Papa was only an active member of the Navy for four years. He thought about
staying in, but ended up not. It’s all because of something he did as his
required time was ending. He was still in the reserves after this, but he
wasn’t working on the sub anymore. While he was trying to make a decision,
friends of his from college called him up, and asked him if he wanted to
work with them on a mission trip in Tennessee. They were Mormons, and they
were doing it for their church, but that wasn’t going to be what the trip
was about. There was an old folks home in a small town outside of Memphis.
He was in Arkansas at the time, so he wasn’t very far away. That’s probably
why they called him. He took a bus to the home, and got to work. The people
who owned it didn’t have very much money, and they were having trouble
keeping their residents comfortable. Don’t worry, they all always had their
medicine and stuff, but there were other issues. They couldn’t afford
plants, or nice paintings for the walls. The biggest issue was the
courtyard, which is a space that is outside, but it has walls around it.
Residents can go and sit down and enjoy being outside, but it wasn’t very
pretty at this place. I don’t think my papa spent much time on that, though.
He basically became a volunteer handyman. While the others were planting
trees, he fixed things around the building, because he was an engineer. What
he said was that this was an eye-opening experience. He wanted to spend more
time doing things like that. Of course he was helping people when he was
serving this country, but he decided that there were things that he should
do outside of it. That’s what led him to leaving the Navy, as an active
officer at least.
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