Kelly O'Neal, William Hulsey, and Franklin Hulsey

[00:08] KELLY O'NEIL: My name is Kelly O'Neil. I am 55 years old. Today's date is July 29, 2023. I'm here at StoryCorps atlanta. I'm interviewing my dad, Daniel Halsey, and my uncle, Franklin Halseye.

[00:30] DANIEL HALSEY: My name is Franklin Halsey. I'm 79 years old. Today's date is July 29, 2083. And I am here with Kelly to be interviewed.

[00:44] KELLY O'NEIL: Yes.

[00:48] DANIEL HALSEY: My name is Daniel Holsey. I'm 76 years old. Today's date is July 29, 2023. I'm here at StoryCorp Atlanta. Name of the interviewer? Kelly and Franklin Relation is my daughter and my brother.

[01:25] KELLY O'NEIL: So I can tell already that we're going to have a great time because we always do. Laughter is allowed. I think I want to start just by thanking the both of you for taking the time to commit to coming and being here today. All of the scheduling that has to take place. That's my initial thank you. And then just having two people like you and my life for all of these years has been really an inspiration. Daddy, you know, you've always been my hero, and you continue to be so since marrying my mother when you were 23 years old and she was 30 and had four children. Me being the youngest at three years old, that was such a transformative event in my life that just continues to support and expand, and I'm always so grateful for you, daddy. I just think you're an extraordinary. An extraordinary man. And my uncle Franklin who has just been such a. Such a force, I think, and such an example. And I've always been impressed and amazed at the life that you and Aunt Patricia have created. It's as though somebody forgot to tell you that there would be limitations being blind. It's like you did not get the memo. From walking the appalachian trail to winning the highest honor in your profession in 2012 with a Philip A. Connolly award for the best army food service worldwide. You've made a life that some would have thought difficult or that somebody shouldn't be able to accomplish those things. And then on top of that, you know, having three wonderful kids and a slew of grandchildren, and I think our. There's a professional success, and then there's, you know, the love and the kindness and our togetherness that is, I think, so valuable. And I want this opportunity just to hear more about your childhood, the things together, things about your parents, about mama and papa. And so don't. Y'all are being very quiet, which. That's awesome, but scary at the same time. So that's my big thank you. So I will kick off sort of the interview part about telling me where you were born, Franklin I just saw filling out the paperwork that you were actually born in Rome.

[05:10] DANIEL HALSEY: I was. I was born in Rome, Georgia, in 1943. And I don't know when they figured out I couldn't see, I guess when I started walking around running and stuff. But I don't understand that. But I think it was a big charge to my mother and father to accept somebody like this and have to put up with what she had to put up with her whole life. But then I had a little brother also.

[05:40] KELLY O'NEIL: I've never heard it described as putting up with, because I know when anytime daddy has ever mentioned you, he usually gets so tickled. But daddy, you can speak to that.

[05:57] DANIEL HALSEY: It was a chore. It was a pleasure. Never looked at it as, you know, something that I had to do because you were always real interesting to me. You did things that you wasn't supposed to and led me into stuff that I wasn't supposed to do.

[06:28] KELLY O'NEIL: Now, what is the daddy, what is the age difference and where were you born?

[06:34] DANIEL HALSEY: I was born in Rob Mark.

[06:36] KELLY O'NEIL: Okay, so they had moved seven.

[06:41] DANIEL HALSEY: And on Nichols Hill.

[06:47] KELLY O'NEIL: So three years, three years apart. About roughly in age. Four years apart. Almost four, yeah.

[06:54] DANIEL HALSEY: Four years apart.

[06:55] KELLY O'NEIL: Yeah. That's interesting that you say that, Franklin because I've sort of wondered what, when, you know, how does one realize or understand that there might be different, you know, that other people were able to have a sense, you know, to be able to see when you, you know, when you weren't able to. What is that realization like? And. Or when. When did it occur for you?

[07:25] DANIEL HALSEY: Well, I don't know where it ever occurred to me or not. But, you know, if I thought if you could do it, I can do it, so why should I think any other difference, you know? And I just never have let that come to pass other than just other people. Other people that don't know you when you're blind, they're not going to give you equal opportunities. And that's what I've always wanted. Just treat me like a. Just treat me like a human being. That's all I am. But there's so many people that do want to treat you like you're blind and you got to do this. You can't do that and all that kind of stuff. But it's not a lot of the people, it's the way the laws are written now. So I never have called it a handicap, and I still don't. And I've got lots of bruises to prove it. People we hung around with never treated him as different. They helped him when he needed help, but they left him alone. He played ball. He played football. He played, you know, softball, and he did everything else that was regular to anybody except climbing in trees. He had the advantage on that.

[08:43] KELLY O'NEIL: Tell me more about how that went.

[08:45] DANIEL HALSEY: We were playing tree tag. It wasn't fair for him, not being able to see and climb a tree. And we could see where we was reaching and grabbing. He couldn't. So we decided that we would blindfold the guy that was going to be chasing us. There was a bunch of accidents that we fell out on the trail, you know, missed the limbs and got hurt and stuff like that. But nobody ever took that as defending. I mean, you know, offending somebody and, you know, that's been our life, basically. He decided he wanted to buy a cardinal.

[09:40] KELLY O'NEIL: Okay, so did that. Did that not surprise anyone? I mean, did anybody go, hold on a minute.

[09:47] DANIEL HALSEY: No, it never surprised me. I mean, you know, it was just me.

[09:51] KELLY O'NEIL: What did your. What did your. What did Mama and Pawpaw say? Think about that. Did they. Did they know about it before it happened?

[09:59] DANIEL HALSEY: No.

[10:01] KELLY O'NEIL: Now it makes more sense to me.

[10:04] DANIEL HALSEY: They didn't know we went to the gas station. I don't know why we were there. You remember? Well, they had a car sale.

[10:13] KELLY O'NEIL: They didn't.

[10:19] DANIEL HALSEY: All right, go ahead. Well, they had this car for sale, and we stopped and asked them what they wanted for it. And I told. I don't know whether I told you or not, but that was it gonna cost us $180 a thing. 125. 125. Well, that's what my check was worth. My check was worth the same amount. So I just give him a check. When I bought the car back then, you didn't have to have a title. You didn't have to have this. You didn't have to have that. Wherever we drove that car, was it in dirt roads or whatever? It was a lot of fun. A small car. I mean, iterate. Neither one of us had license.

[10:55] KELLY O'NEIL: Well, I was gonna say, how old were y'all when that first car came along?

[10:59] DANIEL HALSEY: Oh, you might have been 14 or 15, I'm not sure. But we got it. Or he got it, and he said, you know how to drive it? I said, sure. We jumped in it and drove it down the road, and the hood flew off. We got out, put the hood in the trunk, and here we went back. We took off again. I don't know. It was the next day. Cause it was kind of dark at that time. And we fixed it and we had the hood, and he wanted to drive. I said, okay. So we took it out on dirt road. He got in the driver's seat, and he says, okay, what did I do now? I said, you put it in gear and let the clutch out and mash the cash.

[12:04] KELLY O'NEIL: Wow. This is a manual. A nano car. Oh, my goodness.

[12:08] DANIEL HALSEY: So here we went. And I would tell him, go to the right a little bit. Go to the left a little bit. And, you know, dirt roads, they don't have a whole lot of traffic, which is okay, but we just. We made it through.

[12:30] KELLY O'NEIL: Well, I think that that's one of those examples that speaks. Speaks to the bond that you two have, because I don't know many people that would. That would do that for somebody else, you know, and, Franklin for you to have the trust, you know, the trust that you have. And, daddy, to be so courageous, I mean, that just seems so courageous. I do have a question. What were you doing? What was your job? You said your check was for $125. What were you. What was your job?

[13:13] DANIEL HALSEY: I was running in a snack bar. That's what I did. I don't know what year that was, but I started in 59, so it could have been 60 or 61 or whatever.

[13:28] KELLY O'NEIL: So when you ran a snack bar, was it you and somebody else or. Tell me about that.

[13:33] DANIEL HALSEY: Well, it was me by myself. When I. I had $3 of training on, a guy left his business with me. And what it did, I went to. Well, first they told me, said, we think you can do some pretty good in this stand business called it stands back then snack bar, and said, we got to send you. This guy is over on Peach street. He's on Peach street over there. You got to go see him. They gave me his name, didn't tell me what building he was in or anything, but I found it, and he told me. He said, all right, frank, you want to get in business? I said, I need a part time job. I need to make some money in the summer while I'm out of school. Okay, I'm going to tell you, you go see Leon hall, and he's somewhere over there around the Capitol building. Okay? So. And you'll be over at 08:00 in the morning. So I went over there.

[14:27] KELLY O'NEIL: How did you get there?

[14:28] DANIEL HALSEY: Well, I told you, I think I rode the bus with my little brother, and when I went down for the interview, I left my little brother sitting outside. So to give me a job right then today.

[14:42] KELLY O'NEIL: Wow. On the spot?

[14:44] DANIEL HALSEY: Yeah, on the spot. And left. My little brother dapped on the front. So I still don't know how he got home, but he did. And that's where I started. I started then, and I worked the summer months until I got out of school, and then I went to work full time with them. And 59 years later, I quit.

[15:09] KELLY O'NEIL: Well, I think it's just remarkable, you know, when you think about. I think none of us sighted people would ever consider walking up to a snack bar and seeing one employee running it that, you know, was blind. I don't think any of us would ever think that that was possible. I just think that I remember being a, you know, a kid and daddy telling me, you know, about what, you know, some of the things that you did. And I just. I always found it amazing how you were able to do that. And daddy would even talk about when you lived out in Douglasville that you're kind of part of a carpool. I don't think anybody let you have a driving day, but you would even ride in with folks and they just let you out at the curb.

[16:03] DANIEL HALSEY: Well, if you are riding with a car, anybody, you don't ask them to start making all your problems, take care of them. You gotta figure them out yourself. And if you let me off at two or three blocks down the street, that's fine. That got me from Douglasville to Atlanta, so that's all I need. But it went like that for when I first moved out there, there was a bus, a greyhound bus that stopped right in front of my house. But before I got moved out there, they had cut that line out, and I had to go up to Douglasville and catch a.

[16:40] KELLY O'NEIL: Find a workaround. Yeah, I think that's just.

[16:43] DANIEL HALSEY: And you gotta be able to adjust it.

[16:45] KELLY O'NEIL: Mm hmm. Daddy, do you remember that going to the first interview? Uh huh. Yeah. That day where he was.

[16:53] DANIEL HALSEY: Probably not. I don't know where you come back and got me or what. I don't know either. I don't remember.

[17:01] KELLY O'NEIL: I'm sure y'all figured it out, so.

[17:02] DANIEL HALSEY: One of us did.

[17:03] KELLY O'NEIL: Yeah.

[17:06] DANIEL HALSEY: I remember we rode the bus everywhere. Yeah. And it was, you know, Atlanta wasn't like it is now, but we had a lot of fun. We walked a lot. Yep. We used to walk to swimming, you know, how far was it? A couple miles, actually. Or 4 miles over at that place. Yeah. To swim and walk back. Sometimes we did choke, but, you know, most of the time we walked.

[17:39] KELLY O'NEIL: I do. I think a lot about, like you were saying, uncle Franklin about mama and Pawpaw, and I think more and more about them. I think even as I get older, you know, having raised my own children, and them grow up and move on. And I remember all the joy that they had when we would come and, you know, have lunch or have dinner with them. And I can still see her, you know, with that. With her house dress and her apron and, you know, she was cooking biscuits. She was cooking a throw down meal that, you know, none of us have had since, you know. And, you know, in that little bitty house. You remember that little. Even before we put that. Turned the porch into a dining room. My goodness, how many people did we have at the kitchen table for Christmas dinner that first year?

[18:41] DANIEL HALSEY: There was four. Five of us, six of us, counting Clara and kids. And you had.

[18:52] KELLY O'NEIL: A. There's five of them. That's twelve.

[18:55] DANIEL HALSEY: Yeah.

[18:55] KELLY O'NEIL: So 1415 people at a sitting around a kitchen table. I know when it was time, and you know, her long when it was time to go. And Mama and Papa would come out to the porch and tell you bye. And we'd stand there for 20 minutes. 20 minutes. And then they'd wind up, you know, making their way down to the car. We'd stand down there for 20 more minutes and all the kids would say.

[19:23] DANIEL HALSEY: Come on, Santa's gonna be here. Santa. Santa's gonna miss us if we're not home. Ah, but you're talking about mother. Now. She. We lived, when we lived in rockmark. We moved to Atlanta, and Daddy got a job in the union, but we.

[19:42] KELLY O'NEIL: How old were you, Franklin when y'all moved to Atlanta?

[19:45] DANIEL HALSEY: Must have been about seven. Six or seven because it was 1950. And then I went to school a couple. Well, a couple of times, I guess. Then they said I couldn't see. So I need to go over across town to another school so I can learn how to breed the braille. And mother would ride the bus over there and bring Daniel with me to get me across town every day. And so finally, dad, we moved over there closer to that school so I could walk to school every day. But that was a lot on a mother to have to ride a bus and take two kids to school and bring them back.

[20:28] KELLY O'NEIL: You think about you to look back at the kind of commitments or sacrifices that I bet at the time, you know, your parents didn't think of that as a sacrifice. It was just, what, what did we need to do? What would make it better? How did we, you know, do the best we can for our kids? And I think they certainly did that. I know. I think of today if someone, if someone had a child, you know, and they realized I don't know how old a child would have to be before they realized there was something going on with their vision. I think what we have at our fingertips to find out about services, what to do, what not to do, how to support, you know, I think about what was available to the blind in 1940, 719 50. And to your point, you know.

[21:29] DANIEL HALSEY: It wasn't very much, really, nowhere near what it was yesterday.

[21:35] KELLY O'NEIL: Well, I can tell you, mama and Papa were both so incredibly proud of you, too, and had so much love for our family. And I can only imagine that that has only grown with seeing, you know, how you two are with your own families and, you know, your own accomplishments. And I think it's such a wonderful, I just think it speaks so highly of them, you know, the way you two have lived your, you know, live your lives and, and really share. I was talking with Aunt Patricia Franklin your, your wife, the other day, about, regardless of whatever the kind of the professional accomplishments are or, you know, the most, really the most important and the kind of the greatest feat is really family, you know, that you have. We can never say, you know, you alone, it's always you and Aunt Patricia. But, wow, to raise three children. And how many grandchildren do you have?

[23:04] DANIEL HALSEY: We got eight grandchildren and three great.

[23:06] KELLY O'NEIL: Grandchildren.

[23:10] DANIEL HALSEY: But that's what made the family, you know, our kids. Yeah, they were great all the way up. And they didn't treat me bad. They didn't treat me bad. They didn't treat me different. And we built our house out in Douglasville. When Brian, he's my youngest one, he was about three years old, and I need to go out to the truck to get something. He said, come on, dad, I got a short cut. And we go over to the edge of the, we're on the second floor now. And he said, I'm going to jump. You just listen to where I hit and you jump. And when I jumped, I thought I knew what hit the ground. So they're like that. They're just, they're good kids.

[23:50] KELLY O'NEIL: Yeah, that's it. It's true. I definitely remember always loving being around my cousins and always, I just think there's so much courage. I think you just have so much courage and so much determination. And again, maybe that was a, maybe that was a blessing in a way, of not having all of the, whatever, support or programs, etcetera, because people just did it, your parents did it. They just took what they had. And you didn't think about who's going to take care of who's going to do for you. Know you, you guys. Yeah, it's live.

[24:35] DANIEL HALSEY: There's a lot back there. Tell them about playing cards over there, playing rope. I asked you do what now? I don't know. Whenever you lived over in Atlanta, yeah, we came over and played cards. Played Brooke with you one day or one night. And the kids were. You say, jimmy, what is this card?

[24:59] KELLY O'NEIL: Yeah, we would, we would, we would. The kids, us kids would be playing in the living room or wherever, and the four of you, mom and daddy and Uncle Franklin and Aunt Patricia, were playing cards, which you guys always love to play cards, but when it was time to deal, y'all would call one of the kids out of the living room to come, and we'd stand beside you, Uncle Franklin tell me what I'm gonna do. Yes. As you picked your cards, as you picked your cards up, my brother was my brother's turn to help you. It was my brother Jimmy I never.

[25:33] DANIEL HALSEY: Wanted on your side. You say, hey, Jimmy, what's this car? That's your rook, Uncle Franklin Okay, Billy, what's this over here? What's that? What car? That's a rook, Uncle Franklin It's easier now, though.

[26:05] KELLY O'NEIL: Oh, my goodness. What did you think you were gonna be when you grew up, when y'all were kids? Did y'all have ideas?

[26:16] DANIEL HALSEY: I don't know. I don't remember. I did not. What age group you wanna talk to?

[26:23] KELLY O'NEIL: Well, whenever. What's your earliest, my earliest memories of wanting to be thinking of what you might want to be when you grow up. I know you remember. You remember when you were really young? Daddy?

[26:36] DANIEL HALSEY: Yep. I remember whenever I went to work with daddy in the summertime, and I'd.

[26:42] KELLY O'NEIL: Be outside and how old were you, Roslyn?

[26:46] DANIEL HALSEY: I have no idea. Maybe 1012, something like that. He'd call me inside and he'd tell me something to do, do it, be done with it. Then I'd go back outside. Well, I got to watching him one day, and luckily he didn't get shocked. He was electrician. Wow, that looks interesting to me. So there we go. So whenever I got, whenever they hired me to be his helper.

[27:26] KELLY O'NEIL: Is it electrical? Electrician's helper.

[27:31] DANIEL HALSEY: And he said, go ahead and put that receptacle on. I said, okay. I said, dad, is it turned off? Yeah. Okay. So I went out there, grabbed a hose and got the soup. Not crazy. I come back in and, boy, I was just mad at, no, with him. He says, that's your first lesson. I said, what's that? He said, don't trust anybody.

[28:03] KELLY O'NEIL: Oh, no, you're my dad. Well, I have witnessed through the years, daddy, that I don't know of anything that brings you more joyous than watching somebody get a little. A little zip from electricity. It usually tickles you to the point of tears.

[28:26] DANIEL HALSEY: But, I mean, you know, as long as they don't get hurt or.

[28:28] KELLY O'NEIL: Of course. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thinking about. Thinking about Pawpaw and those years. I know they've been passed for quite a while. What do you. What do you miss most about. About your mom and dad.

[28:46] DANIEL HALSEY: Sitting around talking, reminiscing, playing. Daddy would take us. We couldn't have cards. That was against the rules of mothers. And he'd take us in the living room, and he'd. I don't know where he found the car, so he'd get him out. She said, frank, don't teach them kids how to do that. He told us how to play poker, how to, you know, blackjack and everything else. Bold dice. But, you know, that's part of what I remember. I remember a lot of stuff. I don't think we have time enough to tell you. What do you remember? I remember mother calling me every single day of the week, month, year, and everything else. She'd call you every day.

[29:49] KELLY O'NEIL: Every day.

[29:50] DANIEL HALSEY: I've talked to you every day. Check on you. Check on me. I'm all right today. I mean, that was later on, up till she passed away.

[30:00] KELLY O'NEIL: I remember. I remember those calls. Getting those calls.

[30:03] DANIEL HALSEY: That's what you miss.

[30:04] KELLY O'NEIL: Yeah.

[30:06] DANIEL HALSEY: I remember dad one time when he was building his shop, and he cut a piece of plywood, and he already made me mad or something. I said, I think I said, no, I'm not right, dad. Go ahead. And I let him put that piece of plywood back up on that shop. And it was different color, and he put it up backwards, but I never did that. And on that shop, it's still on there. If that shop there, it's still on that shop.

[30:40] KELLY O'NEIL: So how old were you, Franklin when you married?

[30:45] DANIEL HALSEY: 2020.

[30:47] KELLY O'NEIL: So were you. That was before you went into the army, daddy. Right?

[30:52] DANIEL HALSEY: Yeah.

[30:53] KELLY O'NEIL: Yeah. So how did you meet. How did you meet your bride?

[31:00] DANIEL HALSEY: Me?

[31:01] KELLY O'NEIL: Mm hmm.

[31:02] DANIEL HALSEY: I met her through her cousin. Her cousin lived in college park. I don't even remember how I met her cousin now, but she. I liked that little lady that. Her cousin, she was real friendly and everything. And I talked to her a good bit. And she. When Patricia came up to her house, she said, hey. Said, do you know anybody I could date? And I said, yeah, I got a guy you can date. She said, well, I get this little girl that's up here from Alabama, and we'll go out on dad. That's good. And Charles writes here. I introduced her to. Anyway, I sort of liked that little girl that she introduced me to. Finally, I married her.

[31:48] KELLY O'NEIL: So I understand y'all's courtship. She lived in Alabama. How?

[31:54] DANIEL HALSEY: She lived in Gadsden.

[31:55] KELLY O'NEIL: In Gadsden? How would you get to Gadsden?

[31:58] DANIEL HALSEY: Well, I had a little brother. When I bought a car, I bought a cardinal. I think I bought the car before he got his license, but he got him right away, within four or five days. So then he started driving me over to Alabama. I told him, I said, you can have the car during the week, and you'll go with me over on the weekend. Okay. So he had it during the week, and then he'd take me over on the weekends. At first, it wasn't every weekend, but in a little while, it got to be every dang weekend. We'd go over there. That's what run out of quarters. Yeah.

[32:40] KELLY O'NEIL: Well, I've witnessed. I've witnessed my whole life, this bond that you two have and thinking of, you know, most siblings that grow up, you know, have. Have a pond and, you know, have their ups and downs and all that, but I think you. You guys in particular have something so special. And, you know, I've only heard daddy referred to you as brother. Never my brother, just brother. And it's the sweetest. That's what he's always the sweetest. I know it. It makes that word just have its own meaning, as though no one else in the world has a brother but him.

[33:30] DANIEL HALSEY: We haven't been close.

[33:31] KELLY O'NEIL: Mm hmm.

[33:33] DANIEL HALSEY: Been far away.

[33:34] KELLY O'NEIL: Mm hmm.

[33:36] DANIEL HALSEY: Remember one time you and Jimmy. That's our cousin, Mama caught you smoking outside? She called me. She said, daniel. Yes, ma'am. Come here. All right. Got down. She says, was you smoking? I said, mama, jimmy and brother were smoking. And she says, daniel, are you smoking? Yes, ma'am. I rode the bus to school one day, and I didn't stay. I skipped school, rode the bus, come back to school, rode the bus home, and she was standing at the front door. I got off. She says, daniel. Yes, ma'am? Did you go to school today? Yes, ma'am, I did. She says, I said, mama, I rode the bus to school, and I got off of it. She said, did you go to school? I said, yes, ma'am, I did. She said, did you stay? I said, no, ma'am, I did nothing. Don't you ever do that again. And that was it. That was one of the adventures I.

[35:16] KELLY O'NEIL: Went through.

[35:19] DANIEL HALSEY: But I didn't get a whipping. I got talked to.

[35:25] KELLY O'NEIL: I remember you were telling me that she wrote you. She wrote you every day when you were in the army.

[35:31] DANIEL HALSEY: Oh, every day. Yeah. Just like to calling every day. She wrote a letter.

[35:37] KELLY O'NEIL: What was that? What was it like when. When Franklin married? And where did you. When you got married, Uncle Franklin where did you move to? Where did y'all live?

[35:46] DANIEL HALSEY: Oh, I lived in. Where did I move to? I moved to far from where mother daddy lived now. I mean, where mother daddy lived then.

[35:53] KELLY O'NEIL: Mm hmm.

[35:54] DANIEL HALSEY: I lived. It's over behind Sunshine Plaza on more than Avenue.

[35:59] KELLY O'NEIL: Okay. What was it. What was it like for you guys? What was it like for you daddy? For him. For him to be out of the house? It's the first time y'all not been together.

[36:11] DANIEL HALSEY: It was sad. I mean, you know, he. Whenever your mother and I got married, he called me one night, 12:00 he says, come on over here, I want to show you something. I said, all right, but I heard in the background on the phone, it was clicking. Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clackers. You remember them? Uh uh. Oh, yeah, I remember those.

[36:40] KELLY O'NEIL: And this is at midnight?

[36:41] DANIEL HALSEY: Yeah.

[36:42] KELLY O'NEIL: Okay.

[36:43] DANIEL HALSEY: So I got your mom up out of bed, and we went over to his house. They showed me. I said, what? All right. I.

[36:53] KELLY O'NEIL: Those are those kind of a. It's almost like a marble on a string, right? That would. Clay. Yeah.

[37:00] DANIEL HALSEY: You shake them and you hit them up, down. If you miss it, it will hurt. I don't know many people who get up at 12:00 at night just to hear.

[37:16] KELLY O'NEIL: Come here and see. Yeah. Well, you guys are definitely. You're definitely that. Our.

[37:27] DANIEL HALSEY: Tom, tell them about the boy scouts. We was ordered there.

[37:35] KELLY O'NEIL: That's the. You were a boy scout?

[37:37] DANIEL HALSEY: Yeah, boy scouts. We. There's several blind people in that same group, but Daniel, he went with us also, and we'd go to camp every year, and we'd go on out to places and camp out on everything. We walked a lot of the appalachian trail, and I guess that's where we learn how to swim. I don't know. I learned how to swim somewhere else. But merit badge a mile, swim and safety and all that new and everything. In water sports, we had a merit badge.

[38:17] KELLY O'NEIL: Yeah. What was the award?

[38:19] DANIEL HALSEY: What was the order of the era?

[38:20] KELLY O'NEIL: Was order of the era.

[38:22] DANIEL HALSEY: They take you out in the woods and you stay there until. And they start now. And when they'll come get you when it gets daylight. And I don't know, it's probably laying down over right next to us. But I don't know.

[38:41] KELLY O'NEIL: You remember doing that. Were you afraid?

[38:43] DANIEL HALSEY: No, I try not to be afraid of anything.

[38:46] KELLY O'NEIL: It sounds like it. It definitely sounds like it.

[38:53] DANIEL HALSEY: One other thing you gotta tell them about is whatever your grandbaby or grandchild said. Granddaddy, here's a snake. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. She was grown, my granddaughter, and was.

[39:13] KELLY O'NEIL: In the backyard at your house, right? I mean, she was grown, like you said, in her twenties.

[39:19] DANIEL HALSEY: Yeah.

[39:19] KELLY O'NEIL: Yeah. Walking with you.

[39:21] DANIEL HALSEY: No, she was just down there with me. And I was watering flowers or something like that. And she said, run, granny, run. There's a snake. There's a snake. I said, where?

[39:29] KELLY O'NEIL: She said, cold.

[39:32] DANIEL HALSEY: I said, where's her snake? She lived in the house.

[39:37] KELLY O'NEIL: She couldn't tell you. Cause she was gone.

[39:38] DANIEL HALSEY: Oh, she was gone. She still fed her snake. But I did not run. And Trisha came. I said, frank, that thing's 5ft from Trisha. I said, well, get you hold. Let's kill that stuff. And they called a lady up the street, she'd come down there. Her and her husband come down there and he said, I gotta get behind that snake to kill it. And his wife grabbed the hoe and said, let me show you how to kill that tower. She killed the snake. This is about five foot long. I don't know what kind of snake it was. There's no telling how many snakes has touched me in my wrist in that sleeping bag, huh?

[40:20] KELLY O'NEIL: Oh, my goodness. Well, I love all of these stories. And I know that's something that my brothers and I and my cousins talk about. Anytime we get y'all together, anytime we spend time with you, getting to hear, you know, these amazing stories of you guys growing up and all of your adventures and really all the love that our family has, you know, for one another. Mm hmm. Laura, go ahead.

[40:53] DANIEL HALSEY: Okay. Kayla, we have. I've got, what, three kids, eight grandkids, three great grandkids and all the. All those. Well, I've got two that are one, one that's married, two that's engaged, and one that's. She ain't engaged yet, but all of them kids are. When I call or Tricia calls, let's go out to eat, every single one of them come. I don't know what they're doing, but they all managed to come.

[41:23] KELLY O'NEIL: So family.

[41:25] DANIEL HALSEY: Many families like that.

[41:27] KELLY O'NEIL: Yeah. And family is everything. Family is everything. So, daddy, what does brother mean to you?

[41:45] DANIEL HALSEY: It's hard to explain. Everything I got inside of my body. There's not much except for killing somebody. I wouldn't do that for anything else. Probably would be, but be the thing. He means a lot to me. Life. The experiences that we've had, the closeness, the how close we are. And I guess we'll be that close. Till we die. If we die. When we die, I'm going first. I ain't gonna worry about it. I ain't gonna follow you there, though. No, you don't have to say. Stay here and wait on me.

[42:50] KELLY O'NEIL: How about you? Uncle Franklin Was this little brother. Was this little brother, Mandy.

[42:54] DANIEL HALSEY: He's someone that you can count on anything. If you need. Needed something, you know you can count on him doing it. I've asked him lots of questions all the time. About what do you do, this or that, whatnot. And he's always got some kind of answer. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes I don't. But still, you know, that's the way. And if I disagree with him, it don't bother me. And I don't know that I've been mad at him in a long time. Maybe never. I don't know. I think you got mad at me one time. When? Huh? When? When you burnt the couch smoking. Oh, God. You tell me. I remember that, man. That's been. That's 100 years ago. That's what we did on Kirkwood Avenue. Yep. Yeah, it was. That's. Had to be in the fifties of. I forgot about that. I still remember, though, about that big around. You throwing some water in it. Yeah. We had to put it out.

[44:04] KELLY O'NEIL: Well, I have to tell you, having brothers of my own. If it was one time in the fifties that you were mad at them. That's the only time you can remember. Yeah. Y'all are. Y'all are a special. Y'all are special.

[44:18] DANIEL HALSEY: He didn't get mad at me until Mama found out. Oh, yeah. Well, I had to cover that.

[44:25] KELLY O'NEIL: Well, here's to lots more memories. And I hope the next several years we just get the opportunity to find out more and create more reasons to laugh and spend time together.

[44:45] DANIEL HALSEY: We're not gonna quit.

[44:45] KELLY O'NEIL: Back on. That's right.

[44:47] DANIEL HALSEY: We're not quit.

[44:48] KELLY O'NEIL: Here's to more.

[44:50] DANIEL HALSEY: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Could you tell me Aunt Patricia's full name?

[44:57] KELLY O'NEIL: Patricia Morgan Halsey.

[45:05] DANIEL HALSEY: Your mother's name?

[45:08] KELLY O'NEIL: Clara Louise Gresham Halsey.

[45:17] DANIEL HALSEY: And you mentioned Brian Halsey.

[45:19] KELLY O'NEIL: Can I get the name of the other two children? Robert. Robbie. Yeah, Robbie Robbies and Theresa. Does Teresa go by Halsey?

[45:31] DANIEL HALSEY: She goes by Jones.

[45:32] KELLY O'NEIL: Tracy Jones. That's right.

[45:35] DANIEL HALSEY: And you want their ages. But your parents name.

[45:40] KELLY O'NEIL: Moma and Pocahontas. That's Ruby. What's her maiden name?

[45:45] DANIEL HALSEY: Elafair.

[45:47] KELLY O'NEIL: Elafair.

[45:48] DANIEL HALSEY: Ruby Elafair Sanford Sanford Halsey.

[45:52] KELLY O'NEIL: Halsey. And your dad? Frank.

[45:58] DANIEL HALSEY: Frank. No middle initial. Frank Halsey.

[46:01] KELLY O'NEIL: Wow. No middle name. Wow. I didn't know that.

[46:05] DANIEL HALSEY: And if mother was here, she would deny Eleafaire Elafair.

[46:10] KELLY O'NEIL: She didn't like that she had another name, too.

[46:13] DANIEL HALSEY: But Trisha knows. I don't know. Ruby Elephant. No, it's something else. Yeah. And wait, wait.