Robert Lindsay Kirk - Life Interview

I was born uh June the 3rd 1921 in Springfield Illinois uh people were pretty poor in those days the Depression was on and uh I was born in the upstairs back bedroom of a two-story house on uh North Grand Avenue I had one brother his name was Charles Edward and uh actually I didn't find out he was a half brother until I was 21 years old my dad uh was married and in uh 1918 and that was the year they had the big flu and millions of people died and his wife was 20 she was 23 years old when she passed away and he was left with a uh less than oneyear old boy so then year later he married my mother and uh they were married until both of them died well uh the way I found out was uh I went down and to get a birth certificate for to join the Navy and at that time for some reason they put firstborn on the birth certificates and I told my mother when I went home I said I got to go back and change it because I was a second born and she said well she said no you were the first born she said that uh they wanted me to grow up as brothers and and there was no need to tell us that we weren't Brothers you know so uh I didn't find out until I went to the Navy that he was my half brother which didn't make any difference to me he he was probably one of the nicest guys you ever want to know a lot nicer than me he was was four and a half years older than me I stayed in the same house from the time they told me I was 5 years old I don't remember that but they told me I was 5 years old when I moved the house and I left when I was 21 uh it was a two-bedroom one bath Bungalow uh which there were a lot of in those days and it was hard times my dad was in out of work and and everybody was kind of helping everybody in those days and I'm sure they didn't get all the bills paid all the time but eventually caught up and uh uh it uh the house is still there and I go by if I go back to Springfield I always drive by and take a look at it I went to a elementary school which is only about six blocks from the house it was is il school and then I went to a high school a place called fighton High School it was named after Albert t figin uh it's a funny name for high school but that's was the name of it spent four years there and then got out and went to work for a year and by that time the war started and I went into the Navy I had a lot of great friends in high school and uh they're all gone now I haven't lived them all uh but we had a group of maybe five or six guys that hung out together all the time uh that's about the age when you start dating you started going to the prom and things like that and uh uh I liked high school I had a great time in high school uh some kids today don't seem to enjoy going to high school but that was one of the good times of my life going to high school compared to today I'll tell you my grad my graduating class had 51 people in it right and uh I don't know what the total compliment of the school was but uh it's still there too it's not a high school anymore it's some kind of a educational thing my dad got me a job jobs are kind of hard to get at that time it was place called sang Mo electric they made uh electric meters like on the back of your house you know and they still got them around I still see Sango Meers around and uh I work for them and mostly work in a drill press at the time I was in church one for har happened I was still in Springfield and uh I went down to join and my dad wasn't signed for me he he said at the time that if he signed for me to go into the Pacific at that time that he'd feel uh responsible if anything happened to me so I had to wait for about I don't know how many months it was before I was 21 and uh and then I went down joint and uh uh I went through flight school I joined as a seaman apprentice and after I before he called me I found out I was eligible for a V5 program which was flight training so I went to through flight training at Pensacola Florida came out uh went to Jacksonville Florida for about five months at that time there was a lot of German submarine go up and down the coast out there they were Sinking Ships coming out of the the rivers coming out of New York and there was a big sub packs there and so we did a lot of sub Patrol there and then I guess somebody in the Navy decided they needed some more people out here and I came out here went to Camp kery got checked out in the Liberator with the old beef 24 uh did some training out here and then went overseas for a year had you met Nita yet I met her out here I walked in a place one night called Paul's in and she doesn't like to hear this story because and uh we were six of us there I think and she and her friend walked in the door and I looked at her and I said that's really something you know this is her here and so uh I remember she had a big broad hat on it had two ribbons on the back and I tugged on the ribbon and I said would you like to dance and he said sure well how nice is that so we danced a while and uh took her home that night and called her up a few nights later and we were dating pretty steadily then she was 20 and I was 23 when we met I just thought I was dating this girl cuz we were on standby to go overseas and and I didn't nobody knew exactly the date we were going and so I called her up one day and I said I've got the afternoon evening off and we taking a movie and you go dancing she said sure she said oh wait a minute she said we can go down and get the license now I had no idea I knew she had a I'm not talking about a fishing license or some other kind of license and it kind of set me back and it it scared me a bit you know you would never talked about I never talked about I was going to be a bachelor for a while at least you know but uh so I went out to see her and she insisted we go down and get the license so we went down to the courthouse and uh it was about 4:00 and uh we were going to get the marriage license and all the time I'm thinking you know how do I get out of this or what do I do right so the guy came down the line it was a big long line a lot of people getting license and he put his hand down right behind us and he said that's all we can take today now if we' have been 3 minutes later you know it might have been a different story so we went back to the US Grand Hotel it was about uh dinner time and I got something to eat and uh and I she just leading me around a little bit you know and she said well I have a dentist and he said if we decide to get married now she had told the dentist about this but she hadn't told me she told told the the dentist told her well if you ever decide to get married come out the house and you do it there so I to this day I don't remember how we got out the house it was on the far side of Balo Park and uh and uh I met the Dennis and his wife and they were there and uh there was a municipal judge lived across the street and I forgotten his name now I knew it for years he lived across the street so they went over and got him and brought him back and he Mar in the living room oh they made need to go upstairs and walk down the steps and they and they mared Us in the living room there and so we tooled out there went back downtown and I said what do you want to do you know she said well let's go out to La Hoya so at that time in La Hoya the casad Manana was one of the the hotels so we checked in there and uh we stayed there a couple of days and and uh it sounds ridiculous now but I thought well the rent's kind of high here it was $14 a night you know and so I checked down the La Valencia which is a really a nice hotel now at that time it just an ordinary Hotel uh I went down there and found out it was $7 a night so I said we're going to move I like so we stayed there until I went overseas We Got Married the night we got the license oh but but from the time I met her until we were married it's five weeks oh another funny story I called my mother and I said I had a bank account but I just left all my money in the bank account back I think I had about $5,000 in the bank account back which was pretty good with some amount of some back in those days and I said Mom could you please send me go to the bank and and send me $500 and and I said I'm getting married and said you are and she said well who is it and I said her name's Anita I said know I my address is Fleet post office San Francisco cuz we were going overseas and uh so I said send it to this address that's a need's address you know on bankrupt because if it goes up there who knows how long it's going to take to get down here and she says I'm not sending your money to anybody I don't know we went down to get she said well we got to go down and get the Rings you know just just telling me what we got to do I don't know any of this stuff you know so we went to that place called barau I don't know if they're still here or not down on Broadway and she picked out two rings and she said I want to get you one too and I said okay so I got better gold ring but I had to pay for it see no big deal but I thought it was funny I'm going to buy you on with your money to this day I I can't remember how I got from the LA Valena to the camp Cy which is now mirar MH uh that's a pretty good Jaun and I can't remember how I got there it just left up here but I was going back and forth between there and uh let's see we left uh I can't remember the date we left now July about the July 7th so we got married on June the 21st and I left on July the U the 7th well from there went to a place called cono Bay if you know where that is it's on the uh east side of of aahu and we did 30 days of training there and uh then we moved out to an we talk which is on the Marshall Islands and we stayed there for several months and then we moved up to tinian which is in the um Mariana group and uh went down to pelo and Pala uh for that Invasion then we came back up to tenan and then moved up to Evo Evo gima so uh we moved around a little while up there nobody ever thought about dying in the war we were just doing the job and nobody expected to die you know and uh so we had a lot of good times with the groups overseas and that that's kind of funny to say during the war you had a good time but but we did you know and uh uh we we developed a relationship well we're going to reunion next month with the same group of people there's not many of them left there's only nine of us left now so um uh uh we've been meeting every year since I can't remember over the last 26 years uh once a year we we go and get together and it just I don't know what about there what about there is that uh it seemed like people that were together in World War II are kind of bonded for life you know and I don't know of any other situation where people feel that way so you were overseas for how long uh just short of a year well see I came back and I had 30 days leave so um oh this is a kind of funny story too uh we we checked into Oakland and the guy says come back and come back in three days and we'll have your orders well I'm thinking I can make it down to San Diego and back you know those three days so I came down to pick an up now in those days on the telephone if you had a longdistance call they announced you have a longdistance call from some some such and such a place by so and so person and so I was going to call her but I went down to operations and there's a there's a DC3 turning up the call r4ds in the Navy turning up and I said where is he going he said San Diego well in those days that everybody helped everybody and I said call him and see if you'll take me he said sure So I run down go on the airplane I didn't have time to call and E it now she's expecting a longdistance call so I got into North Island I put the dime on the phone and called it up and and I said this is Bob and she said Bob who and I wonder well how many Bobs did she know since we got married and what what do I do now you know she explained it very thoroughly you know and uh and so she said that the she was living with her Folks at that time on bang cross street and uh she said she was dying a pair of pants in those days they had dye for clothes if you didn't like the color you dyed them something else and she was dying a pair of pants and and and and so all of a sudden she's got to get gu and meet me you know so her dad said what do I do with this he said pour it out so I guess she never wore whatever should done yeah 30day leave we uh uh we uh took the train back to uh still you don't know I had seen my folk I'd seen her folks all the time out here you know so I figured well I better go back and see my folks and so we were that's the first time she had been out of California first now she's 20 years old 21 by then I guess and uh she'd never been out of the state of California uh I got on the train went back to we got off in Chicago for three days spent three days in Chicago um we were going up to this rooftop they had big bands in those days and if I'm talking too much let me know uh they had big bands in those days that played all the hotels and and we picked out this one particular band we wanted to go to and we walked into the lobby and I walked right into one of the guys from the Squadron had come back before I did so he he was from Chicago so we had a great night uh and we started hitting all the bars and and going around and things were open all night in Chicago during the war and she was really getting pooped and she says when are we going back and I said whenever you get through you know and there 4:00 in the morning and we're still running around Chicago you know she says I gotta go home I gotta go I gotta go to bed she said so we quit that and uh then we went down to Springfield and we stayed probably I don't know how long three weeks maybe we stayed uh a month and uh the whole F we I had a great family a great family all close knit together and uh and we had a great time back there and we got out uh they had street cars another day and um uh we got on the street car one time and and sat down and this lady said did you find her in the South Pacific she thought she would beautiful another funny story the Navy has a grading system zero to 4.0 okay you get a three5 a two five is average like a c and uh so so I was writing my folks about it know right I said you know she's 4.0 and she went around and told told everybody I was married a 40 old 40y old women they were all upset and then I had to get then I come got on a train to come back out here we were going to Oakland to get orders what I thought be go back over and when we got into Utah we were driving across Utah listening to the radio and uh they dropped the bomb so by the time we got to Oakland the war was over I come down here I just stayed here and I uh mustered out of the Navy but I stayed in the reserves where you go on a weekend and do a weekend drill and go two weeks out of there and I stayed in that and uh um and then uh uh I got a job here and we just lived here all the time I never went back to Illinois I went to work for the postal service at that time yeah she was working at the time uh I can't remember the name of the place downtown now it was a department store she worked in the sports Department in the department store until she got pregnant with Mike 1950 and uh then she never went back to work after that well we bought the first house just about a mile and a half from here over on H matal Drive uh we owned that for 10 years and we stayed 10 years there and then then we moved over here y the next child was uh Diana yeah mhm and what year was she she born he was born let's see 5050 52 52 yep 52 and you're still over in Mata still over there now we got to find a bigger house because we got a boy and a girl we had two boys it' been all right see now we got to find a bigger house we got a boy and a girl so uh we started looking and looking and looking and um uh she was busy doing something with the kids one day taking care of the kids I guess and I come over and looked at this house and I thought this this will work out good so I went back and I tell her tell them how how terrible things were around here you know like it had paint tile I didn't like this I didn't like that and I'd kind of taking it down hoping she'd accept it when she saw it you know so when she came over and she says well what's wrong with this I got recalled and went back in the Navy and Lisa is the only one that wasn't born at Mercy Hospital down here she's born at Oak Navy hospital up uh up in Oakland and uh what I was doing at the time we were we were flying to Tokyo and and uh bringing back U uh injured and bodies from from the war over there fly and we take dependence out and then come back with the servicemen I stayed a little longer than I had to because I was enjoying the flying and uh got to Fly for Free actually we there was a outfit in the Air Force called sack at that time Strategic Air Command man and uh there's a general named lame I don't know if you ever heard Curtis lame he was a he was a mean guy but he got things done you know he really got things done you had to you had to respect him for that General May would he'd give an order and he said and he'd g a whole Wing transferred from here to England or something and he got 48 Hours yeah he was just unreasonable and so we got tied up with working for the Air Force for a while there and we we we got to we we got to go a lot of places around the world where we hauling people here and there and uh that was a lot of fun I enjoyed that uh nobody was shooting at us and I got to see a lot of the world that way part of the Tim is up there we had Lisa yeah she had her first birthday up there Debbie was kind of unplanned it was just but not that we didn't not that we don't love her it was a surprise well that's a funny story too I was uh I was back at Hudson Kansas instructing in Pro Patrol planes and uh uh it was really a bad day for me uh we were flying I had two students and we were instructing and the plane Captain come he said Mr Kirk said there's Sparks coming out of the left engine you know and uh I said oh so I'm working about and so I said we better head back you know and so we put on the coal I head back and I didn't feather it because I didn't think it was that bad but when I put the land down the whole wheel was on fire and the whole engine was on fire oh my goodness so we rolled out for that which gave me a bad day reason I'm telling this story is that I went home that day and I went in the house and said I'm pregnant that was a bad day for her see that's a hell of a day uh I started pretty much at the bottom worked my way up put to the top and when I retired I was uh actually uh uh District director customer service I was in the district office for SE quite a few years uh we had uh authority over all the post offices in this County in San berue and I uh the that's kind of funny too the um the uh district manager was the last political appointe in the um in that had the job here in the in in San Diego and when they offered me the job as district manager uh not district manager assistant district manager uh I wanted down and see Ralph and I said well just you want to give me some guidelines Ral what you want me to do and he said just keep us out of trouble so I had the free rign to do what everything what I want to do as long as we went to trouble we went to court twice he said he it made him nervous you know I knew we were battling the the letter car Union you know over some issues and uh uh it was fun for me you know I enjoyed it buto I said Robert you're a troublemaker and whenever I was in trouble with a Nita she called me Robert and she said you're a troublemaker and I guess she was right too because it seemed like I stirred up a lot of trouble in my life you know in in my work I was lazy I guess I retired when I was 56 years old um and the reason I retired is because we had a district manager in Los Ang who I just couldn't work for you know and they took over the the San Diego District at the time so we're all moved into the LA district and he was just he he just a miserable guy to work for and I thought you know I I can retire why do I have to take this crap you know so I retired when I was 56 years old I stayed in the reserve and and I had a lot of fun flying in the reserve and and then uh uh I didn't never got recalled after Korea Vietnam I was 40 years old and they didn't want an old man in the service of that time so I didn't get recall Vietnam but uh I I still went uh on my weekends I I really enjoyed the flying I did on the weekends and uh I did the twoe duty we went a lot of places we even took two we Duty in North Africa one time and uh uh I enjoyed that very much unfortunately uh Nita got sick um yeah had a couple bad two years yeah uh it uh you know she wasn't complaining about anything she just had bad health for a couple years and then uh eight years ago now it's been eight years ago eight years ago and a month now she passed away she passed away on our 64th anniversary 64th right on the day why do you think you're uh doing so well at 95 what is what I have no idea I have no idea um I went the I went in to see a technician the other day because they wanted to do some work on my blood and uh and he was looking at the at the my records and he said oh he said you're 95 and I said yeah he said working on H and I said no I'll be happy if I'm here next Thanksgiving you so I don't know you know what's going to happen to me sometimes you wake up dead you know you know I had a good life and that doesn't worry me a bit you know I have no idea what has helped me you know I haven't done anything you know I haven't done anything to preserve my life let's put it that way I have not done anything intentionally to preserve my life it just it just happened and I'm I'm grateful well I'm very fortunate and I have a close-nit family you know everybody mothers me just be honest and have a good time don't don't depend on other people uh you know do it yourself