Bill

By Bill

Bill is a story of the author's life as he has lived it. He is a boy who has experienced life as a member of a family that was poor but faithful to one another. He has gone through boyhood and into manhood, living life to the fullest and experiencing two marriages and two divorces and with the honor of having a son born on his birthday by his second wife. His son continues to make his life worthwhile with each passing day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098078508

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Bill

Bill

Copyright © 2021 by Bill

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Beginning

Audie Murphy

Ron and the Jr. High

Ron and the US Navy

M C B Seven

Last Duty Gitmo

Twenty-One and a Civilian

Mary Kay

California and Me

Breaking into the Biz

Janeice and Tammy Lynn

Obee and 399

A Short Business Venture

Janeice’s Divorce

Zora Arkus-Duntov, Elfie, and the ’Vette

Cheers Ted Danson and the ’Vette

Bruce’s TBird Audie’s Continental Mark III

Retirement

We Go North

Shane’s Five Acres

In honor of Audie L. Murphy, Mom, and with great devotion to my son, Shane.

I’m writing my life story not for myself but for my son. I have not amassed a fortune to leave Shane, not does Shane have one. I have hopes of this book leaving Shane somewhat a financial security.

Also in memory of Audie L. Murphy, whose life story has given me guidance in how to live my life.

Chapter 1

The Beginning

In a small Midwestern town on a cold January day, the sixth to be exact, I was born. I was to be the fifth child of sixth. The first was Herbert August, and then there were Fern Marie, Nancy Ellen, Ruth Ann, me, and lastly Donna Lee. I was born as William Albert.

It was during World War II that I was born, January 1942. As I was to believe, we were a modest family, leaning toward poor.

As best as I could recall, Mom did not finish high school, as she married Dad, August Herbert, at the age of seventeen. We lived next door to Mom’s parents, Nancy Jane and William Terry (mostly referred to as Tarhill). They were from Kentucky or Tennessee as best I can recall.

Our grandparents’ house was two story with a full basement; our house was single story with a full basement. Both houses were on the same lot, so we were next door to Grandma and Grandpa.

Now, of course, I do not recall the first few years of my life; I know only what I was told. My first year was not a good year, as mom was separated from Dad. Mom had a sister, Sophia, who lived next door with Nancy Jane and Tarhill.

Sophia was at our house when Dad came in to see Mom. Things did not go well. It seemed Dad and Sophia got into a heavy argument. I guess Dad hit Sophia and she fell down, and Dad thought the worst. What’s worst was, I was never told, only that all this took place on December 1942. Dad panicked and left the house, got in his ’32 Ford, and drove away. No one heard of or from Dad the rest of the day. Sadly, he was found in a cornfield with a .22 rifle and a .22 bullet in his brain. He was still alive when taken to the hospital, where he died the next day—all this during the holiday season, Christmas. The next month, January 9, my sister Donna Lee was born.

Therein began my life growing up in a family of six kids, one mom, and no father. Mom never remarried, so I, we, grew up without a father. For me, it’s like the old saying, You don’t miss what you never had.

I was all about enjoying life with my family and friends. However, that was not with my only brother, Herb, as he was five years older than me, so he had his other friends, and I had mine, which was how it went all our lives.

Attending elementary school at first was something new, but after a while, I came to the conclusion I didn’t like it. I preferred to be outside where I could enjoy life. As I had to walk to school, the fall months were interesting, going to and from school. Winter was no fun at all; I never liked cold, blistery weather. The summer months were the best and most enjoyable. All the local neighborhood boys would get together and come up with something to make life fun.

There was a cemetery across the street from our house, and it had a big empty, grassy area that we could play football in. In our older, still young, later years, we would go to the local drive-in theater. It was within walking distance, so we had no problem getting there. Now the fun part was when the Frankenstein, Dracula, and werewolf movies were being shown, the fun part was when we were coming home and if we had some girls with us.

It so happened that we had to cut through the cemetery to get to the drive-in. Coming back from seeing a scary movie and then going through the cemetery, a couple of guys would sneak ahead, hide behind some tombstones, and—when they would come by—jump out and scare the girls.

Simple times in the late 1940s meant having simple fun. As we had a fairly large park to go to, it would give us more opportunities to have some fun, go on the rides, use the swings, and ride the mini train.

There was also a merry-go-round and what else I couldn’t recall. Oh yeah, there was a bandstand and a good-sized pavilion. It was a two-story building with a dance floor on the second floor, big enough to have a live band. It also had a section for concessions, candy and ice cream. Now I was always a slim, skinny kid. We came up with the idea of raiding the concession stand. Of course, we had to do it when it was closed. The door to the goodies had sectioned glass, which gave us our entry.

It was a very simple plan: take out the lowest section of glass, push the skinniest kid through, open the door, and raid the candy and ice cream section! Like I said, I was the skinniest kid, so in I went and opened the door, and we raided the place and got the hell outa there!

Hey, come on, not really a bad thing to do, being young and looking for some fun in life; it never led to robbery, breaking and entering for felony reasons, just having some fun.

During the snowy winter months, we would take our sleds and slide down our street, as it had a small hill effect. The street it went down to was a long street, which was great for grabbing onto the rear bumper of a car or truck and hang on. We mostly did it by using our shoes instead of our sleds. It seemed more fun to do it that way. So went my younger years, everything with life and learning about life.

We had a potbellied stove in the corner of the front room. I remember many a warm, cozy night by that potbellied stove. At Christmastime, we would have a small Christmas tree. Being on aide for dependent children (A, D, C), a family by the name of Sheean would come by and put six envelopes with a five-dollar bill in it on the Christmas tree. The envelopes had a hole in the center so that we could see the face of the five-dollar bill.

Another great time of the year was Thanksgiving. Grandma would do the cooking at her house. She had a huge (to me) table where she would put in an extra center leaf, making the table bigger, which was a good thing, as she would cook enough food to fill the table. We had it all: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes with gravy, pies—oh yeah, we had pies—pumpkin, apple, rhubarb, and all the other goodies. We loved Thanksgiving at Grandma’s!

Also, about the same time as Thanksgiving, we would have a small bonfire behind our grandparents’ house. What an event that was, all of our neighborhood would attend.

Yeah, the late ’40s and early ’50s was a great and wondrous time to grow up in, in the greatest country, nation on the planet, which had just won World War II!

Chapter 2

Audie Murphy

After grade school, I went to Irving junior high. We still had to walk to school, about the same distance. New school, new friends, and new experiences.

Like most boys growing up, I like to go to the movies, mostly Westerns. As I never had a father in my life and my only brother being five years older than me, I was always looking for a strong male figure for guidance.

I was about to get that heroes figure when a new Universal Studios Western was being shown at one of the local theaters. The name of the movie was The Kid from Texas. This was 1950, and I was eight years old.

The star of the film was a new young actor by the name of Audie Murphy. What an image this actor put on the silver screen! Instantly, I took a liking to this new actor.

I must admit that an actor on the movie screen is not the same or as good as a real person to look up to. I had to accept what I had in the moment. So throughout the following years, I would continue to attend the Audie Murphy films.

Junior high was a short chapter in my life. I cannot recall any important or exciting happenings in my life. Well, there is this one instance when I was thirteen years old. For me, this was an important occurrence in my life: Audie reentered.

Audie’s latest movie was out, and it was To Hell and Back in which he plays himself from childhood through his World War II life! I came to find out my movie idol was America’s most decorated soldier of WWII. What an inspiration that was for me! Audie Murphy was young, handsome, vibrant, and World War II’s most decorated soldier. I honestly and truly had my lifetime male figure to look up to and admire. The year was 1955.

I, of course, wrote to Universal Studios, asking for an autographed photo. I got that photo of Audie in his Eisenhower jacket and with his autograph.

Another incident I remember concerned a small coffee shop that was a hangout for teenagers, mostly older teens with their hot rods and hot cars.

So I was walking past the Chevy dealership and was staring at the 1952 Chevy hardtop when a young salesman came out. In our conversation, he asked if I would like to take it for a test ride. Not asking for a driver’s license, he put the dealer plates on it and gave me the keys.

Where else would I go but to Sprague’s, the teen hangout. I drove up, found a parking spot, went inside, and hung out.