TKC: What was the saddest moment of your life?”

“When I was really young my parents got a divorce, and then my dad was living in an apartment. We’d visit him like every weekend. And then one weekend he introduced us to this new apartment he was getting and it looked really cool. We were all excited for it. And the next weekend we were supposed to visit him, but he just left. Didn’t say anything why, just kind of left. Didn’t tell us where he went. I’ve never heard from him since. I don’t know where he is.”

TKC: How do you move on from something like that?

“I usually just hide it. I really don’t tell anyone about it. I’m a really happy guy. I don’t really think about it that much. Every now and then I think about it, but usually I’m just really happy.”

TKC: How do you keep yourself happy?

“I just smile. Why not be happy? I kind of realized that all the problems you have now in high school aren’t going to matter in the future. Once you realize that, you’re set. You’re happy.”

“I just moved here three weeks ago. I really liked Ladue, but like, the rent was getting really high. It was expensive. And then my parents went through a divorce. Eventually it was going to get worse, so it was sad that they went through it but I’m happy it’s over with now. I live with my dad. I chose. We go every Saturday to rake leaves up to collect money. Summer we cut grass. Winter I’ll shovel.”

TKC: What is the lamest excuse that you’ve ever heard in the nurse’s office?

“You know how people feel just terrible when they have a cold?  Sometimes when we’re waiting to contact family members to pick up the student who’s not feeling well, we’ll say well why don’t you go rest in one of the rooms and we’ll wait for someone to call back.  So, we did that for a student and then the next thing we had was EMS, because during his rest time, he called 9-1-1 because he felt that his cold was so bad.  Our funniest injury was a kid that came in with a large gash on his arm and I said what happened?  How did you get that gash on your arm?  And he said well, they’re doing construction in my classroom and all year long I’ve seen this hole between the classrooms and I just knew if I tried that I could fit through that hole.  And so of course he went in and a large nail was sticking out and just ripped a hole in his arm.  The moral of the nurses office is you can’t make this stuff up.  Our lamest excuse is someone who said that he was not able to take his medicine at home because, and you can’t make this up, he was too busy cleaning at home to remember to take it.

TKC:  Switching to a more serious topic, if you had to give advice to the world, what would it be?

“Wash your hands.  Wait, wear your seatbelt!  Don’t text and drive.  Call your mother.  Be nice to your mother, because she loves you even when you’re not lovable.  Embrace your mistakes.  It’s never the end of the world.  Pace yourself, because high school ends and you go on with life and it’s okay.  Enjoy fun while you’re having fun, don’t wait for things to get fun.  This is the good part.  Whatever part you’re having, this is the good part.”

TKC: “What motivated you to ring bells for the Salvation Army?”

“To help other kids that needed help and also donations for the kids and also to help the parents because people are so homeless. They need homes and that’s what I’m here for.”

TKC:  What is a theme in your life that is important to you?

“Family.”

TKC:  Do you have a family yourself?

“I’ve got four children, all grown, and five-well, let’s see.  No, we are up to eight grandchildren now.  I say that because my one son has three foster children and so that changes real quick.”

TKC:  How would you say having foster grandchildren affects you?  Is it a positive thing?

“Oh yeah, it’s a good thing.  These kids haven’t done anything to deserve their fate.  One little girl was in a hotel and her mother walked out on her.  She was 12 years old.”

TKC:  What is your relationship to Kirkwood?

“You know, it’s a suburb of St. Louis, and I’m a city boy from St. Louis.  Kirkwood/ Webster, the old time suburbs around here that we occasionally ventured out to play football and basketball and whip up on in Tennis.

TKC:  How did you end up working here at the train station?

“Well my career was that of a professional engineer that dealt with transportation: railroad and waterways so when I retired a couple years okay, I’m looking around saying what am I going to do with my time, and wound up working here and at the Transportation Museum.  It stays in the family you know, 45 years dealing with railroads and waterways.”

TKC: “What’s a good story about moving to America?”

“In Vietnam when you want to say thank you, you bow.  In the airport I didn’t know how to use the vending machine. [A security guard helped me] and I bowed, and the security guard didn’t understand what I was doing.”

TKC: What is your favorite story about your brother?

“When I was younger I was sitting on the couch and my brother pushed me off and I started crying. He told me that if I shut up he would give me a dollar. I’ve never seen the dollar.”