<Begin Segment 33>

JB: Well, Joe, to finish up the interview, I'd like to ask you one last question: You shared with us stories from your early childhood up 'til the time you were back in Seattle and working at the P-I, and I was wondering if you could recap some major lessons you've learned over your life or some of the key, key ideas you've learned in the past eighty or eighty-one years, and hopefully some students will be viewing this interview, and maybe you could think of something you'd like to, to leave with either your grandchildren or students who might be watching this interview.

JF: Well, I, I feel awfully lucky that I had what I had. As it appeared to me while it was happening, it was a pretty, a pretty damned good life. If I dig into it, why, there were a lot of questions that I could ask myself, something that you sometimes don't think about it, why, when I was in the service for five years, did I never receive a letter from some of my relatives, particularly my Italian relatives. And then it dawned on me that probably none of my father's brothers or sisters had ever written a letter in their life. And so I could kind of mark that off. But I grew up maybe naive but still loving all these people and getting a great, great joy out of them. And despite some of these things that you think about them, why, it would kind of irritate you.

I think between my wife and I and all of us who were married at that time, we had a sense of commitment which was very, very strong, but we also had a sense of humor which, if you can just say something that, say the right thing at the right time, you can ease off on your anger no matter what you're angry about. It took me a long time to figure that out. For a while I followed in my father's footsteps. He and my mother very rarely fought, but my father would have these silent periods where he wouldn't say anything. And I tried that, too, but it didn't work for a damn with my wife, so we'll just flare, and then she'll say something or I'll say something, and just, it pretty much vanishes. And I think that the other guys who married Seattle girls were just, just about the same way I am, find something to, or between the two of them find some way of, of diffusing the feelings.

Harriette and I have been particularly lucky with our children, knock on wood. They, none of 'em had any serious problems. Although it is kind of a thrill to wake up and have your son come walking up the steps with two big cops following him, and that's what happened to son John. He was scouring around in somebody's car that wasn't his, and police caught him and brought him home. Or going to a jail and get somebody out of jail for speeding or something like that, drinking. But no, no serious problems. We've got families that we love. And that I have, Harriette and I have a whole large group of girls that my daughter went through high school with at Forest Ridge who have adopted us for years and years, and actually two of them, when they lost their fathers, they adopted me as their father. And so we've got the love of all those girls and their families, and we feel pretty good about that.

They had their 25th (graduation) anniversary, and Harriette and I were the only parents invited, and we were invited to be bartenders. And when they graduated in 1970 from Forest Ridge, I wrote a poem about their graduation, and they had me read the poem as part of the 25th anniversary. And now, this year, they're celebrating their, their 30th, and once again the poem is going to be included in the, in the affair. And we're, Harriette and I are invited. So we feel real good about those people. And we've got in-laws that we like.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.