David Jones:
CLASS OF 1965
Lake Shore Central High SchoolClass of 1965
Angola, NY
University of Southern MississippiClass of 1974
Hattiesburg, MS
Gulf Coast Research LaboratoryClass of 1973
Ocean springs, MS
Tri - State UniversityClass of 1969
Angola, IN
Erie County Technical InstituteClass of 1968
Buffalo, NY
David's Story
Photos:
THEN - Big Brother, Dad and Sis, Mom and Me, visiting grandparents in Angola.
NOW - Christmas with my in-laws at the house that Katrina destroyed.
*** This trip down memory lane is intended for the entertainment of those who have shared their time and space with me over the years and anyone else who might care to read it. ***
Growing Up At Home
My parents raised three children of their own, 35 foster children, and all of our pets. Our place was the neighborhood hangout. We lived adjacent to a private sporting reserve where there was no wildlife and therefore no hunters. My parents used to say "You are the Wildlife and have driven everything else away." Over an area of more than a square mile of forest, fields and streams we reigned supreme. Well almost!!! One summer even we steered clear of one pet, a full grown black bear that was chained to a tree across the street from our house. A five star video of "Terrible Ted the Wrestling Bear" can be found on "You tube."
We reenacted stunt scenes from our favorite TV shows and movies. Some of our stunts were near disasters and resulted in concussions, broken bones and one near drowning. Other stunts were quite successful. One in particular was a masterpiece of physics in action. From our platform in a large old tree both Danny Smith and John Hatch successfully rode an adjacent 20' flexible sapling to the ground. It was as smooth as running a pole vault video in reverse. It was quite spectacular! Unfortunately I was their only witness, no movie contract, no big bucks! I have seen both Burt Reynolds and Bear Grylls attempt similar stunts with disastrous results. Burt landed in the hospital and Bear landed hard on his back.
We had the usual toys; bikes, sleds and such but we also had Country Boy toys: boomerangs, throwing knives, hatchets, rifles, shotguns, a crossbow and my favorite the longbow. I was actually quite good with the bow and arrow. My record; I shot down three apples in a row that had been thrown across in front of me like skeet. A broken flu-flu arrow ended the streak.
Both my parents, Harry and Dorothy, and my older half brother, Elmore White, are gone now. My sister lives nearby. We have lost track of most of the rest of our extended family. If you're out there give me a shout.
Over the years my interests and activities have been as varied as my friendships.
During my youth I was very active in Scouting, 4H, YMCA and Christian Endeavor, but not dating. With two dozen sisters, and two County Agents who checked up on us at least twice each month, I didn't find a girlfriend until after I left home.
Karen Tanner tells me that she is amazed that I remember her. Once upon a time, long long ago, I watched her from across the room at a "Saturday at the Moose Dance Party" (aka Paul Piper's birthday party.) I will never forget - That lady can dance !!!
My 16th and 17th summers were amazing.
First, several of my friends and I worked at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. The next summer, we took an eventful canoe trip through Canada's Algonquin Provincial Park. Our first night out a bear tore up our cooks tent and ate its way through much of our food supply while we slept in hammocks nearby. We didn't turn back, nine days of excitement still lay ahead. About half of our last day was spent cliff diving. I recorded much of the trip on film; Running naked through the forest on our way to go skinny dipping, Doug Rich's leap off the highest cliff, and Doug Scott's picture perfect swan dive. Awesome!!! I would have gone anywhere with that group, and it is inspiring to note that they must have felt the same way, because they are reconnecting here on my Friends List. A few of us have known each other since First Grade.
Others whom I spent a lot of time with were Vern Tisdale and Dan Jachimiak, my fishing buddies. Ed Stoessel, was my hunting and golfing buddy. My cousin, Joe Schoen got me interested in cars. He had a go-kart track in his backyard where we both had a great time. Later that track became a dirt oval where we took turns driving his '54 Plymouth. After he sold the Plymouth to me it became a central form of entertainment for my sister's 13th birthday party. I gave the party goers a ride to remember in the fields and forests behind our house.
As an adult I have lived in five states, worked for 25 separate organizations, usually two or three at a time, and attended nine different schools. My majors have ranged from civil engineering to medicine, with electronics, computer programing, banking and mechanical design thrown in for balance. I have a degree, diploma or merit badge in each. (LOL - just joking - lighten up) I get bored easily!!! Must be my upbringing.
School
While grade school, high school, and especially my home life were about friendships and learning to get along with others, college and the military were about finding myself. Some of the relationships were more memorable than others but each played an important role in shaping my life by influencing the directions that I have taken. I wish everyone the very best!!!
College
My childhood idol was Thomas Edison. I wanted to be an innovator like him. The most impressive center of creative engineering within an easy drive of my childhood home was Bell Textron. Home of the Bell X-1 rocket plane, James Bond rocket belt, the Bell helicopter, and both the US Navy's PACV and LCAC hovercraft. After graduation from high school I applied for a job with Bell and arranged a dinner with a company representative. The dinner did take place but the Bell rep. had to cancel. I had dinner with the Hilton Hotel manager.
That summer I followed in my father's footsteps and began working at Bethlehem Steel. During my first week the union required that four of us be assigned to a single task in the Open-Hearth. On the night shift our group leader took three of us to a warehouse and told us "Find a dark corner and I will come back for you in the morning." He did the assigned work by himself while we slept. During the day the idea was the same but the hiding place was different. We hid in plain sight in the very busy locker rooms. The job paid well no matter how little we did. Fortunately he didn't remain our leader very long.
The Buffalo area was having a "Be Big - Be a Builder" campaign which influenced my choice in educational direction. I took Civil Technology at Erie Tech and then after graduation transferred to Civil Engineering at Tri-State in Indiana. That is where I met Bill Piper in Chemistry Lab. At first I thought he might be Paul's older brother, but I was wrong. (You can read William's Classmates bio.)
At the beginning of my fourth summer at Bethlehem Steel I was promoted to mechanics assistant. A few days later I was swept away by Bethlehem's first massive layoff. (Since then Bethlehem Steel has gone bankrupt.)
The rest of that summer I drove a truck for LA Hazard & Sons delivering plumbing and heating supplies to construction sites throughout western New York. It was a happy time, but I felt that I needed to step it up a level. That's when I applied for a dream job as a project estimator for the largest construction company in Buffalo.
I wasn't prepared for what happened next. It was August 1969. I walked out to the mailbox one morning and was surprised to find a postcard that said "Greetings." A few minutes later while I was still pacing back and forth in front of the house Mom came to the door and said that I had a call. The caller offered me the Project Estimator job. I had to tell him "Thanks, but I just received my Draft Notice."
Military
Although both my father and brother had been in the Army, each of my cousins had joined the Air Force, and I did the same.
Basic training at Lackland AFB was like an extended stay at Scout camp or any summer vacation at home, with hiking, obstacles, and guns. After basic was over I was placed on hold while they decided where to send me. San Antonio, Texas has got to be one of the very best places to be kept waiting while someone else is making up their mind. There is so much to see and do, and I did it all.
It really hurt when I was told that I was being assigned to the Medics and that nothing could be done to change that until I was at the school. Upon my arrival I had a meeting with the School Commandant. She convinced me that I should give it a try. According to her my records indicated that I was a perfect fit for the Medics. (Trained by my hometown Fire Department, I was one of very few Eagle Scouts to have earned both the "Scout Life Guard" patch and the "Emergency Service" arm band. The Emergency Service Corp. was America's, all volunteer, predecessor to the paid (EMS) Emergency Medical Service.)
You couldn't help but get that "Gung-ho" feeling at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas in late 1969. Besides being the site of the Air Force's Medical School it was also a pilot training center.
Each morning we would leave the Pararescue guys (PJs) in front of our barracks doing their calisthenics. On the way to the school our Squadron marched along the flight line. A plane lover couldn't ask for a better close-up view. Helicopter and jet trainers were everywhere and they seemed to be constantly in motion. Somewhere along our marching route the PJs would catch up and pass us at a run. (Google - USAF PJs)
After Graduation I was sent to Keesler AFB Medical Center, a 500 bed hospital, in Biloxi, Mississippi. Hurricane Camille had devastated the Gulf Coast. Although the clean-up had been underway for many months there was still a ship in excess of 100' long sitting astride Highway 90 when I arrived in the spring of 1970.
Upon arrival I walked into the Squadron Commander's office to get my first assignment and found Debi Hartley smiling back at me from behind her desk. I was sent to the Emergency Room where I spent my first day driving Ambulance. I then worked...Expand for more
three months each on the Isolation Ward, the Orthopedic Ward, the General Surgery Ward and then the Neurology and Neuro-Surgery Ward. But, it was my continuing work with the Medevac Flights that landed me on the front page of, "Stars and Stripes," the military newspaper. Near the end of my second year in the military I was promoted to Sergeant (not much in the grand scheme of things) but wait! A few days later we received word that our Ward Supervisor was transferring to the Emergency Room and that I was replacing a retiring Major as Nursing Supervisor of the Hospital on the Night and Weekend shifts. (SAY WHAT???) I reported directly to Col. Russell C. Swansburg, the head nurse, (you can Google his name with or without the Col.) and attended meetings with the General.
After a year of this I got bored and asked to transfer to a clinic. I was assigned to the Orthopedic Clinic where I applied casts and assisted in surgery. My dating options went into overdrive. After a falling out with the clinic supervisor I asked to return to the front office. I was given my old job back in an expanded capacity. There were now two of us. Mark and I covered all of the hospital supervision hours except 8-5 Monday thru Friday when the Colonel was in.
While in the military I continued my education by taking computer programming languages at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs.
The last few months Col. Swansburg had me writing the Standard Operating Procedures for all of the wards. When I told him that I wanted an "early out" to go back to engineering school he got upset. He granted my wish but he also banished me to Intensive Care (ICU) for my last few days. I had given the medical profession a try. It wasn't what I wanted to do.
Looking back I realize that my four years in the Air Force were the best for many reasons. There were the beaches of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle to the East, New Orleans night clubs and Mardi Gras to the West and right there in the middle Mississippi and Biloxi in particular had the women and everything else that I loved; hunting with Mike Papania (the best man at my wedding), fishing with Jim Blankenship, waterskiing with Bobbie Jo Roe (nurse and Cypress Gardens waterski instructor), running and partying with Bruce Barrett, driving fast cars and working on the same (including an early two seat AC Shelby Cobra Mark III) with my roommate Don, canoeing and golfing with several of my other friends, and catching free flights to anywhere else that the military happened to be going.
One flight in particular I will never forget. It still blows my mind just thinking about it. I walked into Base Ops and said that I would like to catch a flight to Texas. Within minutes a passing jet dropped out of the sky and parked right outside our door. It was a six seat Government Shuttle Flight from Washington DC to Randolph Field, Texas. As I stepped aboard I was greeted by a general and five very top level government service managers who wanted to know who I was, where I was going and, why? They made me feel welcome but informed me that the only remaining seat was the Jump Seat in the back of the plane. That was another Awesome Day in my life !!!
On one trip to downtown New Orleans a friend and I found Clint Holmes (You can Google him) headlining in the lounge at the top of the Marriott Hotel on Canal Street. I returned the next night with my girlfriend and her parents. Great Show !!! (Clint sat next to me in study hall at LSC High School.)
On another awesome day I and two or three other young men had the privilege/pleasure of escorting Phyllis George, Miss America, on her tour of our hospital. WOW !!!
Before leaving the Mississippi Gulf Coast I attracted a huge crowd that blocked the highway and made headlines. My outboard propelled canoe overturned on a flooded stream stranding my girlfriend and me on a log jamb beneath the Highway 57 Bridge south of Vancleave. I swam to shore and walked into town, returning a short time later with two volunteers and a strong rope. We hoisted my girlfriend up onto the bridge and then called for a tow truck. I rode the truck's cable back down to the log jamb and attached the canoe. While the canoe was being raised to the road level, and everyone was still watching, I again swam to shore through the public gator feeding area. My survival secret: Be one with the floating debris.
Married Life / Work
After my military discharge and my wedding I spent two semesters at USM's, Hattiesburg campus before transferring to the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
Upon arrival in Wisconsin I took a job as a bank teller, on the Capitol Square, while waiting for fall classes to start at UW. I was quickly promoted to trainer for the tellers and then to collections. Because things at the bank were going so well I spent the next two years thinking that I would follow in the footsteps of a childhood mentor of mine, Mr. Clark, and become an investment banker. It was his recommendation that had gotten me the banking job. I took all of the classes that the American Bankers Association offered that I could fit into my schedule.
Eventually I got back on track for, my original goal, following in Edison's footsteps. I went back to school and landed a design job with, National Electrostatics Corp. (NEC), the world's leader in the manufacture of Ion Particle Beam Accelerators. This was one job where it was very easy to get caught up in the excitement. I designed components for the new accelerator at Oak Ridge National Labs and another one at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. I loved the work but the pay was so low that I had earned more at Bethlehem Steel seven years earlier. After a couple of years I gave my notice because I felt that I was being underpaid. They offered me a better position and after I turned them down they still gave me the best going away party. I really have to thank them for that. There were several people there who were each quite unforgettable in their own way; Jim Raatz, Jim Mercer, Dennus Fitzsimmons, Dan Herr and Roger Richards.
While at NEC I further expanded my education by taking all of the available electronics courses at MATC. The result was another piece of paper to frame and hang on my workshop wall.
I moved on to Ray-O-Vac where I spent a couple years writing battery and lantern product specifications for all of their Latin American plants and as always I continued my education. My manager was Tony Bonano and my friends were Rich P, Jim E, Ron H and Laura.
I changed jobs again, this time there was no chance that I was going to get bored or feel that I was underpaid. At Springs Industries' Window Fashion Division, I began as a Product Designer and later transferred to Manufacturing Engineering. My hands were into everything that the company had to offer. I was designing products and also designing or modifying the tooling that made each product. I learned the "art" of extrusion tool design and with the help of my partners, Jim Laubmeier, Frank Klinko and Kyle Knuteson, also improved on the process. We brought Springs' extruded products to the forefront of their industry. We successfully co-extruded products using incompatible polymers. I traveled around the Midwest to trade shows and to visit vendors who were making either products or tooling for us. I also continued to expand my education by taking classes which were directly related to my job. Springs is still producing products that we developed more than 20 years ago. This was a great job unfortunately long hours of exposure to the fumes that escaped from the working end of the extruders was making me very sick.
Another goal of mine has always been to run my own business and set my own priorities. I have tried five times; the first time was while I was in the military. Recently I started manufacturing and selling my own products wholesale. I quickly had thousands more orders than I could fill. Instead of increasing production I chose to end the wholesale operation and begin selling directly to the public thereby keeping more of the profit for myself. I opened a store in the mall and added a web site. Big mistake! The ink on my bottom line went from black to red. The rent for space in the mall sucked up all of my profits and quickly put me on the path to poverty. Fortunately I recognized the extent of the problem early on and bailed out.
I paid off the debts from my last business by working for two or three of the following businesses at a time: three hardware stores, a sporting goods store, cable company, cabinet maker, watch and clock repair shop, and I have been a tutor in math, science, and CAD drafting at the local college. My plans for the next big business venture have been set aside because I was saddled with a large clean-up bill to pay when someone torched the house that my brother left to us. We had already invested three vacations and thousands of additional dollars in the cleanup and repair of the house before the fire.
My hat is off to those who have built successful businesses from scratch. I know how difficult it is!!! To those like myself who are still trying... Good Luck and Never Give Up!!! "Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." (Coolidge) In addition to that pearl of wisdom "Luck and Timing are much more important than Personal Effort." (Stephan Pastis) If you don't recognize his name look in your Sunday Comics or just Google his name.
Note: Upon return visits to my childhood home I have discovered how correct my parents were about us scaring away the wildlife. There have been raccoons tipping over the trash cans under my bedroom window in the middle of the night and on other visits we have seen a herd of deer and a flock of wild turkeys on the land that was our backyard. Truly amazing !!! Where were they hiding all those years while I was growing up??
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