"Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be" (Browning)

.....Since these interviews that Robin taped for a college project are a part of history, it behooves us to publish a few on this blog.  The one for today is from my stepfather, Mike Kallman--my father's cousin, son of my grandmother's sister.  Mike married my mother in 1946.  She had been a single mom since 1933 when my father died.  I was a patient in a VA hospital at the time, and I have always suspected that the sudden marriage came about because my mother did not want to be a burden to me after I was discharged.  Nevertheless, Mike was a good soul and I have no reason not to believe that they were both happy in the marriage until he died.  In this interview Mike describes his job with the Army in WWI when he was about 16 and too young to enlist.  


....."In the first war, I wanted to do my share somehow, and I wasn't of age yet, so I got a job in Sandy Hook (NJ) and there was this proving ground t' prove all the big guns, all the guns, so I got a job there and, I think, for a salary of $19 a week, that was a lot of money, $19 a week.  And I had a special train, I'd have to go from the Highlands (NJ) they drove us right into Sandy Hollow, the government property.  So I got a job and the job consisted of picking up these here shells, loading them on trucks, bringin' them out to the guns to try them (out), to shoot it off, into the ocean they would shoot it.  And when they shot that gun off, they'd give you a signal, all yell 'under cover!'   And put your hands to your ears, you could hear the vibrations miles and miles away, see?  And from there, they gave up that, and they got more of a suitable place with more facilities...So they went to Aberdeen, Maryland about 25 miles away from Balt-ee-more, and I went along with them and we had a special train.  And they went from Sandy Hook and it took us two days to Maryland where now it's only a few hours.  Had t'sidetrack the train to let the regular trains go by.  It was the coldest year, that was 1917.  That was the beginning of the first war.  It was cold...And while I wasn't a soldier and I wasn't bound t' the gover'ment, I still felt that I was doing my duty...And I was assigned to a barrack with other civilians, and we lived just like the soldiers did.  We had a stove in the center of the barracks, big logs, and thin Army blankets, and we lived that way, we slept that way.  And we ate just like the soldiers did, we stood in line, but we wasn't reprimanded, disciplined or anything.  We went out when we wanted......"


.....I find this to be very interesting; don't even know if Mike ever graduated from high school.   Up until he married my mother he earned his living by being a bookie--but mom made him give that up and he got a job at the Monmouth Racetrack in Long Branch (NJ) as a ticket seller.  They settled in a comfortable, but small house, only about a block from the ocean.  They eventually came to live in my Glen Cove house, where I converted our large dining room into a bedroom for them.  I cannot remember why they had to come to us, but they did, and that's where Mike eventually died and my mother went to Florida with my sister and brother-in-law taking up residence in Century Village in Boca Raton.  And life does go on--and on.