[START TAPE 1, SIDE A]

This is an interview with Bob Gunn (BG) of Brandon. The interview is taking place on September the 25th, 2001 in Mr. Gunn's home in Brandon. My name is Steve Szekely (SS), representing the Tampa Hillsborough County Public Library system's oral history collection project.

Steve Szekely: Mr. Gunn, how--? Can you explain how your family came to, to this area?

Bob Gunn: Yeah, my father was from--, was raised in north Georgia, from a little town of Plainville, which was in between Rome, Georgia and Adel, Georgia, approximately. And he was there until he was a teenager. His father was a apple grower, a peach grower, ( ) work in the cotton gins. ( ) during one season, he would do this.

My father was used to that type of life, and he made a visit down here- he and some friends of his. And he liked it, and met a gentleman named Mr. Blanton, Chester Blanton. And Mr. Blanton was in charge of ( ) plant. And there was another citrus packing plant in Valrico at that time, and ( ). It was about the size of a--, on the railroad track in downtown Valrico ( ). And they ( ), and found out he was a man who knew something about farming and vegetation, and they needed help. So they talked him into packing up and coming south. So he did.

( ). And he brought a couple other guys with him- a John McGee, who was a neighbor next ( ) end of my street, [Clears throat] and Steve Johnson, ( )-- mostly Alabama, Georgia boys-- came back. I think people do today--, they go ( ) or whatever, but my dad stuck. It's funny how it happened. This was just before--, shortly before World War I. Somewhere around '16 or '17-- in that era, I guess-- this took place.

And the season--. It come--, it came to the end of the season, things were slow, and they were trying to figure out what to do ( )-- I think it was four of them-- what to do with your life when the job slows down. So they all decided to join the Navy. So they all went down and signed up. Well, the only one they took of the four was my dad, and--, so he joined the Navy just in time to get involved in World War I.

And he was an old horseman, an animal-type fellow. He had something to do with horses, and so I remember him telling about a ship going away to Europe. And the ship had sunk, and he said it was the saddest thing he ever saw in his life- for all the horses that went down and went swimming with us, along with the men. A man can take care of himself ( ), but the horses ( ). And he said that was one of the biggest heartbreaks he ever had, because he lost horses. And I don't remember the rest of that story about where he went from there, but--

SS: He was with this--, on the ship that sunk?

BG: Yes. You know, he came home, and went back to--, with Mr. Blanton. ( ) I don't remember whether he had ( ). He used to have a ( ). The only thing I can remember today is ( ) up on the roof ( ) building that we lived next to had ceilings. And that--. This carries us up to probably about 1918, '19 ( ).

And I--. I'm going to jump over and go to my mother's side of the family here a little bit. My mother's family- her grandparents came here from ( ) [Pause] somewhere around the turn of the century. I'm not sure if it was just before, or right after, the early 1900s. And they had one son, who was my grandfather- my mother's father. And he was in the hardware business out in ( ). And they wanted to come down here. They had all these deals- the best 40 acres. And the highlight of the day ( ).

SS: ( ) farmers?

BG: No, I don't think so. They came here and bought the 40 acres. They counted half of it citrus groves to get rich on and maintain the woods for future use.

SS: ( ).

BG: So they talked my grandfather and grandmother into coming here, and this was around 1917 or '18. I might get the year mixed up; I wasn't here yet. And my grandpa and grandma come, and they lived together in a big house which they had built together. And it only took two ( ), at the front of the southwest corner of Lumsden and ( ). And had much ( ) when you were cooking in the house, you set the house on fire, you know, back in those days. And ( ). So then my grandpa and grandma--. When they came here, they had three children, my mother being the oldest ( ). ( ) later in life married ( ) Morgan, who had one of the best grocery stores in Brandon for years, and ended up ( ).

And they had one brother George, who went to graduate at Brandon High School in 1928. He was the baby. And he had a tragic death. They were building basketball or baseball court that time ( ) Avenue. And he borrowed my father's trucks- he had a couple ( ) that he did on the side, hauling fruits ( ) hire a driver. And George, being a young teenage boy, was in charge of those guys helping him. And they went down in the pits, over there on the railroad tracks, down in Valrico, and they didn't ( ). You know, Valrico is known ( ) soil. You got sand here ( ). So that's what they was putting down for the foundation. And they was digging back in the embankment. And it collapsed on him and got him.

And I asked my mother many years later; I said, "Momma, how ( )--." I said, "How does a mother and father get over losing a child, especially when they've got them all the way in separate ( )?" She told me; she said, "Well, my mother finally got ready to ( )." My dad made his grave, and he died in '71. And she said it never ever was the same, that that was his only boy. He was the only boy; he was the only one to carry on the namesake- like that.

So they came, and so my great-grandparents and grandparents took the kids. And they went and took the kids to the parking lot. My dad became ( ) at the time. He was 32 years old. My mother was 18- just graduated from Leto High School. At that time, we didn't have ( ). I think this didn't start until 1924, because we didn't have to have the grades. So when my dad saw my mother come through the department, he said, That's the woman I'm going to marry. And of course, my grandmother ( ).

I think it was more--, I think there was more of ( ) years ago than there is today, come to think about it. My youngest son is 43 and hasn't married yet, so I call him Grandpa. ( ) cost him 12 years. So ( ) they got married in 1921. And that is the family; my dad was--. I didn't even realize until we grew up--. A friend of mine told me--, said, "Well, the ( ), I mean your daddy, had been content; made big money- you know, $50 ( )," and--.

So they start the family. When they start the family, they start the family. My older sister Lucy was born in '22; my brother Billy was born in '23. My other sister between me and the oldest one was born in '24, and I had a sister born in '25. She died young, as an infant. And then they skipped a year, and I wasn't born until '26. And then she skipped another year, and my ( ) was born in '28, and we had another in '29. My younger sister that passed away at 28 years old was born in '31. And my next--, my youngest brother was born in '36. ( ) 1945 my baby sister. She's ( ).

SS: Two surprises? [Laughter]

BG: ( ). I admit it. I was gone; I left during the latter part of '44 and went in the service. And while I was gone, I lost contact with everybody down in the South Pacific. And I was moving on the ship under another 55 men. I didn't know where I was at. It didn't make any difference- young and didn't care.

But my youngest sister was born. And I came home for a short visit in '45. Got in early in the morning, and it was about ( ). I said, "Who--?" I thought it was my older sister. What do you say?

( ). She was my father's favorite in his later years. ( ) substitute. He died, and she was 15, 16. Well, that's it; ( ) a little bit about my family, but that brings my mother's family ( ). And from there on, we all been on our own. We're all still in the area, except my older sister- she's in upper state New York. She's been up there since the latter '40s ( ). ( ) New York. They've lived in that area up on the Canadian border ever since. ( ) two months ago. ( ).

For a family of, of, say, ten, that nine of us survived until my younger sister died at ( ) at 28; left four children. ( ). He didn't know what to do to them; nobody was prepared at that time to take on more. I had two, and my other brothers had two, so we put them in ( ). It just--. Kind of see what we were going do. And then later, they were placed in a home with foster children. ( ) adopted the oldest boy ( ). And my oldest daughter adopted the younger daughter. The younger daughter adopted the youngest daughter. ( ) before my sister's death ( ), and she signed the papers. We had a stepfather we had problems with ( ).

SS: The father?

BG: Yeah. ( ). He broke this boy that I raised. I think they took him in when he was nine, and I didn't push adoption. But we had another foster child, and he didn't know I was ( ). When I wanted to be his ( ). So on the whole, as time went on, we claimed him as a dependent, and that ( ) after about three years. They questioned ( ).

SS: Was the father claiming him too- as a dependant?

BG: I never knew it if he did. ( ). I doubt it. He was not ( ). I set him right down at the table when he came home from school, and I told him what I was going to do. I said, "( ) something wrong. ( ) my sister's child, and I'll raise you until you're grown ( )." He was staying real quiet tonight.

After that, he began to eat, and he began to grow, grow. Boy, that boy right there- he was real--, he was just a real sweet kid. But after that ( ) thing--. And they saw how--, what we were doing for him, he asked, he asked us to give him a place to sleep. We'd buy him clothes, we had to figure out what we spent on clothes, and how much the portion of the food--. That was hard to do, because he'd eat more than I did. ( ), and then he became to ( ) my wife. He realized that we had done something. I made the statement, and my wife said, "( ). It looks to me like we're just going to have to send you back where you came from."

Whoa! ( ) hit him with a baseball bat. Man! ( ). He said, "No, please, ( ). I'll do anything." I felt so bad saying what I said, so that helped more. It bonded us. ( ) what would we talk about. I said, "( ) I let you do your own--, what you want to do. You're entitled to do whatever you want to do, so you ( )." And so ( ). And he said, "You mean I, I could do that?" "Yeah!" ( ) talk about it, and ( ) papers in it, give him his own birth certificate. He was born in Winter Haven as a baby. And I said, "You can do what you want to; I wouldn't care." All the paperwork, all the judge stuff, all the lawyer stuff. When he went before the judge, ( ).

He went to--, he went in the Navy. He got married; he got divorced. That created problems. ( ) get married. "Just wait until you're 21, and you don't have to ask." "I don't want to make that decision; I don't want to ( ) get me an education ( ). ( ) three years, and he got married. He says, "I'm going to get married whether you sign on. That's it. ( )." But when ( ) he and his wife, future wife ( ) two kids and ( ) the wedding and ( ).

So they happened to be Mormon, and they had nothing against me, really ( ). Yeah, I raised this young man ( ) take the boys like my grandfather that I was trying to let out this ( ). ( ) having the official ceremony. ( ). I probably didn't have a lot to get ( ). I just couldn't see because I've heard just enough about [Clears Throat] ( ) my brother-in-law. I couldn't believe that one. Today he's a top notch--, top man. I don't know where he is- ( ) bishop or something. He is very active in church.

SS: In the Mormon Church? A convert?

BG: Hmm?

SS: A convert?

BG: ( ). And he said things earlier; I will not go there. I've been in one church since I was big enough to walk. I joined it when I was 12 years old, I supported it, I spent 32 years on the ( ) board. I've been off on the building committee. ( ), and I hope that's what you all are doing. ( ) and try to give me a bible. I said, "I don't need one- I got one, been using it, and it works fine." Maybe, maybe I'll go on, but we worked it out, you know. It turned out-- bless his heart-- they couldn't ( ). And ( ).

SS: So he returned the favor.

BG: ( ). I guess his ( ) from 12 years old, and then they adopted a girl. And then later, they adopted ( ). ( ) the oldest boy, because he'd been thinking. He told his mother one day, he says, "Momma, you're the only one in this family that was born." She said, "Well, what do you mean?" "Daddy was adopted- you adopted him. And he wasn't born, and all this ( )." And with the children, our relationship became beautiful.

( ) had his own business now just 15 years. He's a ( ) all over the Southeast. The home that my mother lived in over there- new car ( ). I love that Cathy. She's not only a beautiful mother, but she's a beautiful partner to have when you're in business. She's--. Chris has got a heart of gold. He'll get away and ( ). Cathy ( ).

SS: [Chuckle]

BG: ( ).

SS: [Laughter]

BG: I've been there- don't want to ( ) children. I did something with my oldest boy that I said I'd never do. I thought of the things that had happened in my life time. ( ) with a shotgun ( ). I saw one of my friends' daddy get shot in the chest with a shotgun, and I know what they do.

But Chris, my oldest boy ( ), came along ( ). It was a big heart. He was a true sport. He had the option because he traveled--. The travel ( ), he got out--, he got a lot of opportunities to hunt. ( ). When he was about 15 years old, ( ). So I sat down with him and told him all about it. And I thought he understood, but that summer, we went on an extended vacation.

Our first stop was in Washington, D.C. ( ). I found out ( ) very little education ( ). But one of the things we saw when we went up to the Institute of Pathology--. My 15 year-old son had just bought a shotgun; saw ( ) photos and shots of people that had been shot ( ). ( ) he sat down and wrote them a letter. And ( ) cold blooded murder. He thought it was getting easier ( ). He said, "I have learned to be safe, but I learned to be safer when ( )."

I don't know ( ) my brother. ( ) out on the lake, when we were going through a fence that he had burned up. And crawled through the fence; he went over. ( ). It ended up that gun went off ( ) went right between my legs, and I stepped through. It took part of my britches ( ); I didn't get a shot at my leg. I got a set of denim britches, and ( ). I never told that story.

( ) big family down in ( ). ( ) young boy ( ). The older boy ( ) the little boy. He was the cutest little ol' boy you ever ( ).

SS: Well, we're still on the air, I guess, and you know, maybe move on to something else. How did--? You had a big family, you know; how did you folks deal with the depression? ( ) business still good?

BG: Yes, this is what I ( ) not too many years ago said, ( ). And they didn't have much either ( ). ( ) washing machine, phone, radio. We didn't have anything. You know, we were so poor that we didn't even know we were poor. But then maybe we didn't ( ) the right people. ( ) count our blessings. We were a very blessed family. My mother ( ). Some of them are rented, some of them are owned; I don't know why. ( ).

And one day, Daddy come driving home in a new car ( ); that's a picture I'd like to have. ( ) bought a new Pontiac. ( ). We're all sitting on the running board- one, two, three, four, five six... Somebody's got the picture. I think when my mother died and all, ( ). There were eight of us, so there were eight of them, put them out, and they numbered each one of them. And then the girls and my daughter went through the pictures- one, two, three, four, ( ).

SS: They drew them at random.

BG: They drew them at random. Of course, there's always ( ). That picture means more to me than it does ( ). So to eliminate any of that--. And then at the end, if you've got a picture that you've got ( ). So that works. ( ). That's how our family works. You'd always ( ) and always ready to work it out.

( ) pretty black shiny cockatoo ( ). ( ), one of our contact persons, ( ). And everything was going along fine. One day, she was running around in back of the lunchroom ( ). She went down there, and somebody had been working on the-- [END OF TAPE 1, SIDE A] [START TAPE 1, SIDE B]

SS: ( )?

BG: Yeah, somebody had left the door locked. She went around the lunchroom, and ( ). And they had to put her out.

SS: [Laughter] Good thing you brought her out.

BG: Yeah, yeah, ( ). But the sad part was she lost my shoes ( ). I don't know how to explain that; I guess ( ). And ( ) buy her some shoes that she wanted, and ( ). But I don't remember--, I don't ever recall some of the horror stories about the depression. Now, I don't know when--. I don't even--. I think we come in on the year when--. Yeah, I was born in '26, and I started school in '31 or '2. When the '29ers--

SS: Yeah, right.

BG: So we were very small when a lot of that went on.

SS: Where did you live during the '30s?

BG: Well, I was born on the southwest corner of ( ). And that was a 160-acre field, and this house was in it. And I don't know whether we were living in it temporarily, but I just happened to be born there. There's pictures somewhere of that house, and I was six months old on the front porch laying on the mattress ( ). ( ). But anyway, we were born there. I was born there ( ). My older brother ( ) sister was born down the street, just ( ). My oldest sister was born in The Oaks, which is on the southwest corner of Valrico Road and ( ). Now they build great big beautiful homes, and they call it The Oaks ( ).

Most of my childhood was spent in a home-- in my home-- over by ( ) Valrico. My mom ( ) Brandon. Brandon, the only thing that made Brandon was the school. They had a couple of churches ( ). All of the churches were supposed to be ( ). And then those Baptists came in, I think, Valrico ( ). I think they're still around. By the way, I'm the only one left of my Methodist family. All my brothers ( ). And I have two brothers that were Baptist, and I got one sister ( ).

So from over there, then we moved to Brandon. And I say, in those days, Valrico was a big town. We had sidewalks, streetlights, had a bank, laundry, city park, grocery store, post office, right downtown. A lot of that is--. The ( ) is still there; the old grocery store that ( ) other store that we, you know, ( ). It was right across the street from the ( ) for many years. ( ) sometimes. We use to just walk down there; it was about 2½ blocks.

And then we moved to Brandon. And when I started to school-- '31, '32-- we were living in back of the First Baptist Church- the old church, which is still on the same property ( ). The old sanctuary is on Morgan Street ( ). And the new one is over on ( ). Well, it was--. When we were coming up and moving to ( ) back of the Methodist church, we had to cross by the Baptist Church. And I didn't know anybody who went there, so ( ). Of course, we ended up ( ). So we ( ). I just happened to stay with it. I'm still a member ( ) sixty-some years. Since I was 12 years old, I've moved ( ).

SS: But that area wasn't as developed as ( ) in the '30s?

BG: It wasn't until the '40s when they put sidewalks in. ( ) put all these sidewalks in. Now, where we are sitting today was not Brandon. This is ( ). ( ). So I'll finish this story. So that's the ( ) in Brandon. That's one of the original houses ( ). And we lived there until about 1935, and then we moved to Brandon.

[Tape is turned off and then back on]

We were having problems ( ). You know, you never can tell who won't like. ( ). I'm not.

SS: ( ).

BG: I'm not picking it up. [Chuckle] So we moved back to Valrico. This is probably about '35, '34. And then we made it ( ) from there to around ( ), by my grandmother ( ) neighborhood prospered. And they made some kind of deal when they lived there.

SS: Did he buy, or was he--?

BG: I'm not sure; I'm not really sure. I don't know if it was an option to buy, or how it worked, but we were there. My youngest brother was born ( ) in '36. And then from there, we stayed there by my grandmother. She was a great, great lady. She had my mother to leave her father ( ). She ( ) rocking chair. And I said to her, "Grandma, ( ). Keep an eye on her for me, and ( ). My brother socked me here, and I socked my brother here, or whatever ( )." She said "( )!" She ( ) a policeman, inner-city policeman ( ).

SS: [Laughter]

BG: My grandmother was a very, very smart lady. I told you this- she had two daughters: my mother ( ) and my aunt, Aunt Mary, who was always my favorite. ( ). I never got to know my Uncle Jerry, because I was only about two years old when he died. He died in '28.

Over at the old school-- the old Brandon school, Brandon High School-- ( ) you had a ( ) Class of '28 that we would ( ). ( ) in front of the principal's office, the sidewalks kind of come in ( ). ( ) had a little plate down there. They did the remodel thing, and they put the library there, and it changed everything. Several years later, I got the last ( ). So they took it up, and when they built the ( ) the server number, and they put it right under the server number.

SS: Oh!

BG: ( ), and I've been meaning to go by and check it, to see if it's still there. If it isn't, and it's been stored somewhere, I'd love to have it.

SS: ( ) your wall.

BG: ( ) church cemetery ( ) for years, and then I ( ). That's where all the people I know of, like my mother--. Before she died, she was 92. She said--. For one thing, she said, "When you get married, ( )."

And I don't get to go to many funerals, because ( ). She said ( ), your sister has just died, and they were like that. They traveled together after they were ( ). They went back home, and ( ) back home. That was the highlight of my life. ( ), and I said, "Ma! ( ) statement like that, Mother." She said, "Yeah, ( )." I told my wife I never ( ) what that woman had after this life.

She lived every day in it, from all those children ( ) and very, very hard times, putting them through school, ( ). As a teenager, I was the only boy that went to school with real fancy clothes, because I would buy material, and my mother would make my shirts and sometimes the pants. I could easily buy a pair of pants, but I couldn't buy a shirt. ( ). Things like this- she'd buy shirts ( ). And people ask me, "Where did you get your shirt? I've never seen it." ( ).

SS: [Laughter] Good negotiator.

BG: ( ) about 16 years traveling the world. ( ). In fact, last Sunday, we went to his first production- went to the ballroom on 56th Street. He and his partner put on a ( ) show.

We traveled-- all of us-- we traveled all over the world ( ). ( ) they don't make them any more like that. ( ) all of us went to school together ( ) World War II was raising ( ) because my daddy only signed us up for ( ) helped to win the war. That did it. I found an old book that my mother had ordered. I didn't know if she--. I didn't even know until after I got back home, back from World War II; my brother ( ). ( ) South Pacific. I changed services, came home, and went back in. ( ) over a year in between. That's when I come home and found out I had a little baby sister.

SS: Huh? You went back in the Army?

BG: No, what happened there was I was going to join the Marines, and I wanted to be a hero ( ). And my brother entered the Navy. And the Marines and the Navy didn't, you know, ( ). ( ) no way you're going to the Marines. He said if you want to get into the Marines, ( ) mercenary.

So I did some checking on it; went training in St. Petersburg. And they had Marine training there at that time. But they still wanted me in ( ), I guess, because I was only there for four weeks, and they shipped me off to California. I went to ( ) school, started.

And things got critical, and ( ) ship and sent us to the Philippines. In the Philippines, ships took a--. ( ) didn't say anything to us ( ). Some of us got off the ship; we thought we were going to be sitting around. And we got there, and they ( ). While we were ashore, they called a ( ). Some of us hadn't got back to the ship yet. It didn't sink; it just capsized.

And then we were sent to General ( )'s headquarters, that had a situation ( ). And we had to stay there until we could get reassigned, and I got reassigned to a fleet ship. And ( ) a lot of the island just got forgotten. ( ), but we were going to ( ) New Guinea, then we went to ( ) to pick up the ( ) to start rebuilding ( ).

( ) rebuild them ( ), which was one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and from 15 miles out of both ships ( ) people were living in the back of the ( ). The only thing I ever wanted to do was go back to see what they did to that ( ) city. I can't imagine how ( ); I don't care to see that. I'm just glad ( ). I have no idea what ( ). I just hope ( ).

Getting back to the Pacific [Cough], ( ). And at that time, we never knew when we filled that tank where we were going. ( ) on the ship 54 days, and ( ). And they decided to make you get off the ship and have some recreation ( ). So we pulled into the harbor there. I saw all these ships. ( ). And about the time that I was trying to figure it out, I saw some ( ). I said, you know, I said "Hey, the war's over. ( )." ( ) overboard. Otherwise, I'd have gone through the day. ( ) magazines there, and I've got the key for it. ( ). I saw that for real. ( ). So it all cleared up. And I looked up there ( ) palm trees ( ). ( ).

So we finally got off, and I got another surprise after spending about 50 months on the ship trying to work ( ). I was worried about my ( ). I guess ( ), because we stepped out of that lifeboat on land, we ( ). So we just sat, and it wouldn't move; it wouldn't move. ( ). If you step off the step sometime, or you step up, it just stays there. And I'm used to everything moving.

Later, I'm way down to New Guinea; we went into a ( ). They say it wasn't a bad one. I don't ever want to get into a bad one, so our ship ( ) good-sized ship ( ). And then it just sits on top of a wave. And then we look down, and it just [Whistles]. You could actually see the bottom sometimes- felt like we were going to crash. Then the water comes up ( ).

And at that time, I served as junior engineer, which I got a pretty good promotion, because the junior engineer would ( ), or chose not to ( ) and stayed in port. I don't know, but I got his job. I had just started out, just started out. I ( ), and I was just starting to do the things that I came for.

I had a real good job that had a lot of responsibility. I had a lot of ship to ( ), so I was ( ). And I had to get ( ). And we had supplies ( ) on board; we had a roof ( ) hang out ( ). And I'm going to tell you what- I didn't know whether to hang on ( ). And we'd settle down and run a little bit more, right back into the pool hall ( ). And I ( ) the situation to find out what was wrong. ( ). And as I come out of the ( ) parlor ( ), we had a couple of ( ). In the process of ( ). ( ) because I was glad, because you never know when those doors are going to close, and you might end up in there. All of the ( ) turned upside down, I fell in the pool, and ( ) greasy.

SS: Nasty water?

BG: I'm thinking--. I looked, and the pipes are leaking, the water was flying in, and ( ) sinking. I thought we were going to ( ). I go to the fire station; they got big vents that pump the air in. I'm going up that ladder inside, and ( ). When I come out on the boat, it was like ( ) out on the deck, and I got ( ). And then, you know, we talked to the guy. ( ). ( ) I could feel the water come in behind me. I thought ( ), and the water was coming in from outside. And they were able to seal it off.

So then ( ) sometime after that, there were things--. Well, before we picked up the troops ( ) standing on the deck. And we got a general alarm. We're standing in the ( ), you know, a hundred yards or whatever, and I see ( ). Just watching, watching it get closer and closer ( ) coming up ( ) behind us ( ). When they got the orders, ( ) sub ( ) went under the ship. ( ). I didn't like the water. ( ). And I could just imagine coming down about a week later and getting in the water. ( ) '4--, '45, I guess, I made myself a promise; I said, I'll never go back.

[Tape skips] very envious of us that we ( ) making all this money. I never seen none of it; I never ( ). The good thing was it ended up when I did get paid, I had time ( ) spend all my time over there. ( ) the Philippines ( ). A friend of mine that was in Japan at that time ( ). ( ) buying and selling land ( ), me included. And so after all these years, in 1947, when I finally got home--. He got home the later part of '46. ( ) called me about just a couple months ago. ( ), but I never got to say my goodbye. I didn't know he got killed ( ) '47. ( ) back to school.

SS: Yeah. Uh huh.

BG: And I thought he got his diploma, but he didn't. He got it just a couple of months ago when ( ). I went back to school after I got out. I was going to night school, and that is important- '47, '48. I went to work ( ) I had accumulated so many days ( ). [Laughter] ( ). And I was an ambitious young man back then. Like I just said, I was still in the Army ( ) looking for a job. I got bored when I got home. ( ) war ( ) come home ( ). And I knew some of the old fellows, a couple of them that had been there since it started. ( ) September of '47, and ( ). And I didn't get out until the 25th of September. And then, by the time of the end of '47, '48, ( ). [END OF TAPE 1, SIDE B] [START TAPE 2, SIDE A]

BG: ( ) might have been World War II ( ).

SS: You came to Brandon in '48, right? Is that right? ( ).

BG: Oh yes. Yeah, we bought this property here in 1948. We got married in the summer, and I think we bought this in the fall.

SS: G.I. Bill?

BG: Hmm?

SS: Did you have the G.I. Bill of Rights? ( ).

BG: I didn't know nothing about ( ) World War II and the ( ). ( ) school. And she started--. She went ( ). So she'd go and work the hospital and see what it was all about. ( ) she went and found out she didn't want to be no nurse, so she went into--. Actually, she started when ( ) staffer, and she ended up as a purchasing agent for the old hospital ( ).

And she stayed there until 1954, when we had our first child. We were married about six years ( ), and--. But we were a lot older than some of the other people who--. Today, we're just now starting to have our great grandchildren ( ). We have a new one every day.

We bought, we bought this property, ( ) and my brother had bought an acre across the street. And we were ( ) much money, so ( ). "( ) we're looking for some property now." And he said, "Well, do you want to buy half of that acre ( )?" ( ), "Hey, that'd be great." But by the time he bought it, he went ahead and paid for it. And then he said, "( )." My mother and he have been here ever since.

But as I said earlier, when we built this house, there was no--, this was the bedroom. This house and the garage was across the street, and a couple houses down here--. And Morgan ended right here. ( ). Grandfather ( ) bought this in '48, and he just took the money and started building ( ).

SS: Trial and error.

BG: Hmm?

SS: Trial and error. Right?

BG: Yes, so we'd come out here and ( ) eat watermelon ( ). We had our times with that, but ( ).

SS: Were they building anything in Valrico?

BG: Huh?

SS: Were they doing any homes in Valrico? Anything like--?

BG: No, no, none of this. I guess they would for somebody, but generally, ( ) money ( ). Maybe so. I guess ( ). We'll just keep them on a paycheck, and let's come out and ( ).

SS: What kind of businesses were in the area- your block from Brandon Boulevard?

BG: Well, ( ) two-lane road. My Uncle Jim, who married my mother's sister- he got a job at a grocery store. ( ) delivery truck. The post office is across the street. They have the row house across the street and the barber shop. I'm trying to think of what year it was. This goes back a little bit ( ). ( ) had a store on the corner of-- not around the corner, right on the corner-- of ( ). ( ), and there was no other business.

SS: Nothing between them.

BG: No, nothing. ( ). So in 1936, they started building ( ). They were getting into the ( ), and that's when the craze to leave downtown--. So that was downtown ( ). ( ) find out where Brandon is today?

SS: Yeah.

BG: Well, that was downtown Brandon back then, but this is Kingsway. But anyway, I was 11 years old. And my daddy and Jeff Stevenson, he ended up running the place, built a big building ( ), and I worked there with him. And it was ( ) at the time, I guess ( ). ( ) was going to run it, and he found out how much work it was ( ). He thought he'd stay at the grocery store, because I had ( ).

( ) become a partner and one of the finest men I've known. I learned from him before I was 11 years old, because he was a friend of my father and helped a lot. I worked for him before I went in the service; I worked while I was going to high school. He taught me honesty, he taught me banking- how to, you know, save money. He was one of the--. He was just a--. He was one of the finest men I ever saw. And I loved working with him. We just hit it off. He thought I was a genius, because I was ( ).

And he had a '37 Chevrolet ( ). Every time he started trouble, ( ) my grandfather's '34 Ford. And I know something about trucks, ( ) find out what it was. ( ) '37 Chevrolet- had to put your foot up ( ). And if it backfires some, ( ). I said, "Let me fix that for him." ( ), so I fixed it. I said, "Don't ask no questions- just give me the money, and I'll fix it." ( ) give me anything, I'll fix it. I bought a ( ), which didn't have to have a manual ( ). It had an automatic ( ). Hit a little button, and ( ). I left my motorcycle there and drive myself home. And then by the time ( ), spent about half a day ( ). And it had a little chrome button on the back ( ). He got in, and he ( ). Just push that button in. [Coughs] Shut it off; start it again. He says, "That going to work every time?" I says, "You can bet on it."

( ), so he told about that; he says, "That guy ( ) necessity. If I had four children, I couldn't buy sugar for them." You know, you work with what you've got. So then I asked him to revert back with my daddy and Jeff Stevenson. Running that store over there was a big expense to me ( ). And back then, there's--. Like I say, it was just a--. I guess they--, I think they have five acres there. They just recently spoke--, sold most recently in the last year or two to ( ).

But they ended up moving the grocery store up here, with the food store, the hardware store--. When I went to work for Joe, it must have been in about '43- I was too young to volunteer. And I would work there after school and on Saturday.

Sometimes I'd go to the warehouse where the ( ) go. ( ) railroad tracks in a pickup truck and put them in a warehouse. ( ). You know, when you've been raised around a certain type of people, nobody trusts nobody. ( ). You get on a ( ) hot sun, and let them simmer ( ) paper bag ( ).

Anyway, I went back a little bit to avoid that area, and ( ) back of the church. Of course, ( ) paved. And my dad worked- sometimes he worked a ( ).

SS: What was he doing?

BG: ( ) citrus plant. That was after these phased out over here. One of them was still running, but it ( ). And so on Saturday night, when my daddy was coming home, ( ). I think that it wasn't ( ), but I don't remember too much about ( ). So we'd take a wagon and go up to the highway with our ( ), and just stop. ( ) '31 Chevrolet ( ) Pontiac. And we'd take it on the back ( ). And they were homemade wagons. We didn't have ( ) wagons.

And then they turned and go down the dirt road, which is Morgan, to the back of the church ( ). And during that process, ( ). And that was really fun. Then they had to get a better wagon; pull more people ( ). Can you imagine playing in the rain in the middle of a parking ( )? ( ) pretty close to ( ), which is the next street over. ( ) and over the hill, past Mount Carmel, down past ( ). ( ), we'd clear the highway so people could get through. ( ). So that was a long time ago.

And I was born on the north--, southwest corner of ( ). That was the only building there. The only thing that was ever there--. I think it was during the war- they built a citrus--, like a elevator ( ) store it ( ).

SS: Silo? Like a silo?

BG: Oh! ( ) just a big ol' building. But that was the only thing on 160 acres, beside the place where I was born. In 1928, I think it was, the house was destroyed by a hurricane. ( ), and then later, ( ). So basically, I like ( ). I was born about maybe just a little bit east of ( ).

And before I went in service, we lived ( ). ( ) were built by the same family ( ). ( ) home was kind of a estate, and this was kind of a campout ( ). I said, "Well, even though ( ) and live where ( ) developed, we still don't want to go." ( ). [Chuckle]

But my younger brother turned into money. ( ), so he did something that was unique. Besides, ( ). I thought it was; I thought my life's priority was to ( ). You got 210 acres ( ) a while back. ( ) country club; he got 210 acres of that ( ). He sold it to my older sister before things started happening, because he could lease it back from the ( ) company cheaper than ( ). So he sold it. He bought a new Ford and bought his son a new Jeep, and that probably took care of ( ).

But today, I asked ( ). I said, "Could you tell me about ( ) 210 acres is worth ( )?" He said, "You don't want to know." ( ). My wife and I bought ten acres from my father-in-law in front of us. I want to build my house there and have that for whatever I want to do ( ). But my grandmother owned the 40 acres there. He was barely working, and they had cattle out there ( ). And I got the cash. ( ), and I sold my ( ). I hung onto that; ( ) a little bit. [Pause] Oh, let's see.

SS: Well, what else was ( ) 1950 or so? What was going on ( )?

BG: ( ), little grocery store there. My wife ( ). And then ( ), who owned quite a bit of land, got settled on the left side. And then ( ) Carter, who my dad worked for six or seven years- his father-in-law, ( ).

SS: So it was basically ( )?

BG: Yes, ( ) as I remember it. Basically, you know, everything started happening about the late part of ( ). He just got out the service- a World War II vet. He changed the country store approach and made it a little more modern ( ). And they had it for years, and ( ). It just kind of ( ).

The thing that I wish most-- that when you're poor, you don't do a lot of things that you'd like to ( )-- is I would love to have a camera ( ) film to take pictures ( ). And ( ) right here in this area during my lifetime, there was a ( ) turned into a lot of different things ( ). Some people ( ) gone for the day. And in the other corner, what used to be a pig ranch ( ) space. It developed into apartments ( ).

I don't know much about the ( ) fire department, but my two brothers ( ). And my younger brother was the first chief, because he ( ). He owned this filling station and had ( ). So he had to be the boss. He had to have ( ) in my yard while we were building ( ). ( ) chief for a long time, and then he kind of got too involved in the banking business. So he handed it over to me, ( ) debts to be paid. And then he did it, and then I did it again, so ( ).

In the meantime, I did something I had a hand in- it was really right here with a friend of ours down on 60, where the ( ) station is. ( ). He had a machine shop ( ) when we first started back in the ( ). He was going to sell out down on the highway and build ( ) cellar, and build a ( ) full-length garage, add another cellar that was going to be under his house. And ( ), bless his heart, he couldn't finish his project. So I talked the boys into moving there and trying to buy it. And we did, and [Pause] finished it.

SS: Did you use the existing construction, the partial construction ( )?

BG: We finished ( ), and we took it from there. We stayed there and ( ). I stayed for about twenty years, and then it started ( ). We developed the first park system in this county. And that was against my better wishes, but I knew we were going to ( ), we were going to have the people's support, and ( ).

And then the county stepped in, and started doing their thing. And they hired the first chief. ( ), but I was set up to be the fire chief. I had a hard job to do that. ( ) my job at night and doing that in the daytime as chief. Besides, I was spending all my time in the courthouse ( ).

SS: What did you have to do in the courthouse? ( ).

BG: Yeah, making sure that all this stuff is in play, and getting permits, and--. It had nothing to do with firefighting. We would go into firefighter ( ) fire from home ( ). We hired the first one- he was a friend of mine. I don't know if he wanted me to be his assistant. The time he took over to pay, nobody pay it ( ). ( )-- deputy sheriff-- I love him. He's the man that said, "There's somebody ( ) just come out ( ) that's maybe a kid ( )." ( ) that's finally gone away ( ).

SS: ( )?

BG: ( ). I was ( ) at the time. ( ) my brother ( ). ( ). I had my fingers out ( ). That's all I could do. ( ) took me out ( ) lifted that thing up. I would've passed out by then. ( ) saved my life. ( ). Took me to Tampa General, and they ( ). Sent me home; I'm there in the bedroom ( ). My brother was there. ( ). I got out from under ( ), and I laid on the front porch parlor ( ), and just let my body hang ( ).

SS: You're here.

BG: I'm here. ( ) insurance on the job, ( ) for those working another job.

SS: You guys didn't ( ) coverage ( ) volunteers?

BG: My company finally paid it. But in the meantime, people were so good to us. ( ) from a grocery store. ( ) enough time, and I got myself ( ). Nobody knows about this, but ( ). I have pictures of us sitting in a chair there, and my son was about ( ). ( ) comfortable ( ), and I ended up with a ( ), and he wanted to operate. ( ) get up and go. If I ( ).

SS: ( )?

BG: Yeah. Actually, I spent a week in the hospital ( ) after they got the doctor. ( ).

SS: Uh huh.

BG: ( ).

SS: Uh huh.

BG: ( ). ( ) or something, I don't know. ( ) had a lot of room ( ) in my life. That creates ( ). ( ). My grandmother, my mother's mother- she was ( ). Had she been there today, she would be ( ). Today ( ). ( ). I go there today ( ), and I don't know where to sit. ( ). I had been to some of the meetings ( ) county commissioner, Robert Moore. ( ) get together ( )--

[END OF TAPE 2, SIDE A]

(end of interview)