Albert Netto:  

Life My roots are in Lowell. I was born and raised there. I grew up in the back Central part of town during most of my younger years and late teens. I was a student at Lowell High School from the 10th through the 12th grades. I was in the first group of Groton Lowell Upward Bound students. I stayed with the program until I graduated from Lowell High School. I was one of the original 46 students to be enrolled in this program. I completed the 8th grade at Butler Jr. High then entered the upward bound program. I started that summer at Groton. That fall I started the 9th grade. As a child I lived on the island of Madeira for over a year in the late 50’s. The Island is located in the Atlantic about 500 miles off the coast of Morocco. Then returned again while I was in high school and I spent part of a summer there in my mid teens. I can speak Portuguese very well, actually fluently and grew up in that Lowell neighborhood. I grew up living in two worlds because growing up in Lowell was a very cultural experience. It was like a culturally divided city from my prospective, which required various abilities that I developed at an early age. I learned these abilities at a cost because on most corners I was in danger of a fight. It seamed like I was in a fight on a daily basis. As I got older and was able to take on the people that caused problems it got easier to get along with everyone even when I was on their turf. Growing up in Lowell wasn’t easy. I delivered newspapers for the Lowell Sun at age 11-12 and had my own paper route with 60 customers at age 13. I was very aggressive and had to hire a few kids to help deliver the papers. When I gave up the route I had 120 customers and was earning pretty good bucks when I quit at age 16. I gave the route to the two kids that helped me and went to work for Stop and Shop in the meat department. The prospect for a job was slim, unemployment was high when I graduated from high school, Even though I had a job it wasn't a career. I went to a Community College for a little over a year and quit. I had a low draft number with the potential for a free ticket to Vietnam. I knew I was about to get drafted and would have gone willingly. I knew the same could happen if I joined the Air Force but at least I would have some control over my future. In the USAF I would be able to pick the job that would be of benefit later. Instead of two years duty as a draftee I volunteered for four years in the USAF. I travel to South America while I was in the reserves and when I returned went into the active Air Force. While in the service I traveled all over Europe a...Expand for more