My life as I remember it # 1

I was born in Wakefield MA. on July 8, 1935. My parents told me I was a very sick baby. They had to carry me around on a pillow, as I could not stand to be touched very much due to Polio. Our family country doctor had no knowledge of this sickness, so I was very lucky that it was a mild case of Polio. The Polio left my left leg ¾ of an inch short and my left arm ½ an inch short so as I grew up and started to walk then run, I fell down a lot. This left my knee caps with almost a solid scar on them. I did play football in junior high school. (Tackle). In October of 1952 4 of us young high school boys (Billy, Andy, Donald, and I) decided to enlist in the military (remember this was during the Korean war) Billy went into the Marines and I was accepted into the Air Force. Andy had a heart murmur and Donald had a punctured inner ear drum. When we took the aptitude tests my mechanical skills were listed as very high. They gave me a waiver on my short leg and put me in the ammunition field. So I ended up blowing up things. I was sworn in on the 18th of March 1953.

My family and I, my mother, father, brother, and 2 sisters lived in North Reading MA. Till I went into the USA Air Force in March of 1953. My father worked at M.I.T. in Harvard Square at the time. He was in the mineral industry’s department of M.I.T. He was in charge of all the research laboratories in the department. The Assistant Professor of the mineral industry’s department at MIT took the department head job at Penn State in June of 1953. After he toured his department and got settled in he called dad and offered him the same job he had a MIT at PSU for about $25 a week, a $100 a month in 1953 was a lot of money, so they moved to State College PA. in September of 1953. The professor said the laboratories were no way near being up to date for a top of the line University.

I must close for now

Be safe out there and be well

Love
Bob