 Welcome to another show of Celebrate Life. My name is Gary DeCarlas and I'll be your host today again. The goal of this show is quite simple. We want to celebrate people's lives while they're very much alive versus wait to read an obituary and then say, gosh, I wish I had met that person. This show is all about celebrating people's lives while they're here and with us. I'm a firm believer that everyone has a story to tell. This show is an opportunity for people to be able to share their story with all of you. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please email me at celebratelife0747 at gmail.com, or if you have a question for our guest, you can do the same. Send an email at celebratelife0747 at gmail.com, and I'll make sure that the guest gets a chance to look at it and respond to you. Well, for all transparency sake today, I want to say that I'm interviewing my sophomore in high school math teacher, Mr. Simpson, or today we'll call him Bob Simpson. He also was my father's best friend, my father who taught music at my high school in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and Bob were very close. I'm honored today to introduce to everyone Bob Simpson. Hello, Bob. Good morning. Hey, Gary. Did you see that after all these years? Yes, after all these years, and there are many years that happened between then and now. We're one of our separate ways. You're up in the North and I'm way down here in New Mexico. Yes. I'm sorry. It's great to see you and the years have, you look terrific. The years have done you so well. Young jeans, that's what it is. There you go. Gary, when I first came to East Brunswick High School, orientation, teacher orientation, before the kids got there, they told me that there were soccer coaches down in the gym. So I went down after the meeting, and there was Whitey Waldorf and Leon Florek, you know, and we were chatting for a while, and Whitey turned to me and he said, get a crew cut and shave close and we'll put you on the team. I looked more like a senior and a teacher. I guess I've always sort of had that youngish look anyway. Yeah, yeah, and you still do, and it's wonderful. But, and it's all about that. Go on. You just don't see the wrinkles, that's all. Well, the fact that the belly's getting bigger. Well, let's start. Where would you like to start about talking about your life? I know you're from, go on. One thing that has always been with me throughout my life is the fact that I, being born on January 25th, that's the anniversary of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. So I've always had an association with him, and it's rather strange, maybe you might call it. My grandfather was John Burns. Not that we know if he was related to Robert or not, but in Britain, it is the custom to give you the middle name of your grandfather. So I would have been Robert Burns Simpson. But mom and dad thought, people are going to say that, talk about this, you know, we're just trying to be high, high-falutin, as we would say. And so they changed it to my other grandfather, Campbell, John Campbell. And so I became Robert Campbell Simpson. Born on 25th of January, 1936. I was born about 1235 in the middle of the day. And at one o'clock, my father was at the football game. We were born at home. Yeah, right? We didn't go to a hospital or mom didn't go to a hospital. The doctor came to the house. Did that ever happen here in America? Wow, wow, back in the day, maybe. A long time ago, maybe, yeah? Yeah, yeah. A long time ago. Anyway, that was me in this world. And then you were in, where in Scotland were you born? I was born in Lark Hall, which was a village of about 10,000 people at the time. To be a town, you had to have a charter. And we didn't have a charter, so we were a village. We were the largest village in Scotland and had the distinction of having the highest viaduct in Scotland. Not much of a distinction, is it? Anyway, as I said, three years later, my brother came along. Unfortunately, he missed me by a day. He was born on the 26th of January. Wow. My brother, Johnny. Yes. Did Johnny live, did he move to the United States? He came over, yes, he came over about, what, 63, I think it was, December of 63. Yeah, it would be because I had just bought a nice new 64 Dodge Dart. I picked them up from the airport in this new car, you know. Yes. My dad had flown over before that, though, and he had established himself with a job before Mum and Johnny and my sister Margaret came over. That was a long time ago, right, enough. That was even before you, so there you are. Yes, that's right. So what was life in Scotland like as a little boy? Well, I went to school at the age of four and a half. And everybody walked to school. There were no buses or anything like that. I went to Glengoren school, primary school, because that's where my dad had gone. And you sort of followed along. And there, it was a good school. It really was. I learned an awful lot in primary school, I can assure you. We're good teachers, we're disciplined, wouldn't we? Which, you know, you learned, you went to school to learn. But you had a lot of fun, just the same. Because they had a playtime in the morning of about 10, 15 minutes. And before it, remember, I was in school during World War II. Your dad was in Italy at that time. Wow. And we got cheap milk. And that was the big thing, the kids could get milk. It was a third of a pint. And it cost us a hipney, which was this, well, not the, that wasn't the smallest coin in Britain at the time. They still had farvings. But the hipney was valued at two farvings. And I used to drink five of them. Three in the morning and two in the afternoon. We've got another playtime in the afternoon. It was a, you can't be thinking or holding kids' interest for too long. Right. So you let them get excited and run around and wear off some of that thing. That was a lot of fun. I enjoyed, I really enjoyed my schooling. As a matter of fact, and of course I did work. I did work. I learned as much as I could. As a matter of fact, we were living, we didn't have a home. I was born in 88 Manille Street. That was my great grandmother's house. It contained my great grandmother, my grandmother, father, mother, and me. Wow. Two rooms. Wow. And we did have an indoor toilet. Wow. That was a biggie. Wow. But when Dad went into the army in 1940, he was conscripted. Mum and two children, because Johnny had come along by that time. Right. Behind them. And we just lived in Manille Street for a few years. And then I don't know what happened. Probably a disagreement between the women. But we moved to my other grandmother, Granny Burns, for a short time. Then we lived with great-grandfather Woods for a few, not very long. And then we lived with grandfather Campbell for a while. And we lived in, with a family, we rented a place, a room. Not a, you know, that's all you got. You rented a room up in Neverson Street. Now, I can't remember the name of the people. But we ended up renting later from the Miller family in Albert Drive. And then we got the news, the war was over this time, the news that we had been given a prefab, which you probably, not unlike a mobile home, really. Yeah. They moved it in, they built the foundation, moved it in, set it down, bombed. Well, that was wonderful. Oh, I bet. We had two bedrooms, we had a living room, we had a kitchen, we had a little gas refrigerator. Wow. Tiny, it must have been about five cubic feet, and that was it. Indoor plumbing? Indoor plumbing, great. We had our fire, we had a coal fire, of course. This was, we were in a mining district, that's how it was, my grandfather Campbell, he lost him to black, black lamb by the age of 27. Oh, boy. So I never knew him, he was gone before I came along. Wow. But we had the coal fire heated low water, and we could have a bath. What do we, whether we want to do or not. Okay. So that was that part of it. Yeah. That's how we, that's how we grew up. And back at school, I got burned, I was a kettle of boiling water getting knocked over, and I got my ankle burned, and it was our final exams, and Mrs. Armitage had taught my father, was teaching me and promised to teach my brother before she retired. She was a terrific teacher, tough as nails, tough as nails. But my mum put me on the bicycle and wheeled me, holding on to the bicycle, to school, because I couldn't really walk. Wow. Remember, I told you we walked all the way here. Hey, right. That's, that's amazing. But that's the way it was. You just did things that I didn't know it was. Yeah. Yeah. Car. I mean, you couldn't have got a car anyway. You couldn't get petrol. Right. Only people like doctors could get petrol. And they, of course, was, that was because they were out saving lives, you know. Yes. So. Well, so when you think of those days and be in your young years like that, whether people that you aspired to be or that were, you know, I told you about that Mrs. Armitage, right? Yes. That she is the one who made me become a teacher. I want you. I wanted to be like her. Yep. Yep. So from there on, and I was what? I would be 11 years old. From there on, all my aim was to be a teacher. And so all the courses I took in high school were aimed at getting me to university to get my degree to be a teacher. So I guess, yes, I would love to have been a soccer player. And I did get, you know, I did get to play for the school. I played when I was at elementary school at Glengoren. I'd left half back. They don't have, they don't call them that anymore. A midfielder, I think. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And then I played in high school too. And on the high school team. And how, how well did your teams do? I'm sorry? How well did your teams do? Did you have, were you successful? Your teams, did you win a lot of games? Oh, no. We didn't have, in spite of the fact that almost everybody, including a few girls, played soccer, you know, or football as we call it. I mean, after all, you play it with your feet. Exactly. The, we, we didn't get a coach or anything like that. One teacher would take us to the game and sort of super by hand out the uniforms and what have you. And that was it. There were no practices. You just played on your own. And I was fortunate really, because that house that I was born in backed onto the local soccer field. So I went out the back gate and I was in the soccer on the soccer field. And that's where we played. And I, although not always on the actual field because the groundskeeper would come around and chase us. Wow. There were public soccer fields, of course, that you could play on and traveling and all I had to do when I was young, if I stayed with my grandmother, which I did at the weekends, was get up, eat and go. Come in for lunch, go back again, come in for dinner, go back again and come in when it was too dark to play. Wow. So that was those were good days. Yes. When you don't have anything, you appreciate everything you get. Exactly. Me to have a ball. Oh, I was the center of attraction of everybody. No, that's right. We played with newspapers all balled up and tied with string. Wow. Somebody found a tennis ball and we played with a tennis ball. That's amazing. When I got a size two football, wow. That was the BZs. But it's those little things in life that we take for granted. Exactly. Wow. And it teaches us to make do with what other we've got. Right. You make things out. You know, people don't do that nowadays. That's right. That's right. That's right. Now you there's two awards that you got while you were in school that I want you to talk about the. What academic. Okay, yeah. They were, I got the duck's medal at Glengoren. Because I, I scored higher than everybody else. You know, It's a matter of fact, and that Mrs. Armitage, she was just, I spoke about earlier. I worked hard for her. Because, you know, she just took an interest in me because of dad. It taught him all those years before. Right. Teaching me. And she was a tough taskmaster right now. And. Of all the weeks in school, we had. We kept grades. Each day. At the end of the week. At the end of the day. They would. We would sit in seats according to our grades. Oh my goodness. Seats. I was in it 33 out of the 36 weeks. Wow. Wow. I lost it once to Willie Scott. You were the star. You were the star. Oh, it was tough though. I mean, not. Willie Scott was rare. It was always close. Wow. It was always really close. But that kind of competition. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we were friends. We played on the stage. Wow. One of the times when I was home, I met Willie. And his. Son. His young son. Was an absolute genius. The kid was talking at. You know, we, we before. Anybody else. Yeah. We were friends. We played on the same soccer team. Wow. Wow. We played on the same soccer team. Anybody else and everything else. Yeah. Willie was a smart lad. Right. Okay. So it was Tommy. Tommy and I used to sit together. We had in the high school. We had what we call chummy seats. Two people sat at the desk. Okay. And Tommy would be sitting next to me. And we were sitting in the middle of the class. In the middle of the class. In math class anyway, not the English or a job review or anything else. But in math class. And we used to. See who could get through the homework. Fastest. The teacher would give out. Mr. Fairleave. You. We would give out the assignment for the next day. And we would do it before. racing against them. But that, as I said before, that kind of competition was good. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, we learned. I never, that's, that's an idea that I never thought about before in terms of when you're young, having some competition to push you, to do more. Yeah. It keeps the interest going. Yeah. Wow. Oh, yeah. No, it's great. I'm enjoying this. So then, at some point, you decided to leave Scotland. Yes. Again, here comes the football. Well, when I was in Glasgow University, I would come home, get my work done, and I'd go play with the boys and teach them or try to, you know, to, you know, organise it anyway, sort of. You would pick sides. You'd play maybe five against five or whatever number you had. Or if you didn't have enough, you'd just kick it back and forth. So when I graduated from university and then went to Jordan Hill and got my teacher's diploma, I couldn't teach in Larkhall. All the kids knew me as Bobby. How can you teach the kids that, no, they say, hi, Bobby, how are you doing? So I was going to have to move or teach somewhere else. And Isabel, my wife now, had been in the United States at the age of 11, I think she was. She had an aunt here who worked in service hotels. She worked down in Miami in the wintertime, and she worked in the Adirondacks in the summertime. And her husband was a chef and did the same thing, see? So Isabel came over to visit. And as a child, you know, the family couldn't come. But Isabel's fear was paid for by the, by her aunt, since she came over. And she had such a great time. Of course, being a wee Scottish girl, she was different from everybody else in the center of attention. And when they went up into the Adirondacks, they had horses and that kind of, so she got to ride horses, oh, wonderful, you know. So her eyes were as big as fire as that. And when we talked about having to move to someplace else, I wanted to go to New Zealand. I had been in classes with a merchant Navy lad, merchant Navy during the war, and he came to the university on a scholarship afterwards. He had been in New Zealand, and he thought it was a wonderful country. So that sparked my interest. And besides, their education system was the same as ours. So I fit in as far as that's going. But Isabel won out. And we came here, came to New Jersey. She had an uncle in New Jersey who worked for, oh dear, Isabel reports, he worked for the printing company, McFadden, McFadden Press in Dunnellon, New Jersey. He was a proofreader there. And so he arranged that I would have a job, because my brother was in education and promised, but that was only on the surface. Don't tell everybody that. Well, I was really an English teacher. That was my major. That was your major, yeah. And so I went to different schools looking, you know, were openings. But they were afraid that my Scottish accent would confuse the kids. Or they wouldn't understand. And I went to Petty and to Hun. And both of them wanted me. Not because I was a teacher, but because I played soccer. It's such a competition. Isn't that something? No, I could do this. But then they wanted me to be in a head of a dorm of kids, you know. But they wanted my wife to be the house mother as well. And so I turned that down. Went to East Brunswick and they had filled the position. But I tried. Who was the principal then? Do you remember his name? Jesus, I don't. No, I can't either. Remember he was killed in a car crash. Yeah. Well, he, if you remember, we had a German teaching German. Yeah. And we had a lady from the islands teaching Spanish. He wanted to have international teachers. He wanted to have that broad school. That was a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. Although there were some good ideas in East Brunswick. So he said he would make some arrangements and I could teach math. Well, math was a minor, really. And so I took the position and started teaching and went to New York with Charlie Hammond. Remember Chuck? Oh, yes. That's right. I do absolutely. Niceest guy in Orville. Yes. I used to go into Newark College of Engineering and at nighttime to taking math courses. And then I got my extra six credits that I needed to, you know, to get my qualification in math. Right. That was good though. It was good working with Charlie and good being with Charlie. We also played golf together. Wow. And then you ended up coaching. I ended up coaching because if you're, I don't know if you remember the history of it, but when the high school opened, it had, would it go through? It started with taking eighth grade, ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th. But then the other two junior highs are really going and so eighth grade disappeared. And that was as much as Whitey Waldo was qualified to teach. He wasn't qualified to teach the high school. Yeah. Leon was Leon. It's funny we were all in math, isn't it? Yes. Interesting. Leon became the head coach and they needed a JV coach. And so I got the job. Wow. JV coach. Yeah. And I had to, I never had a losing season out there. That was hard. That doesn't surprise me. Do you remember Lou Cosser? Yes. He came along and he became the sophomore coach when they did that. Wow. Great team. He ended up being a girl soccer coach. What a fantastic record. So we taught him well because he didn't play soccer. Wow. He just learned it by watching and looking and working with us with Leon and I. Yeah. But he became very smart as a coach. How did you meet my father? Well, I love music. I love music. And they went along to the concert, the first concert that was on, you know? And I heard him play that saxophone. Oh, my. Could he make it sing? Yeah. So being outgoing as I, as you would no doubt realize I am. I, you know, I just, I hadn't met him. Yep. And when I spoke to him and got involved that way, we chatted. Then, excuse me, once we got to be acquainted with that, we'd go to all of these concerts and I recorded them. I just put that booth up over there with an old reel-to-reel recorder and got the microphones out there and all of these concerts, band concerts and the concert concert. Yes. Yes. And when it came to, we got to go to up the Buffalo where your dad was born, right? Right. Yep. And with the drill team and band and everything, we were in the parade. Wow. And he needed, he needed somebody to come along and, you know, help look after the kids. Yep. So he asked me and we went up to Buffalo and well, that was a, that was a nice thing. And that was my first, I got to see a bit of Niagara as well. Oh, yes. Absolutely. We've been up there. Did you get to meet my grandparents? I didn't meet any of the family. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, that was a big treat. I have all those tapes here. Oh, you have. I have all, all those tapes. And then later we went down to Disneyland. The one in the world. Yep. Yep. Disneyland is California. And we, that was another trip we took together. Okay. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. And if you're, your dad remember had lost his hearing on the lower notes when they lost his leg, he lost his hearing there as well. So he asked me to pick him out. I find equipment, you know, we went along the Radio Shack, which was just, it was right there where the model is now. Yeah. And we got an amplifier and we got the tone table, we got the speakers and I set them up because he couldn't hear the lower notes. Right. Thought to a certain level, everything was fine. Yep. Interesting. Excuse me. And he even called the dog Saxie, didn't he? That's right. That's right. The dog was called Saxie. Music was his life. Saxophone is, oh, he had it. He wanted it as a youth. That's right. And he had another one, but he, he didn't particularly prefer to keep that saxophone that he won as a he had it repaired so many times. And that's right. Person who repaired it said, you know, Chick, this is not going to last much longer. You know, if this goes again, I'm afraid you've had it. Yes. Whatever happened to that saxophone? I have it right here. You don't play. I used to put, I used to put, no, I don't play that one. I would not ever attempt to play that one, but I played saxophone through high school and then a little bit after, but not much after. And I, you know, I consider myself someone who loves music, but I'm not a musician. He was a musician. He had that gift. He was a natural. Yeah. He was. He could make it, say. Oh, yes. But remember when he was blowing a trumpet when he burst something in an eye and he could only see halfway. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it didn't, didn't bother him. No, he carried right on. Never stopped him. That's right. Even with that artificial leg, he would still march, march, march. Yep. Oh, oh, he loved his music. Yes. Yeah. So you stayed with teaching long after I had graduated. And then at some point you, you said it's time to move on. Well, yes. Where we lived in Piscantui, it was growing, unfortunately. When we bought the house originally, there weren't houses all around us. There was a few and that was fine. But people that moved out to the country, the first thing they did was buy a dog or bring a dog and tie it outside and it would bark all day. And it drove my wife crazy. She actually sought help, medical help or psychologists to try and overcome this. But right across the road, directly across from us, was a big galsation. You call them German shepherds. And it was a policeman's dog. He was a policeman. And as soon as he would go to work, she would put it outside and bark at everything, kids, cats, birds, whatever. Brought my wife bananas at home and find her in tears. So we had to move. Yep. We had to move. And my father, by this time, had gone out on a trip to California and enjoyed it there. We set out, we had a travel trailer. It was about a 28 foot or something. And a big forward station wagon to pull it. And we just set out. We had to go to Florida first, because that aunt that I told you that Isabelle came over to when she was a child, she had died and we had to go and take care of the getting rid of the house, etc. and all the stuff. So we went down there with Isabelle's father and mother had come over to go with us because he would be the one who would inherit, you know. Yes. Yes. Being the brother. And then from there, we spent a Christmas down there in 78 under 79, went across country, came up to Albuquerque because some members of my church back in the Netherlands had retired to Rio de Janeiro, which was, you know, they advertised all over the place at the time, come and live here, you know. Yes. Buy a plot, an acre land or something. And so I came up here because the fellow who sang tenor with me in the choir, he had moved here. Wow. From here, we went over to California and then we found that houses there were a little bit more expensive. Yes. Yes. At that time, you were, they were in the 90s. Ha ha, I wish I'd bought one. Put an X for zero on it now. Oh dear, dear. Yeah. But we were, I also went up north just to see the country with the trailer and the kids. We had stopped to Grand Canyon and everything, you know. So it was a good trip anyway. Absolutely. Come to Washington and bite down again with, as I say, just looking at the, I quite liked Washington because it reminded me of a lot of Britain. The same kind of plants grow there. I could see fox collabs, I could see broom, I could see gorse, you know. Yeah. It just tugged a wee bit at the heartstrings. Yes, absolutely. But we didn't know anybody out there, you know. We looked at the property, but we decided we were, I needed to get a job. I had applied at a couple of schools, but you know, it doesn't, you don't transfer from one state to another. You've got to be re-qualified and lawyers and doctors and that was hard. No reciprocity, no necessarily. See, I could teach in Canada. They recognize everything from Britain. I could teach in Australia, New Zealand. My goodness. New Zealand was willing to pay my fare. Wow. Wow. By boat, you know, but and I had to promise to teach where they sent me for, I think it was two years, and then I could go anywhere. But I was to teach where I was needed. Exactly. Which was fine, you know. The only thing I get in there though is so far away. Right. You know, it's the other side of the world. Right. You don't exactly fly home. Right. Exactly. No. That was another reason that the United States, you know, you could get home and from New Jersey, well, from New York, it would only take six and a half hours. Right. Home. So last night wasn't too bad. Had your parents moved to the United States as well? They had, they moved, they came, dad came about just after Heather was born, 63 he came. And the following year, mom, Johnny and Margaret came over. Wow. That's wonderful. Yeah. And Isabel's family, did they come over? Isabel's family, no. They only came to visit. They were older. Isabel was the baby of the family. Okay. Yep. Whereas I was the number one child. Yes. And my dad worked here until he passed away. Unfortunately, at the age of 64 and 11 months, he never got a chance to retire. Very young. Yeah. He had a hard, he had a hard condition. When he was in the tank core, the first loathing and border Yeomanry, when Yeomanry are food soldiers, but he was in a tank, it was a tank core during the war. Well, they used to have to sleep under the tank for safety. Wow. He went, he didn't go over on D-Day. He went over just after D-Day. Wow. Wow. And the Americans used to laugh at them. The British would go in three ranks. The first rank would be firing, you know, the second rank ready to go in. And the third rank getting everything prepared behind. So when you were in that third rank, you had time for tea. Used to get what they called a billy can with full of dirt or petrol on it, set it alight and boil low water for the tea. Oh my goodness. British really did run on tea. But the Americans used to laugh at them, you know, crazy things they're doing, you know, making tea. Wow. It's still my favorite drink. I'll be having a cup later. Oh, good. I'll have a cup with you. Oh, I really like, yeah, I can't function without my tea. Oh, that's crazy. So you ended up settling in New Mexico in the end. I ended up here, we came back because the prices here for houses were better. And besides, I had friends. It's kind of nice to have friends, isn't it? You know already. So we found a place to rent while we looked for a house for ourselves. And it was writing like three doors down from a friend of ours. So you know, that was fine. Wonderful. And then we bought a place and stayed there for a while until we built our own place or had it built. We picked out a design and had them build it out. We out in the Mesa. I had 2.78 acres that I was sitting on the desert. But it had a wonderful view of the Sandia Mountains. Wow. Now the peak there is, what, some 10,000 feet high. It doesn't look that because you're already on a plateau. 5,000 feet. So it only looks like that. But it was, you know, the sun comes up over it in the morning. It's quite something. That's beautiful. It was until somebody built a house between us and our view. They had, all the lots up there were acres. And he built at the back of it. If he'd built it up a bit, he would have had the view of the sand at the back. Nobody else could build on. Anyway, we decided our youngest daughter, our younger daughter, had moved to Texas. Her husband was a Texan. And he's hard anyway. I don't know. I think he was actually born there. But he, you know, he wore his stets and all that. He wore it to bed. Anyway, they moved and she was pregnant. So, you know, family who want to be there with the grandchildren, you know, we moved to Texas. We had a nice house in Salado, Texas. Then they were going to move to another part of Texas. And I, you know, I sing, I sing in a choir. I wasn't happy there in Texas with a choir or being without a choir. I was pulled back here, my old choir. Because my other, my older girl stayed here. And we used to come through like in the summertime and we'd come through again at Christmas time. And when I come home, I go with a choir. No other welcome, you know. I go with, oh, Bobby's here. Bobby's here. They missed you. So, I had that and Heather, of course, who, Heather was the actress. She was the one who went to New York to make her fortune and came back to New Mexico eventually. She did the circuit of, oh, through the, what are the, the Poconos. Oh, yeah, right. They had the Pocono Playhouse and it was up in New Hampshire that she went to as well. They had three of them and they took the shows, you know, in rotation around about them. So, she was a singer, dancer, actress, you know. Well, it was not paying money and she was, when she did finally come back to New Mexico, she weighed 97 pounds. Oh, boy. She's only, she's only about five foot two though, you know. Okay, yeah. But she was skinny. It was, it, it was costing her every penny she was making for a rent and just to keep going. Just, you know, whatever you could get. Their minimum, yeah, tough life. Yes, that's a tough one for acting, although I did, but only on the amateur stage. Right, right. That was one thing I did in high school. I joined the drama club. We used to do one act plays, but in those days I could learn lines like that. Now I can, I have to look inside my jacket to find out what I need to do. No, no question. Yeah. I have to, although I can't memorize music anymore. The tune is all right. That's in there. But I can't memorize the words of the music, so I have to have it always in front of me. Yeah, that makes sense. Last night, you know, if I get, we were site reading, as I call it, for the first time, you know, so you have, you have to look at the notes, the words, and the director. I have a tough time with that. I've slowed down quite a bit, Gary. I don't play soccer anymore. Now just watch. I haven't kicked the ball in ages. Did you coach? Must be about 10 years since I last kicked the ball. And with my granddaughter. How about coaching? Did you have you coached at all after you left? Oh, I, I, uh, oh, when I came here, I couldn't teach. I would have to have taken my, you know, the funniest thing. I would have to have taken you in Mexico history. Right. Cheers. As a math teacher, what was I going to do with you? Did you have to take New Jersey history when you came to New Jersey? No, New Jersey, New Jersey is good. Believe it or not, New Jersey is good. Interesting. They accepted me. No problem. Yeah, yeah. They did need some teachers, but they wasn't bad. When I got here, they said they had, you know, 100 applicants for 10 jobs or something like that. You know, great. Nowadays they'd give the right teachers. Yeah, that's exactly right. You're absolutely. There are out over 100 teachers short. Yep. I'm too old to take it out now. I would probably forgive the fact that I don't have any New Mexico history. I'm sure they would. No, no, yes. Inspiration. But it's a mixture of cultures, you know, a very large Hispanic group. There's the Navajo Nation. That's right. And the Apache. Yeah. South. And a lot of playblood as well. Yeah. It's really a hodgepodge and that's concerned. But that's fine. That's fine. You know, listen, we're getting close to the end of the interview. Are there anything that we haven't touched on that you would like to talk about? Oh, I don't know. We've been chatting away for nothing. How about any words of wisdom about life that you'd like to pass on to the audience? Get that education. Get that education. Really. And it really has to be when you're young. Or you have to be exceptional not to or to catch up if you start late. It's really from day one, learn, encourage them, encourage the kids to learn. Don't blame the teachers. You know, they're laying down with all the responsibilities. But my son is, he's pretty smart. He dropped out of high school and applied to UNM, University of New Mexico. And he dropped out in his senior year, actually. He wasn't challenged, unfortunately. He needs a challenge all the time. All the time, that boy. I understand that. That boy, that boy is 50. Yeah. Anyway, he is the entry exam. And then he came up to New Jersey after a year at UNM. He finished his education in New Jersey, working in a bank during what he could. And whatever else. Well, he graduated magna cum laude. So he's a pretty smart kid. He went to Southern California, UCSD. All the professors wanted there was help with his book. They have to publish apparently in California if they want to maintain their professorship or whatever. Yes, publish or perish. That's it, exactly. Publish or perish. So that wasn't for him. He's a bit of a rebel like his father. But you know we were rebels, because remember when we went on strike? When the two of us, dad and I, on the picket line. You know, that's an experience. We were having a meeting that night as well with the board and your dad said, well, why don't you just come home with me and have dinner with a little doll and I. And I called my wife and said, told her that Chick had invited me to dinner. That's when I first made McQuentin's with garlic. Oh boy. And it goes in everything I make. Oh, that's great. Yep. Again, my wife said she could smell me before she could see me. Yeah. Harry made a good Italian meal, that's for sure. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. Oh, wonderful. Oh, listen, it's been great having you on the show. It's been great seeing you again. And I hope this is not the end. We'll do this again off TV. Well, we'll keep in touch this time. Absolutely. Thank you very much. All right, you're welcome.