Right around 9:30 I told one of the guys who I was working with, "Hey look there's a girl on the balcony over there. Bet you if I wave to her, she's going to wave back."

For two years, one leg was shorter than the other. He had a hearing aid, and he had a big steel plate in his face. Whenever he would drink beer, his skin would tighten up and you would see the mark of the plate in his cheek. He was off work for five years.

So, I went to Montreal to get some tools. Pliers, work boots, gloves, whatever I needed and they supplied the rest. I wasn’t the crane operator. I was what they called the “tag man” on the radio giving him signals to move the crane.

I finished high school in 1966 at Bishop Whelan in Lachine. My mother gave me two weeks to find myself a job or something. It was a Wednesday when I was packing my clothes. I figured I would go and join the service because everyone was joining the Marines at the time.