I'm back to transcribing letters from my grandfather to my uncle and finding lots of tidbits here and there. The latest tidbit was finding out my dad hadn't left his fighting ways behind him in elementary school. In March of 1943, he was fired from a job at Ford Motor Parts division for fighting (the other guy lost his job, too.) The U.S. Employment office gave him a job ticket for Willow Run - a distance of over 25 miles to someone who did not have a car - insurmountable. There has been no subsequent mention of whether or not he went there or not. At the time this letter was written, Grandpa and my dad lived about five blocks from the Fisher Building in what subsequently became the New Center area.
I shouldn't have been surprised at the fight. My dad, when we did our "interview" was up front about his fighting. I think he had given it up by the time he married my mom and we came along. Yeah, he had quite a temper and a BIG voice, but I don't remember any fights.
A letter from cousin James Rankin to my uncle told me that because of the cervical fracture of his neck, James didn't feel any pain, and had some surgery, and actually enjoyed the hospital stay.
One letter, grandpa gives a little geography lesson to Uncle Johnny about Alexandria, Louisiana and references statistics from the 1930 census! Pretty cool for a genealogist to come across something like that in a letter.
Time to get back to the transcribing.
Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes
I wonder if I can get hold of dad's employment record at the Research Center?
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