Latest / Life's Just Getting Started / Ep 5: Bill's Story

Transcript

Ep 5: Bill's Story · Life's Just Getting Started

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, it's Kelsey.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in to Life's Just Getting Started, a Three Pillars podcast about all things three pillars.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you stay up to date with all our fun activities by following us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us here on Life's Just Getting Started.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Today, Josh and I are here with Bill, a resident at Compass Point Catered Assisted Living.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for being here, Mr.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Wells.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's so good to see you.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to be here.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: We're looking forward to talking to you today.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's your problem.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: And we're getting right into it.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Bill?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we should just jump right in and get to know you.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Who are you from?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was born out in Sea uh near Seattle, raised out there.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um then I went to uh well I went to college in Seattle and then to seminary in um Berkeley, California.
• 1:01
  unknown: Uh-huh.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then I served two little churches in Washington State, and then I went into the Army as a chaplain.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that was a lot of history in 20 seconds.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are we almost finished?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and then we're done.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks for listening.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for coming, Bill.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: So good to see you.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's let let's back up maybe just a little bit.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about how did you what what drove you to go to the seminary?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then love to talk a little bit more about your your time in the service.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for your service.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: And we'll get into that in a little bit.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: But how how did you get into the seminary in the first place?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, it was a long time ago.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I just felt that's what I should do in my life.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I had, I thought, at least, the uh things a person would need to be a clergyman.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, good.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so how did you end up in California as part of that journey?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's where the seminary was that I wanted to go to.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: That so it was specific to that.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: So what drove you into the service then?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, it was during the uh Vietnam War, and our denomination was short on chaplains, as most of them were at the time.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And our headquarters back in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, knew that I was interested in making a move.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So a man flew out clear from Pennsylvania to Washington to see if I would consider joining.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I thought I would, yes.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I'd go in the Navy, but then I realized they didn't swim.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So and but they have nicer uniforms.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: At any rate, uh yeah, so I I was young enough and healthy enough I could go in, so I did.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that man's job might have been easier than he thought.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: He came to propose to ask you to recruit you.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you said, okay.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well you'd thought about it.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my wife and I talked about it for a little while, and then we said, Well, it's only for three years.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if I don't get killed in three years, and I can always get out.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, goodness.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: So you were a young man.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Either one.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, look at you now.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you were a young, married, uh uh young married man.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: No kids at that time.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's no, that's not quite correct.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, okay, tell us.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I had a son who was six months old when I went to Vietnam.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: But my I told my wife she needed something to do while I was gone.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I left her pregnant.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_04: You're given milk.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_04: So thoughtful.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so my younger son was born when I was in Vietnam.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when I came home, I not I left with a six-month-old baby, and I came back home to another six-month-old baby, and then won a year and a half.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Both boys, both tall from my wife's family.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: That was nice of her to pass the tall genes.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was, yes.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, she passed the any good genes they have came from her.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Aww.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, what years were you in Vietnam?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: 67 and 68.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Any any stories that that stay with you that you want to share during your time there?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, one of the residents here at the Fields uh was there the same time I was.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know him over there, but he came through our hospital.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: He'd been injured.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um he didn't stay very long because as soon as we could get him stabilized, he went to uh Japan and then from Japan home.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh but I got to know him and his wife because uh well, I met him we both belonged to the uh Vietnam Veterans of America chapter in Waukeshaw.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they were both Episcopalians, and on Sundays I would sometimes see his wife at church.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I saw him on the two holidays that people go to church for.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: He was what they call a C and E guy.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Christian and Christmas and Easter.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: I got you.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you shouldn't say that, but hey, it's your episode.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: You can say what you go.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: So talk a little bit about how did you make that connection?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: Did you just were you talking about your background history or service with that gentleman that you were in the that you passed each other in the same hospital?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, from church and the veterans.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, from the VA uh chapter.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and then from knowing them in Walk.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: We both lived in Waukesha.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: So you started talking during that time though, yeah.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been twenty, twenty-five years ago.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Really good, nice people.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: I like them a lot.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, good.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: So once you made that connection, Bill, could you you mentioned that you remembered him being through the hospital or clinic?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was assigned to a hospital or the year I was there.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where you spent.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to kind of understand a little if you'd be willing to share a day in the life of an army chaplain at that hospital.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I bet you saw so many people, but you do remember once you made this connection, okay.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: So he went through there, so you probably spent some days with them and then he was transferred.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: But well, we had during the year I was there, uh, twenty two thousand patients went through the hospital.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: We usually had two hundred, two hundred and twenty in in-house.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, admitted.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Patients.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Patients.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And um so every morning I would first thing I'd do in the morning, we had a number of wings.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: The and uh first thing in the morning I would do is I'd go around to all the wings and see everybody, and you know, say, How are you doing and all that kind of nonsense?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then um I would ask, when I got to a wing that was more mobile, I would ask, Do any of you guys play bridge?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we're all guys then, you know, except we had female nurses and male nurses, but by and large female.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I asked these guys if you play bridge.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if a couple raised their hands, I would say, I tell you what, this afternoon, if we are not busy, and you never knew, you know, in a combat hospital, if we are not busy, the Red Cross lady and I will come by and we'll play a game of bridge.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I learned to play bridge in Vietnam.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what a skill to pick up.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: How many people do you need to get a bridge game going?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: You have to have four.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Four.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Four to a table.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that was not too hard to find on any given day?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Four people?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: We usually we did find some, yeah, a couple of guys.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you don't find so many young people playing bridge as it's like golf.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's a skill.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: The skill we gotta keep handing down.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So uh anyway, that was good.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I there's one thing I do want to say about uh the hospital there.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: We had a lot of amputees.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh young guys who lost an arm or a leg or two legs or whatever.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they're what, 19, 20, 21 years old, and they basically think their life is over.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh all of a sudden they're not hearing from their girlfriend anymore or their fiance, and um no matter how much we could say to them, you know, you're gonna be okay, you'll be able to do anything you want.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: There was a guy, a man who, a full colonel, one step below a general, came every Friday afternoon to the uh ward where they had the amputees, or two wards, I guess.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, he would tell them how they could do anything.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: They could water ski, they could do anything they wanted to do, uh, even without a leg or whatever.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, no matter how often we would say that, it was sort of uh, well, you know, these guys are all healthy.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Easy for you to say.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so after the colonel would tell these guys they could do things and don't, you know, your life's not over.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he would pull up his pant leg and show he had an artificial leg.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so then there was somebody there that they could relate to.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: It told them what they would be able to do um as they continued their life.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: He was probably very inspiring proof of it.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I I was really uh grateful that he came every week.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: He was a regular visitor.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, every Friday afternoon he'd show up.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: How old were you when you were over there?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: 102.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let me see.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I went in 67.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I was 32.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then 33 when I came home.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh you spent a number of years obviously in the Army after that.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: How how long were you in the Army and what made you stay?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it sounds kind of crass, but I stayed in um seven years on active duty.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then my kids were young, and we had to it was a lot of rotation at that time.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they just hated it when we moved, and it was so traumatic for them.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um I had an offer of a good job in Pittsburgh.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so I said to my wife, I don't have to stay on active duty.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I could go to we could go to Pittsburgh and I could join the reserve, which is exactly what I did.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because after seven years, I had too much invested.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because at that time I it may be a little different now.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: But at that time, you had to be in 20 years, or you got nothing for a pension.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to finish out my 20 years.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And actually I uh counting both together, I was 22 years.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: So what brought you to Wisconsin then?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Another job.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you did the Pittsburgh job.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was there seven years.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Seven years, okay.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Brought the fam.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And my kids growing up there became ardent fans of the Steelers and the Pirates.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, how do how do we feel about that?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the three games that we just played with the Pirates, I was very careful not to root for the Pirates when anybody else was around.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: But if I didn't root for the Pirates, I'd probably be disowned from my kids.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll I'll root for the Brewers so long as they're not playing the Pirates.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Got it.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: You got you know how that all settled out.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, that that was uh something else.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: We went uh when we moved here, though, uh to Wisconsin, we went to a game, and uh we were on the third baseline, and my sons always took their baseball gloves.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to my wife, why do they bother taking those gloves?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Oh, she said, leave them alone.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a problem, it's okay.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we're sitting there, and Paul Molliter hits a ball right to us.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And my younger son stands up, holds his hand out, and catches it.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: He was right.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to them, Let's go get it uh autographed.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, no, no, no, no, they don't want to do that.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, okay.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they played, went home and played with it just like any other ball.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they don't know what happened to it.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: My my older son said, Well, if we'd known he was going to be in the Hall of Fame, we'd have we'd have done that.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Would have followed through at their suggestion, Dad.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: But what a special memory.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: And good thing he had the glove.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: I suppose he still has it.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: It may be in tatters by now.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a special memory.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: So just I I just can't stop thinking about your years where you were you had a young family at home, you were stationed in Vietnam, you were in Vietnam at a hospital.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Lifting people's spirits, saying prayers, inspiring them, motivating them.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Playing bridge.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Playing bridge.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, importantly.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like those years it was two years?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: One year in Vietnam.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: One year there.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: May of 67 to May of 68.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: So what uh do you when you look back or if you look at your you know your life timeline, do you feel like that year was a pivotal year in your life?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like you you went there one man and came back a little different for good?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, probably a little.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I never not that significant.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was a good year for me.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Are there anything that you think of that was brings you a lot of joy or funny, or we joke about the coffee, or anything that stands out like that?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, I have some good stories about being over there.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: But Josh told me not to mention.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do we have to censor those or what?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well then we better skip them.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're historical.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, um, yeah, it was it I think what it taught me was that I could do I could get through anything.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing um nothing bothered me after that about nothing was too difficult or uh you know, that I if I if I couldn't do it, I know it wouldn't defeat me at any rate.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Resilience at its greatest.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Were you a little bit terrified when you left to go?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was somewhat yeah, but I w what it really dawned on me was we uh landed at an airbase called Benoit and took a bus then from where I from that place to where I had to go, which wasn't very far, and it had uh heavy screens on the windows, so they couldn't throw hand grenades into us.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I that made me realize, okay, I'm in the real place.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: This is real.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: I bet you remember those screens vividly.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I do the color, the texture, the feeling of them.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: They were uh like well, like chicken wire, only heavy duty.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um but uh I was there during Big Tet, which you are all too young to know about.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we we got a lot of patience in at that time from that event, yeah.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Did have you had a chance to go on the honor flight?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: How that experience was?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it was you know what my son went with me.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was uh your guardian.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: My guardian.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I was stationed at Fort Meade in Maryland, which is right outside of Washington.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but he was too young to remember all the places we went and the things we did.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: But he was a history major in uh at UWM and especially interested in Second World War for some reason.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so when he was my I I took him because I thought he'll and he'll get more out of this trip than I will.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he it was really, really good that we did that.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there were a couple things that had been built uh since we lived there.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: One was the Second World War Memorial, and the other one was uh Franklin Roosevelt Park.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And those were both really very interesting and moving.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then we got to the Lincoln Memorial, and uh I okay, we're the elevator's not working.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got, you know, 5,000 steps to go up to get there, to go inside.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I Bill said, no, Dad, he said, they told us that we're not supposed to go on all those steps.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Bill, neither you nor I have any trouble with steps.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And besides, there's a handrail.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: If, you know, so I said, let's go up.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he said, okay.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we went up, because if you don't go inside the Lincoln Memorial, you don't see on the wall uh one side and then the other.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: One is the uh Gettysburg address, and the other one is his sent second inaugural.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't go up and see those, you've missed really you look at the statue, but you don't get the full main meaning of the place.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we went up and he looked at everything.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh good.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: What rebels?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And no regrets.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, I don't have You did it.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: You saw it.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: I really I'm too dumb to have regrets.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: So if you fast forward, obviously, so you moved to Wisconsin, you said for a job.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: How did you come to Three Pillars?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I'm on my second trip here.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, tell us about that.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh my wife had cancer, and so we began thinking about a retirement place.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and um we came we looked at all the places in this area, and as far as we were concerned, there wasn't any place as good as this one.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we came.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, her they got rid of her cancer, but that was okay.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So then we're going into Waukeshaw one day, and they're building new condos right about a mile from where my son lived.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, we used to stop and look at houses a lot.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, oh, let's take a look.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because we never liked any condos we saw.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, these were nice.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I I said to her, do you think you'd be interested in being here?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, she says I could live here.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we bought it, one of them.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh then uh we lived there maybe four or five years.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh after she died, I knew that I'd be coming back.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, because I didn't particularly enjoy living all alone.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I in fact, my wife told me, she said, you should get married again because you're too social to live alone.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, she told me that even when we were both healthy, and uh I knew that there would be plenty of socialization here, which I really appreciate.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I play bridge here now.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Good thing you learned.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: This afternoon I'm playing with the Presbyterians and Tuesday and Thursday nights I play in the regular Three Pillars bridge.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: What's funny about that?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's just your delivery, Bill.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: You'll just play bridge with anyone these days, I guess.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the best thing about playing with the Presbyterians, uh a couple times ago I took the money home.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh so now I can pay my rent.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thank goodness.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's why a couple times a week.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: What do you pay to play?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: They charge or you pay 25 cents.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: But with the regular group I play Tuesday and Thursday nights, we only pay 15 cents.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the discount night.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, what fun.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's fun whether you win or not.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's social.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to think hard in bridge.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you have to count and and there's lots to keep track of.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's keeping yourself sharp and young.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's the kind of card game you never quit learning.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're okay.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Learn something new.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: Am I too old to learn?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Probably.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's worth asking, but it's a no.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, you no, you're not too old.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: As long as your brain works.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_05: It's debatable, right?
• 21:48
  unknown: Okay.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what they say though, where there's three or four gathered.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, Bill, finish it.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's always a fifth.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: didn't really apply.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was just uh making fun of my my slow processing.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Bill.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: If I recall from the first time you were at Three Pillars, you loved it.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: The social aspect element was nice, the food, the environment, the lifestyle.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then, okay, this beautiful condo, you went and did that for a while with your bread.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then you came back and you you learned some hot tips about well, you knew which wing you wanted to be on.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: You knew exactly the view you wanted, you knew some neighbors, you knew the style of apartment.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like you came back better than ever your second round?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I wouldn't say it was better than ever, but it was really good.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I yeah, I was on the second floor and I had I was on the river side.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I could look out my window and pretend I was in Central Park in New York City.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was really, really very nice.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: The river, the garden, those pretty trees.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, the flowers.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: So aside from the socialization, what's your favorite part about Three Pillars?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: Food.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: You had to think hard about that.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: Deliberating.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: Food.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: We were just talking about food on the walk up here.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: We were talking about Hawaiian themed dinners.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was good.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, the well, I'm over at Compass Point now, you know, where I get two meals a day and then I do my own lunch.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: But um it's always good food.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it really is.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you take the hot breakfast, do you?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, I get breakfast.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, make your own lunch, do something.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: But my son's, or my younger son, not both, but my younger son, when he was visiting here, he said, Oh, Dad, he said, I don't know.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I could ever live here because of the meat-based food you have.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't eat meat.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: So he'd starve to death.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, no, not really.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: But um well, he might.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: But uh we can't accommodate him.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, I know because there's a lady who eats in the dining room I eat in who doesn't eat meat.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there are I think there are two.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: But uh there are two of those.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're wasting away.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: So the meat meat and veggies is your kind of uh your kind of meal.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Meat and potatoes.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Meat and potatoes.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, see how I did.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: I snuck the veggies in.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: But there's always choices too.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: So choices and everything's good.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Would that be accurate?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh yeah, it's good.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: So one of the things that we make sure we we get from all of our guests is favorite place on campus.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: So can you talk a little bit about your favorite place?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it used to I I don't know if it is now or not, but it used to be my favorite place was going down the path behind um Riverside Lodge and so on.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Take the path down to the river.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that that was so peaceful and quiet and everything.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: I used to always think that would be a good place to smoke my pipe, but I'm afraid they'd kick me out.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: You might get ejected from campus, it's true.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't smoke a pipe anymore, anyway.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: I used to when my boys were little, they were about four or five years old, and I said to my wife, I'm gonna quit smoking this pipe because I don't want the boys to smoke when they grow up.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I quit, no problem.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: When my older boy is 45 years old, I told that story, and he said, Oh, Dad, you didn't need to quit.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because one day when you were gone, Mark and I put your pipe in our mouths, and we said, Oh, we'll never do that.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: They taught themselves.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I I gave them an aid.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: That was so that was so good of you.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that did its job.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: That worked itself right out.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it did.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I haven't smoked since.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can picture the bench.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because the river curves just a bit so it's flowing around that colour.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a bench that swings and it's perfect.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it is it was really nice.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I haven't been down there so much lately, but I have my little cart I could I can go down.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: I have been, but as this weather, we're getting better and better by the day because it's all it's gonna be May, which means it's gonna be your birthday, which means it's spring.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: I had a big birthday party last year.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: This year uh I'm not doing anything.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: You're just being all humble.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's just another thing.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure I'm humble, but uh but the boys are coming, right?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're and their wives and the grandkids.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they'll all everybody will be here.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's a that's a party then.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: You should go down to your favorite spot by the river.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I could get away from them by doing that.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now there's a thought.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: Except now when this comes out, they're gonna hear that.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: What you're gonna do about that.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my uh my older son is now living in my house in Arizona.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: His daughter is living in his house in Waukesha.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a granddaughter close by.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's fun.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I tell people we're a family of squatters.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: You just up and rotate and shift around.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: How nice to have options.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then my grandson and his wife live just across the border in Illinois.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're both nurses, and they have a baby who's going to be a year old in May.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I see them every so often.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Wonderful.
• 27:56
  unknown: Wonderful.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Bill, thank you so much for taking time to talk with us.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Did we miss anything?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me look at my notes.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the only thing I was thinking about was we when I was in Vietnam, I mentioned that I was there uh during the Tet Offensive.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if you remember, uh at the time, Sergeant so-and-so closed the big heavy oak doors so no uh uh Vietnamese could enter this building, and it was perfectly uh secure the whole time.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we had helicopters who would go out and bring in patients basically out of the jungle when they've been wounded, and they were called to go down and evacuate somebody from the embassy that was supposedly all locked up and secure, and they couldn't land on the roof because they were being shot at from the windows by the North Vietnamese.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, as Winston Churchill said, the first casualty of war is the truth.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: No, for sure.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's an interesting way to end, but powerful.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's a powerful way to end for sure.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so much.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: We we absolutely appreciate it.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: It was great talking to you and great seeing you.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate it.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in to Life's Just Getting Started, the Three Pillars podcast about all things, three pillars.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Kelsey.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josh.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Bill.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we are signing off.