I was born on McKinley Avenue in Dallas Village back in 1937; I have two brothers . We grew up on Rison Avenue. I went to Rison school from first grade; Miss Esslinger was my teacher at the two story house across Oakwood. I was at Rison till the 9th grade and then went to Butler.

Somewhere I still have a couple of phone books from the 50s when the phone numbers were 4 digits or 3 digits with a letter. I worked at Gates Garage on O'Shaughnessy Avenue, and their phone number was 1111.

I left and went into the Navy in 1954 and came back in 1958 and went to work at the post office downtown; carried mail til 1966. My route was Holiday Homes and then I got North Parkway . No matter where I go Dallas is still home.

I spent 22 years in the Navy Seabees, retired in 1982 and then went to Pensacola where I was reinstated to the post office. I stayed there till 1997 and retired again.

I now own a gate business here in Texas, selling and installing gate openers. No matter how long I have been gone or where I have been it is a warm feeling to go back to my roots of Dallas Village. Even time or influx of outsiders does not change the people there. The outsiders change and become people of the village where everyone knows everyone, and the most guarded secret is common knowledge there; that is what makes that small village so special. The needy are taken care of and it is really hard to tell the ones of means and the ones that are just getting by. It is a very special neighborhood; the rest of America should be like that.