<Begin Segment 49>

TI: So Virgil, at the very end, there's so much more I want to ask you, but we're almost out of time. The other piece I want to touch upon is after you retired from your, your scientist career --

VW: Oh, yeah.

TI: -- you, at a later part of your life, you joined the TSA. Can you tell me a little bit why you wanted to do that?

VW: Well, I got very, very tired of sitting at home and seeing my neighbors all going to work, you know, backing their cars out of the garage and going to work. I just, I just had to do something. I had to contribute something. So I was looking at the paper and I saw an ad for security people. And so I thought, at the airport, and I thought, "Well, that might be interesting." So I did apply and, and then they, I said, when I went over there, I handed him this application. And he said to me, he said, "Well, we're starting a program right now." I said, "By the way," I said, "what does it pay?" And he said, "Four dollars and seventy-five cents an hour." [Laughs] This is before TSA. And he said, "We're starting a program right now. Just step right in there." So I, well, I thought, well, I'll see what it's all about. Well, three hours later, I walked out, and I was hired already. So okay, so I thought, "Well, I'll work for a while and we'll see what happens." So I liked the job and I liked doing that and so on, and two years later I became a supervisor over there. And then TSA came because we had that 9/11, and so I had to go through the test again. And a physical and eyes and hearing and so on. And we had to carry a box, a heavy box, twenty pounds, I think it was, which was kind of heavy. You had to run with it, and then in between, around pylons and so on and then get back. Then they told you, then after that you had to do it the other way, and you had to remember these things, see. And on the, the first thing they told you about, you had to go to the computer. And I went to the computer and I was four hours on that computer, and picking out things that looked dangerous and so on. And I made that. Lot of people didn't, lot of people didn't, didn't make that. Young people, too. And, but I made it. And then I was hired. And I worked there fourteen and a half years.

TI: Now, because of your background, your experience, at TSA you worked with a lot of younger people. What, what advice do you give them? Because I'm guessing that many of them looked to you as a role model at TSA when you were there. So what sort of advice would you give the younger people at TSA?

VW: Well, I was, I was the oldest person in TSA all over the United States, I was the oldest one. I started when I was seventy-seven, and I retired when I was ninety-one, but that's okay. But I would, they knew that I was kind of, I had a good attitude, and I think that helped a lot. Because you have to have a good attitude when you're meeting people. We'd meet over a thousand people a week, well over a thousand people, sometimes like, as many as, like, six hundred a day. And so as a result, you became, you had to be friendly with them because they've been harassed. They were coming and hurrying and had to wait and check their luggage and then go through the security, had to take off their shoes and all that stuff, and they weren't happy people, maybe. But some of 'em are great people, though. As a rule, almost all people are happy, usually, if they're met by someone who smiles at 'em and says, "Good morning," and that's what I do. In fact, one time, a woman came, and she said, "There's a celebrity." And I was wondering, she was looking at me. And she said, "I saw you on TV and I saw you in the newspaper," she says, and she throws her arms around me and hugs me. [Laughs] I'm standing at the walkthrough, and I stood there, I didn't dare hang on to her very long, 'cause I got to watch that walkthrough. And the people behind, there's a lineup behind her, and they're waiting. And finally she says, "I want your autograph." And I says, "Well, I don't have anything to write on." She said, "I do," and she opened her purse up and grabbed a piece of paper and had me sign my name. [Laughs] Which is almost unbelievable. And then she picked up her things and she was gone, she and her husband. And that's, that happened a number of times.

TI: That's a good story. Virgil, unfortunately, we're out of time. This has been a wonderful exchange that we've had, conversation, so I just want to thank you so much for coming from Grand Rapids all the way to Seattle to do this interview.

VW: Well, it's been a pleasure really.

<End Segment 49> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.