Me and my Grandfather

00:02 Hello, this is Carson. I'm interviewing my grandfather Robert and I'm here to ask him some questions today. Question one, how did you and Grandma first meet?

00:16 We met at dances at St. Augustine's High School and we also met at what was called at the time St. Augustine's Casino, which is four duck pin alleys, some pool tables underneath St. Augustine's Gym, which is now torn down.

00:42 Second question, what is my father like? Growing up.

00:50 He was no problem, but he was more of a stay at home. He wasn't athletic, so he liked to sit in the house, play individual games by himself. That's pretty much it.

01:13 Question 3. What did you think you were going to be when you grew up?

01:20 I always had a dream of being a CPA or an accountant. But when I graduated from Central Catholic High School, we had no money as a family, so I had to go to work. And at the time in the 60s, there was the draft, still existed. And when I graduated from high school, I was accepted at three colleges, Robert Morris, Pitt and Kent State. But as a family, because we had sickness in the family, my sister had polio, that we had no money. So therefore in those days, in the 60s, if you had no money, you didn't go to college.

02:07 Was an accountant like a, would you say an aspirational position? Like a position that made you a lot of money and you would have liked. Like it would have been a respectable position.

02:19 I enjoyed dealing with numbers and it was a challenge to balance things to make the numbers work and find out there was truth behind the numbers.

02:37 Question 4. Are there any lessons your work life has taught you?

02:45 Be honest with people, don't lie, in fact. And then when you're dealing with. Because I was a blue collar worker and not in management, if you look management in the eye and smile and don't open your mouth and say anything derogatory, they think you're crazy and they stay away from you and leave you alone.

03:13 Question 5. Can you describe a time when you felt especially satisfied with the work you do or you did?

03:22 Pretty much every day my last 30 years because I was in distribution engineering and it was an accomplishment and a rewarding experience when the lights came on and everybody was smiling.

03:46 This concludes my interview with my grandfather.