okay
i'll let you go ahead
okay i uh i have five children all together
oh uh-huh
uh my oldest two are already out and about in the world and i uh have a set of twins that are fourteen and uh my youngest is twelve
oh
that's great i always thought it'd be great to have twins
uh yeah if you like doing everything twice
well yeah
uh at any rate um
my first two children uh
i didn't spend a whole lot of time with them
uh-huh
um and you know was a a problem with having five children needing to work a uh full-time job that was more than a full-time job i worked about fifty one hours a week because i worked every worked eleven hours every Sunday
uh-huh uh-huh
uh-huh
and uh so i didn't get to spend as much time with them as i as i should have as i really wanted to
your first ones you mean it was this way
yeah the yeah the family well it was with all of them but it was uh more an impact i think on the oldest two
uh-huh
uh-huh
because um
oh about the time i got out of working
that long hours was when the uh when the twins were about three years old and uh they never you know i don't think they
noticed i wasn't around that much you know with all the children around the house it's kind of hard to notice that dad isn't around very much um
oh
right
so what i've tried to do uh now
that i've uh finally went back to school and got my degree when i was thirty years old and uh so
uh-huh
then i came out and was making as much money forty hours a week as i did fifty one hours a week so i've tried to spend more time with uh the children since then um what i'm currently doing is uh taking a lot of time um
uh-huh
uh-huh
helping the kids more with their homework in the evenings um we just started a thing where every other week we go to uh movies there's a movie theater that offers dollar movies on Wednesday nights
uh-huh
and so every couple of weeks we will go to the movies because that's how often they change the movies and
uh-huh
it's working out pretty well um we're spending more time together i feel like i'm a lot closer to the three that are still living at home than i ever was to the two that were living there before um
uh-huh
and in fact i found that i'm a lot closer with uh i have one son who's gone and i don't even know where he's at um he's taken off for parts unknown but uh yeah and and uh my
huh
that's difficult yeah
daughter is um
has moved out of the house her and i get along a lot better now that she's moved out of the house
uh-huh it happens that way
and uh so it's it's it's
it's been difficult to try to find the time and i think it's important that we do because um i notice that uh when i had spent two years down in Dallas down there they all have a uh
a me kind of attitude
uh-huh
and i noticed parents not spending time with their children and and going out and doing things and you know i knew like the kids next door were all into cocaine and
uh-huh
um uh-huh
you know it just you know i saw the family falling apart down there
Texas is much worst for the drugs i mean it was bad enough every place else but drugs is in Texas are extremely bad
yeah and so i think it's kind of important that i that i you know nurture the relationship i have with my children now and i'm doing my best to keep that up
uh-huh
uh-huh
well that's all you can do
yeah what's your been your experience
well i i was going to ask too does your wife work
um she didn't up until the last oh six months
uh-huh she just recently started working then
uh
she just recently started working uh she worked a job until we moved to our new house and uh she quit that job because it was too inconvenient and uh she starts a new job tomorrow which should take her out of the house about four days a week
uh-huh
uh-huh
huh
oh uh-huh uh-huh
so that sounds great well uh we also have five children
huh
and but ours are all out of the nest so uh as when they were growing up i probably we had a lot of similar things like like you had
you know having the time when you have younger ones to take care of
you maybe sometimes do not take as much time for the older ones but uh we were we're very active of course at church and uh Boy Scouting and Girl Scouts Four H
yeah
uh and those activities helped a lot in giving us things to do with the children
uh-huh
and uh we try to take a vacation with them every year camping of some sort something that wasn't expensive
and uh
our youngest is uh expecting her first baby so they're they're all out and on their own they're and we have one to get married yet and they'll all be married
uh and they're they're all doing pretty good they uh two lives in Pittsburgh you probably don't know where that is
certainly do
okay two of our children live there uh one i like i said lives near Maryland in in around Maryland DC he works right on the border of DC
uh-huh
and one lives in Connecticut and our baby lives just a mile over the hill so we'll get to see her a little more than uh what we do the other ones
yeah that sounds great i've i've noticed uh another thing um when i was younger my father was always working and
uh-huh well they have to
yeah and uh you know he uh he worked a full-time job and a part-time job and i never saw him so i didn't have much of a role model to go by
yeah
uh-huh uh-huh
to go to follow uh-huh
you know to learn how to be a a father and a parent
uh-huh
and that kind of thing because i i can't ever remember playing ball with my dad or catch with my dad or doing anything with my dad
yeah
uh-huh
and that does make a big difference
yeah and it if you don't have i don't i it's my feeling that if you don't have a role model to follow then it's kind of tough you know everybody's not Father Knows Best
uh-huh
uh-huh
uh-huh that's that's well none of us are let's face it you know we're not none of us like they portray portray it on those shows i mean life's much more difficult than that
yeah but
yeah
yeah
yeah i mean the the the capability to uh create children doesn't necessarily mean you have the uh the mental capacity to raise them and
and uh
right right now our daughter our well she's our second oldest she has she's the only that other one that has children she has two boys and she works full time
and i have mixed feelings about that she's able to do that and i don't know if she'd be happy to stay at home
but yet on the other hand i i've got the mixed feelings that i think you should be at home with your children i'm kind of old fashioned i guess that way but they seem to they seem to give uh quality time
yes
to those children when they are together and and so it seems it seems for them that it works out all right
so i don't know i i don't think i ever would have had what it would take to work full time and raise a family i
yes it's it's not easy i've uh you know i've helped out extremely
yeah
uh well i can't say that but i've helped out as best i could at home and uh you as you know with five children it takes a lot of work
uh-huh
uh-huh
yes it does it it yeah
even if even if someone's home all the time there's still a lot of things that have to be done
yeah what line of work are you in now since you went to school and
uh well now i work for Texas Instruments so so i'm in computers
oh okay okay a lot of the people i've that's called i've talked to work for uh
for the same
yeah and so i've uh prior to that i uh i worked in a food store
uh
uh-huh
and uh you know work
which your income would be a lot better now
uh right
yeah
yeah it uh it was uh it was a a smart move to make um i was more intelligent than the position i was holding
uh-huh uh-huh
right
and uh it was
and it's kind of a waste of a person
yes i i felt that it certainly was i mean i was smarter than most of the people that i was working for and uh you know every time something new came up i was explaining it to them and uh i had
you know
uh-huh
uh-huh
uh-huh uh-huh and you you recognized this and was able to you know do something about it
yeah i uh
yeah i uh started back to school in fact i was going to school while i was working fifty one hours a week and that's why i you know if you're working if you're taking twelve credits at night and you're working fifty one hours a week there's not much time left to spend with
uh-huh
well it puts a strain on everybody your wife and your family
yeah
and the only thing you can remember is to try and stay together as much as you can because it's very easy to uh become go your own direction when you're so when you're working so hard and going to school too
yeah
yeah well it it all paid off um so uh you know i got my degree and got the better paying job and
well that's wonderful
uh-huh
and uh
you know we i think as a family we're a lot better off
uh-huh it sounds to me like uh you're doing well my husband's retired so uh he's been retired for three years now yeah that's quite a change
uh-huh
yeah well my goal is to try to retire by the time i'm fifty five
oh well he made it at fifty it was a magic number for him and and uh he went at fifty and he still works part time at other thing you know
great
same job as he was doing only he's retired and doing it independently but uh
uh-huh
nevertheless retired
well i'm
