I was sitting on the sod. It was very sad. I was sitting on the sod That would cover the ashes of my Dad.   He had died two years ago, One day off my birthday. It was so very sad. We didn't know it would be this way.   Later we had lunch at the China Garden Where if you ordered wine, you didn't get a glass. That was Eugene Frank Grapes' day. The day was very sad.

During the late 1990’s, we began to realize that although Dad was a wonderful story teller, and an excellent writer, he was never going to write his colorful childhood stories down on paper. At that time, Beep, Kestrel, Tansy, and I used to go over to Mom and Dad’s house for Sunday dinner each week. We decided to start taping Dad’s stories so that we would have them for future generations of family members to enjoy.

We didn’t want Dad to know he was being recorded because we wanted the spontaneity of his storytelling ability to come through. So we hid the small recorder behind a nearby wine bottle, primed him with glass after glass of the tongue-loosening liquid, and plied him with lots of questions about his childhood. That’s all it took.

Dad regaled us with some tales we’d already heard and many we’d never heard. The kids giggled with glee while we adults laughed and shook our heads in wonder at how different his crazy childhood was from ours.

Each recording is about 30 minutes long. Because this was dinnertime discussion you’ll sometimes hear silverware clinking on plates, kids whispering to Grandma in the background, and other small interruptions. But the sound quality is clear. The voices you’ll hear are Gene, Beep, KC, Meccy, 11-year-old Kestrel, and 10-year-old Tansy. Uncle Richy visited once during that time and made a cameo visit on our audio tapes. Although Richy has been gone longer than Dad, it’s great to hear his voice coming over the years and talking with Dad about what life was like for the both of them back then.

Also, because the recordings were done in a clandestine manner, the conversation sometimes segued into contemporary topics of the day. We tried to get Gene back on topic, but occasionally it took a few minutes to get him back to a story. Side A of the Ancestors tape begins with a lot of contemporary talk. You can skip the first half of the tape by sliding the blue speed bar to the right. Move it to the 13:40 time mark and you’ll drop right into the beginning of one of Dad’s stories.

From Where Did The Name “Grapes” Come?
Many versions of this tale have been told. Mostly, they are all wrong. Even though I listened to Dad tell how the name evolved on these tapes, I guess I also had had too much wine in me … because, I’ve been telling the story wrong all these years since, too.

In order to learn the real story listen to Side A of the Ancestors tape. Slide the time mark bar to 22:00 and begin. I would tell the story here, but I wouldn’t do it justice. It’s best to hear Dad tell it.

I hope you all enjoy these tapes as much as we’ve enjoyed listening to them again. It’s so good to hear his, Richy’s, and Mom’s voices from that happy time spent in the warmth of their home.

By speaking with my Grandfather, I learned that for him the war wasn’t quite as fast paced as I thought it would’ve been. It still sounds pretty exciting. I would’ve thought that it would be more depressing and sad too.

My Grandpa grew up in a poor family in Massachusetts and in Brooklyn, New York.  When the war started he probably thought that it’d be a good opportunity to make a little money, have an adventure, and help him get into college hopefully.  He joined the Navy rather than be drafted.  The only way that you could get into the Navy was by volunteering.  His Brother George also joined the Armed Forces but he went into the Army and fought over in Europe.

My Grandpa joined the Navy July 10, 1942 and in his time serving he reached the rank of 2nd Class Petty Officer. The two jobs he had over the course of war were radio man and radar man.  I never knew you had to go through as much training as he did just to get out in the ocean. “First I went to Boot Camp.  Then I went to Radio School where I was offered the opportunity to volunteer for PT Boats. I did volunteer and I then went to PT Boat School for two months.  Later, I was assigned to a boat and we were taken overseas.”

I learned that a PT boat is a Wooden Motor Torpedo Boat.  It has four torpedo tubes in it.  It is very small and usually had a crew of only eleven people.  Life on the PT boat was very cramped.  It would not be the ideal choice of places to work for anyone who’s claustrophobic.  Many people who worked with my Grandpa would get a little, “weird”.   “Some people got awfully homesick and they would start acting strangely.  They would stop shaving and washing and things like that, but once they got notice of a 30 day leave, they’d perk right up.  We would be out there for two years at a time and very close quarters so I could understand why people would get a little weird.”

Most of the time Grandpa’s PT boat patrolled around the islands of the Pacific.  “The idea was to patrol islands and sneak out and attack much larger ships at night.  We had to do it at night or we’d be blown out of the water.  We could even sink ships as large as destroyers.”

When the first atomic bomb was dropped, no one on his ship had any idea what it was so they did not know what to think.  By the time the second one was dropped they had learned more about it.  They expected that the war would be over soon.  A week later the war was over.  It ended in August of 1945.

You had to get enough points to be discharged and there were many factors that played a part in how many points you needed to get.  These included how many years you served, how old you were, if you were married, etc.  My Grandpa didn’t have enough points to be discharged when he learned that the war was over.  “The war ended in August and I only had 30 points, which was not enough.”  So his PT boat landed in the Philippine Islands where he worked until February 6, 1946.  During the time he spent on the islands, he worked in a telegraph office.

The Armed Forces had Japanese prisoners to do work for them.  They knew that the prisoners would not run off because the Filipinos (people from the Philippines) hated the Japanese and would kill any that they could.  So, the Japanese could be trusted to perform menial labor for the Americans.

I really enjoyed doing this project.  It was very interesting learning about my Grandfather’s younger years and his service in the Navy.

MORE INFORMATION

The last I had heard, my brother was in the battle of the Bulge over in France in 1945.  I hadn’t seen him for several years and thought he was still in France.  Then my sister wrote me a letter asking why I hadn’t gone to visit him since he was over in the Philippines.  Before then I had no idea that he was there.  I found out later that when the war had ended in Europe he was sent over there.

I went to Manila, which was nearby and found out where he was.  He was stationed only about 100 miles away so I asked my superior officer if I could go visit and he said I could.  So I hitch-hiked over there.  It was a tough ride because the roads had been bombed out, it took me all day.

I got there around supper time, and it turned out that my brother wasn’t back yet.  When he did get back it had gotten dark.  I came up from behind him and hugged him, but he didn’t know who it was, he then said, “Darnit Jimmy get off my back!!”  He then turned around and realized that it was me and just about broke my ribs in a hug.