coming over
to spy on them, so they took mea while to work my way into the
groove of those people, but itall worked out and stuck out the
rest of my life there at theCadillac asphalt.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Yeah, so did you retire from there?

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
Yeah, I did.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Yeah, when did you retire?

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
In 2022.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Okay, so you've been.
You've been out for about threeyears.
You retired right on the sametime I retired.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
Right, right.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
So we were making all these changes.
So we lived in the Jane streetfor about 10 years, uh-huh.
So we lived in the Jane Streetfor about 10 years and my wife
goes, my mom's thinking aboutselling their house.
Well, my wife's dad passed awayfrom cancer, so her mom moved
out of the house, and then shehad lunch with the neighbor.

(01:09:06):
His wife just passed away andnext thing you know they're
getting married.
Well, they moved into the houseright next to where her mom
lived, right, and she goes we'regoing to build a house next
door.
Do you guys want to buy thishouse?
I'm going.
Oh my god.
Again, this is five acres andyou know where's this money
coming from right, was the housedated.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Yes, yeah, so you got another project I got another
project.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
Every house we bought , we got it completely and went
right through yeah so this housewas 1500 square feet, sat on
five acres on a dead-endcul-de-sac right at the end of
it.
There's a runway right at theend of our street, so we had the
little planes flying over allthe time, which was kind of cool
yeah, it's kind of cool watch.
So we looked at the house andI'm going okay, it's nice house

(01:09:48):
and you know they want a couplehundred thousand dollars for
which is probably a deal, um,but it's not big enough for us
with four kids, just can't do it.
So I started drawing and I drewup blueprints and so the next
thing, you know, we bought it.
And so then we had, we boughtit in thanks at thanksgiving and

(01:10:10):
I go all right, we got to jumpin both feet.
You know, we had a home equityline of credit and blah, blah,
blah, and so I drew up the plansand I added 1700 on the back of
it.
Okay, at the time brandon was16 years old, justin was
probably 15, chris was 14, and Igo come on, guys, this is it.
So I had him with sledgehammersbusting the brick off the back

(01:10:32):
of the house and you know thebetween the kids and my wife and
I had help from one friend webuilt that whole addition onto
that house.
So the house is 3100 squarefoot ranch.
So wow yeah, so it's long.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
You can throw a football in there 90 feet well,
and you can live in it too, likeas you get older.
Right, you don't need to worryabout it.
There's no stairs, right, right, it's all ranch, no stairs.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
The biggest problem that we're having right now is
with uh, the house is so big andmy daughter-in-law my daughter,
moved back in with us, but forthe time there was just two of
us and 3100 square feet.
That's a lot of a lot of houseand you couldn't shut off
individual rooms because openfloor plan.
Of course we want open floorplan.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
There's a downside to that, huh.

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
Yeah, she's got a what a 450, 500 square foot
kitchen.
So the 1,700 square footconsisted of a family room and
two little offices, which werebedrooms at the time, but that's
the whole thing.
So it was huge.
I mean, it's a great house tohave the grandkids and party in.
Yeah, you know, we have theroom.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
Yeah, and so that's where you're at today, then,
right yeah that's where we're attoday.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
You know we've talked about do we want to sell?
Do we want to downsize?
And I go, you like it here, Ilove it.
You know, we we back up to aswamp, probably a 20 acre swamp.
Nothing but ducks and geese outthere.
I hunt back there for the geeseand stuff.
Uh, the grandkids can come overand do whatever they want ride,

(01:12:08):
power wheels, motorcycles, itdoesn't matter that kind of
thing.
So it's all good.
So I don't think we're evergonna probably die there
nobody's gonna build back there.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
All right, yeah, so you can't do it.
No, you're good.
Yeah, you're good.
Well, we have talked about alot of stuff this afternoon.
Is there anything that that youwanted to talk about that we
haven't talked about?

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
not really, I think.
Uh, whoever listens to this inthe future will get an idea who
we are yeah you know, um, theonly thing I can, probably I
want I guess I should bring upwhen I was getting close to
retirement it was around 2022 mywife was diagnosed stage four

(01:12:49):
cancer lung cancer and so I wenton FMLA from work and I took
time off and tried to figure outwhat we were going to do with
all of this.
And we got her on a program andshe went through treatments for

(01:13:10):
I can't tell you, it was like amonth on, or two months on, or
whatever it was, and then amonth off and we put her on some
special things from thecannabis shops which I'm going
to tell you.
I solely believe in that, yeah.
And she kept going back to thedoctors and she started off with
grapefruit sized tumors in herlung cavity and, uh, doctors are

(01:13:35):
going.
I don't know what you're doing,but everything's working out
and you're, you're healing, youknow.
So within a year, she wascancer free that's a miracle
stage four yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
I mean, what that's a miracle?

Speaker 2 (01:13:48):
what do you do?
You know, yeah, so that kind ofhit home that you know, yeah,
we still got a road ahead of usto make sure everything is going
well and keeping her healthy.
But my work was really goodwith me at the time.
I was taking time off.
I'd get phone calls.
This is what they told me.
You need to get home right now.

(01:14:09):
So I would.
We did that for probably sixmonths and I go this, this, this
isn't working out with me doingall of this, so I think I'm
gonna retire.
And I just I was 62 at the timeand I said when I turn 63 I'm
gonna retire.
And so she was already 100cancer free at the time and and

(01:14:32):
so knock on wood there and I go,we're going to start doing
stuff.
So just, you think of thingsyou want to do.
What I'm going to do, um, I'mgoing to go fishing.
That's my, that's my pastime.
I love to fish.
You know fishing and hunting,but fishing is number one on the
list.
I think I've been down toDetroit a couple times already

(01:14:53):
this year.
We get limits of walleye.

Speaker 1 (01:14:55):
It's been a couple good days.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
Yeah, it's been good.
So, yeah, she's 100%cancer-free now.
Back just last week she got herport taken out.
She wanted to hold on to it.
She goes I'm not taking it outbecause the minute I do
something bad's going to happen.
And I go no, you need to getrid of that.
So she got rid of that.
My daughter got pregnant andmoved in with us during some of

(01:15:20):
this time.
She moved in like last year.
So now we have a grandchildliving with us.
Lauren lives the alternativelifestyle, so she's married to
another woman.
Okay.
Okay, a lot of people I don'tknow.
Lauren lives the alternativelifestyle, so she's married to
another woman.
Okay, Okay, A lot of people Idon't know.
Everybody can have their viewsabout it.
You're happy, you're happy.
That's the way I look at it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
You love who you love , and that's your daughter.

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
That's it.
Yeah, so they live with us andI get to spend time with the
grandchild.
And you know, last year herwife come home and she goes man,
I've got these bruises showingup.
Come to find out she hadleukemia.
Oh no, so she went througheveryday treatments and that was

(01:16:05):
rough.
You know, my daughter's doingthe best she can.
We're trying to help out.
And so that she went throughtreatments, help out, and uh, so
that she went throughtreatments for, I think, six,
eight months not going to look100% clear right now.
So she's, uh, they're, they'reliving life.
Now that's great.
She beat that.

(01:16:25):
Um, both of my parents diedfrom cancer, so that was kind of
a.
You know, I've seen what itdoes to them.
We didn't want to go throughthat.
Yeah, so no.
So now everybody's doing good,living life the best we can and
going from there.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
Sounds like you've had a lot of miracles in your
life, right?
Yes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
You know, brandon talked about a little bit with
you about Veterans Connected.
Yeah, I became involved withVeterans Connected as soon as I
retired, or maybe even a littlebit before that, and that really
opened my eyes.
I mean, veterans Connected is aministry group first and then
we help veterans and justwatching what God has done for

(01:17:12):
our family yeah, I don't know.
So you know, things go on andthings break and I go, don't
worry about it, we'll get itfixed.
And then I run across somebody.
I got a heart size of whateveryou want to call them, because
if I see somebody down, I'mgoing to help them out.
And I go, I look at my wife.
Can we afford to do this?

(01:17:33):
She goes, she'll just look atme.
She goes, it doesn't matterbecause it's coming back to us.
And so that's the way we'velooked at it and lived our life
that way.
And it's been amazing the lastcouple of years since, now that
we're retired, we're living ourbest lives.
We make more money now beingretired than it was when I was

(01:17:55):
working, and when she wasworking full time she went to
work too.
She's working two days now justto keep her sanity, to get out
of the house, away from me, Ithink.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
Yeah, I remember you saying she just can't get away
from that place, right, and soshe's going to do that and I go.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
You know, so the first time they give you a
problem, they just walk away,that's it.
You know you don't owe themnothing, right?
So I mean, that's how we liveright now.
So I don't know.
I'm just happy Our whole familygets along.
All the kids talk to each otherweekly and I talk, you know,
brandon.

Speaker 1 (01:18:26):
I talked to Brandon four times this morning already,
you know.
Yeah, so my son calls me everyday.
He lives in alabama, right?
I sent him a.
I sent him this meme about howthis person was talking about
being an adult.
But they need an adultier adultto help them, sure?
And he texted me back.
He said that's why I call youevery day, right, right, exactly

(01:18:48):
.
That's a good feeling.
Well, you know, it sounds likeyou've done the right things
with your wife and with yourfamily.
Yeah, you've made good friendsalong the way.
I love talking about yourfriend Rob, because no matter
how successful we are, there'salways somebody there that
helped us.
Right?
We didn't get here on our own,you know, there was always

(01:19:11):
someone who mentored us or said,hey, are you sure that's what
you want to do, right?
Or kind of moved us in thedirection we needed to go.

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
That's the fact.
One quick note about him.
Yeah, I ended up finallycontacting him again and of
course we all served at LejeuneRight and you know the cancer
scares and everything there.
I'm probably one of the onlyones left out of anybody that I
know that hasn't died fromcancer.
So knock on wood there.
But I ended up getting a holdof Bob and I called him up and

(01:19:40):
his wife's name was Chip and Icalled her mom and all that
stuff and I called her up.
I got a hold of her phonenumber and she answered the
phone.
Hello, and I go, is this Chip?
She goes.
Oh my God, you know she knew myvoice right away.
Who wouldn't, right?
So I ended up going down andvisiting him and they run on a

(01:20:02):
streak of hard luck and Bob hadcancer and so I ended up.
We went on a trip, me and mywife and I go.
We're going to make a roundtrip and we're going to go back
through Pennsylvania because Igot to go see Bob.
So I went and saw Bob and uh,he was doing okay, but he I was
going through treatments andstuff like that, and so then we

(01:20:24):
went back home and I got a callthat he was doing bad again.
So I went back down and saw himanother time and, uh, we talked
, we talked nonstop, justsitting in his chair he was
laying in a hospital bed and aswe sat there we talked nonstop
just bringing back up all theold stuff.
And that was really good.
I think it was good for both ofus, you know.

(01:20:45):
And then two days later I gotto call Eddie Pastore.

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
Yeah, that's kind of bittersweet right, right,
because you did get to reconnectwhen you had that time.
Yeah, but I think God put thatSure.

Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
Right, yeah, I'm very thankful for that time.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21:03):
Very nice, but he was too, yeah, yeah, as was his
wife, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
Yeah, and then she passed away.
I kept in contact with her tosee if I could do anything, keep
helping them.
I mean, I went down there acouple times and built things
for him because he couldn't doit, and then she passed away
about a year later.
They were young man, they wereyoung, Probably 50s.
But oh well, that's my life ina nutshell.

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
We've covered a lot.
We did Nowhere near the threehours that Brandon and I spent
together, but you can pick onhim about that.
Really, like we talked aboutearlier, before we started
recording, I always ask the samequestion at the end, and that
is when someone's listening tothis story years from now what
message do you want them to takeaway?

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
I think you know you have to.
You have to live life to itsfullest and you're going to get
things thrown at you that don'twork out and you gotta, you
gotta make the best.
You know that from Brandon withhis attitude.
You gotta make the best of it.
Um, I worked a lot being in theasphalt business and I was late
off during the worked a lotbeing in the asphalt business.
I was laid off during thewinter times, but in the

(01:22:15):
summertime I was never home andthat was a sacrifice that I had
to make.
Is it worth it?
I waited out, as my kids didn'twant for anything.
You know, brandon, all threeboys played travel hockey and my
daughter played travel soccer.
Well, you know, you just startlooking back into the early 80s.
Well, what the money that Itold you that we were making?

(01:22:37):
It was 13 000 a year for themto play hockey, you know.
So I mean, we sacrificed thethings that we wanted.
We went without as parents togive it to our kids, and it's
good to do that.
But the biggest thing I can sayis that, uh, it never ran into
anybody on their deathbed.
They said it didn't work at all.
You know, you've heard it, weall say it um, spend time with

(01:23:02):
the family, um.
Every time.
Nobody's allowed to leave ourhouse without saying I love you.
You know, if you turn, if youturn to drive away, they're
gonna pull you back out of thecar.
Didn't get the hug, you know.
If they say love you and youdon't respond, hello, you know
what did.
Did you hear me?
You know.
So make time for family, um,and just live life.

(01:23:27):
That's all I can say.
You know, don't put too muchpressure on every, on any one
thing, because tomorrow couldall change and it has, that's
true.

Speaker 1 (01:23:38):
It has All right.
Well, thanks for taking timeout this afternoon to sit here
and talk with me and share yourstory with everyone.
Really appreciate it, thank you.
I wish my grandfather wouldhave did it Someday.
We'll figure out how to do that, right, right, thank you, thank
you.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Boot Camp to Building a Life: Mike Mickus's Journey Through Service and Family

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

Crime Junkie

All Episodes

From Boot Camp to Building a Life: Mike Mickus's Journey Through Service and Family

24/7 News: The Latest