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not have a split-watch to stand on lobkout. As it was, I was forced to borrow another sweater from old Butch who was second engineer and kept warm in the engine room. I remembered how good my old peacoat felt and I purchased a pair of long underwear and gloves from the ship's store. It was now the end of November and we headed south toward the Azores and then west toward home. Even then we had a rough and stormy voyage but arrived back in Mobile on my birthday, the twentieth day of December, 1925, mighty happy to be home for Christmas.
I had saved more than three hundred dollars on the CHICKASAW CITY, so Mama paid a lot of bills and we all had a fine Christmas as usual. Mama was five feet two inches tall and weighed about a hundred and twenty pounds but she demanded our respect and obedience, and she got it. We were reared by her to respect our elders and ourselves. The older I got the more thankful I became that God had arranged for her to be my mother!
Because she needed me so much at home, she yielded to the sales talk of a Nash Motor Company representative and mortgaged our home for four thousand dollars to put me in business at Bay St. Louis Mississippi, against my better judgement. I was unable to convince her that without business training I could not succeed.
In the early spring of 1926, still a minor at age twenty, I moved to Bay St. Louis, rented a building, and hired my uncle, George Bernos, Jr., who was a fine salesman. In less than one year we had sold eighteen new Nash automobiles for the Nash Motor Company. They got their money when the cars were delivered to us! I wound up with a bunch of old trade-ins, a wild-trading salesman, and an over-paid mechanic. So I fired the men, closed the doors, sold the trade-ins, collected all accounts receivable (sometimes by physical persuasion), and sent the money to Mama. For a time I lived on poor-boy sandwiches and sometimes a hot supper, courtesy of my landlady or some other good friend. At worse we broke even on the deal.
In the fall of 1927, I went to work building the first bridge across the Bay of St. Louis. The bridge was built of creosote piling and
timber. It was a mile and nine-tenths long when completed in the summer of 1928. I joined the Carpenter's and Joiner's Union and.
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with one helper, drilled and bolted X braces and anchored the 12 x 12" caps to the piling with galvanized iron straps. My helper, Johnny Farve, and I held the record for completed bents in one day. Union scale was $.90 per hour, $1.80 for overtime. It was big money for me and much needed at home. However, the financial situation was improving.
My sister Florence had taken a course in business machine operating and had worked for a bank and a wholesale grocery before becoming purchasing agent for the Edgewater Gulf Hotel. She was a very intelligent and capable young woman. At age twenty-four she married an intelligent man and they reared three lovely children, two boys (one with a doctorate and one with a Master's degree in Science) and a girl (with a Master's degree in Chemistry, now studying for a doctorate). Two of my brothers, Jack and Merrill, were now old enough to caddy at the hotel golf links. The youngest, Harry, was fishing and crabbing and selling his catches to our neighbors. Mama had an apartment built in our large attic and had no trouble finding a good tenant. She still accepted boarders and now had two servants.
I found construction work to my liking. The workers were rough, tough, and most were heavy drinkers, but in those days I was no different. Athletics and body building had helped to make me mentally and physically strong. I never ran from a fight, so both foe and friend got the message. I never was known as a ladies' man but on the other hand, had no difficulty dating attractive women. Moreover, I never loved any of them in the manner I really wanted to, with the depth that I knew I was capable of. That fulfillment came when I met the woman I married, a lovely intelligent woman who has given me everything a man could want - a love that is now in its forty-fourth year and growing more intense each year, respect, loyalty, sincerity, understanding, three wonderful children, and a Christian home.
I could go on and on and never find enough words to really express what she has meant to me or the depth of our love! But I had yet to meet my beloved when I worked on the bridge that year.
I was raised to Master Mason on September 20, 1927, at Bay St. Louis Lodge No. 429 F&AM. I am still a member in good standing. Brother Sy Ingman taught me the degrees and won a small wager
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