SGIG Matthews : That is fascinating. One thing I noticed you mentioned that your brother recently turned 80 was born in 1942. But you also mentioned earlier about a brother who passed away. Did both events happen in the same year? SGIG Blue: No, no, no. My brother who died in 1943 was named Robert Lee and my brother who re- cently turned 80 was born the year before in 1942, and his name is Cardale. Robert Lee died from blood poisoning. I remember waiting for our family members to come from the hospital to let us know how the situation was and they told me that he [Robert Lee] had passed away. My brother had gotten a splinter while he was playing and he was with my grandparents and they had put something on the wound that they thought to draw out any problems, but unfortunately it didn't work. He was hospitalized at McKeesport Hospital, and he passed away shortly thereafter from blood poisoning. He was a few years older than me and was born in June of 1934. Me and my siblings were born in ‘34, ’36, ‘37, then ‘42 respectively. My baby brother is always happy that I had another birth- day because somehow, he figures that as long as I am here, he will stay around as well. I don't under- stand his logic on that. So, some of the earliest times I can remember, my youngest brother used to get us in trouble all the time. I remember having to wash and change his diapers and I was only 6 years older than him. Brother next to me, somehow, we always wound up have getting in some kind of trouble. Growing up we must have been some real bad kids because I can remember the whuppings my mother used to put it on me for different things. So anyhow, it was interesting, and we grew up learning, especially from my mother that you could do pretty much anything in this life that you thought you were capable of doing and that education wasn't stressed as much as getting out of high school. I had an opportunity to go to Wilberforce, and my grades were so bad they offered me a hundred - dollar scholarship. And when I was growing up, I didn't realize Wilberforce was the Methodist school and my boy scout leader was the Methodist minister in my hometown, and he later went on to become an administrator at Wilberforce in Ohio (OH). So, one of my teachers, when I was about to graduate, I had to go and clean out my desk and I went in my homeroom teacher and she asked George, “ How you doing? How's things going so forth and so on ”, I said “ Well, I had, I got one problem. ” She said, “ What is that? ” I said, “ Well, I can graduate but I only got one course that I'm worried about. ” As it turns out, it was her course, bookkeep- ing. I deserved 0. I deserved a 0. For the grade you had to have a grade point to pass of an average of 74 on the report card reporting periods. I forget how many of there were, 4 or 6 or something like that. And so, I told her about bookkeeping. And she says, ‘ Well, Okay. What kind of grade do you need? I said, I need a 60 Now give me an average of 70 and I don't deserve the 60. Well, she never said any more about it, on the night of graduation, they brought you up to the stage and hand you this little red folder. My mother and grandmother were waiting on me to bring my diploma. And I said, well, I wouldn't even sneak a look to see if it was in the folder because they give you a blank sheet of paper if you didn't graduate. Well, I went and got the darn thing, and we were all dis- missed. So, I went out of the auditorium, where my mother was standing and waiting, and my grand- mother was also there waiting, and I had to open the folder and sure enough the diploma was in there. When I got my report card, she gave me a 60, exactly the score I needed to graduate, and I didn't de- serve it. I did deserve zero, but it taught me something that my mother had brought us up on and that is to always do the best you can. learn how to read and write, and to be a person that does not goes around with a frown on his face, but a smile on his face. I brought my kids up like that. And so, I haven't lost not one night's sleep because my kids had to call me and say, come get me out of jail. I'm broke down somewhere, I need help. All right, just been truly blessed. And speaking of kids, I have two, a boy and a girl. And I'm on my second marriage. And my wife has a boy and a girl. Her boy lives here near us. My boy lives about 25 - 30 miles from me and my daughter also. Her daughter lives in Los Angeles and all four are in their 60s. The youngest one—her son—is 59 but he'll be 60 in November 2023, I believe. My son just turned 60, this past February and my daughter in July will turn 64. So, somebody's getting old.
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