This is MIKE MONCUS conducting an oral history interview for the Troup County Archives. Today’s date is August 18, 2003, and I’m interviewing RICHARD WOLFE at his home on Azalea Drive. The time is 4:40 p.m. MIKE MONCUS: Mr. Wolfe, would you tell us who your father was, his full name and who your mother was and her full name? Be sure we get her maiden name, please. RICHARD WOLFE: Yeah, my father’s name was James G. Wolfe. He was an orphan boy. He was born in Clay County, Alabama. My mother’s name was Lillie Bell Abney. She was from Chambers County, Alabama. My mother and father married at Fairfax Mill in Fairfax, Alabama. MIKE MONCUS: So they met there? RICHARD WOLFE: They met there, both of them, back in those days people moved from the farm to textile plants for employment and livelihood really, so when they had a plant that was operating in full capacity, doing fairly well, people would move from the farms into the textile plants. MIKE MONCUS: You don’t have an idea about approximately what year they got married would you? RICHARD WOLFE: Yeah, they got married in 1923. MIKE MONCUS: In Fairfax? RICHARD WOLFE: Uh, in West Point, Georgia by a Justice of the Peace. MIKE MONCUS: O.K. All right now when and where were you born? RICHARD WOLFE: I was born at 13 Sirrene Street that’s Sirrene Street, Dunson Mill village here in LaGrange. I was born March 7, 1925. MIKE MONCUS: All right, uh, now so your parents, after they were married they moved to LaGrange. RICHARD WOLFE: Moved to LaGrange. MIKE MONCUS: All right, and they went to work for, who did they go to work for here? RICHARD WOLFE: Dunson Mill. MIKE MONCUS: All right. And Dunson Mill was a plant owned by, who owned Dunson Mill? RICHARD WOLFE: O.K. It had a long, long history. It was owned and founded by the Dunson family. It remained Dunson Mill until 1953, at which time it was purchased by Pepperell Manufacturing Company. The corporate office [was] in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1965 Pepperell Manufacturing Company and West Point Pepperell merged to form West Point Pepperell, and it operates today as a plant of West Point Stevens. MIKE MONCUS: When did Stevens come into the picture there? Do you remember? RICHARD WOLFE: I don’t remember exactly when. I was away at that time. I was not living here at that time. MIKE MONCUS: All right. O.K, getting back to your family, do you have any brothers or sisters? RICHARD WOLFE: Only child. MIKE MONCUS: Only child, all right so your first home was on Sirrene Street? RICHARD WOLFE: That’s right. MIKE MONCUS: Here in LaGrange? RICHARD WOLFE: That’s right and I was born in that house and I lived there until I was 18 at which time I was drafted into the Army during World War II. MIKE MONCUS: O.K. and what was the number of that house again? RICHARD WOLFE: 13. MIKE MONCUS: Number 13 Sirrene Street. Is that house still there? RICHARD WOLFE: Still there. MIKE MONCUS: O.K. RICHARD WOLFE: I still drive by it occasionally. I have many, many memories of that house. MIKE MONCUS: Who are some of the people who lived on your street that you grew up on Mr. Wolfe? RICHARD WOLFE: O.K. Next-door neighbor was a person named Al Daniels. He was the manager of the Dunson Baseball Team in the old textile league. You’re probably familiar with the textile league; he was our next-door neighbor. I remember across the street a Mr. and Mrs. Knight, next to the Knights were the Polk family, next door was the Cantrell family, next door was the Webb family and across the street at the bottom of the street was the Maxwell family. MIKE MONCUS: Of these you’ve mentioned now, did they have children with whom you played with and all quite a bit? RICHARD WOLFE: Yeah my friend growing up on that street was my age, his name was Alonzo Claxton. He went into the Navy during World War II and he was killed in a plane crash in Norfolk, Virginia. He was my very, very best friend at that time. I’ll tell you a little about that house. MIKE MONCUS: Go ahead. RICHARD WOLFE: I tell my children about how I grew up and the living conditions, but they don’t believe it, cause they’ve never experienced it. We didn’t have any electricity. We had what we called an oil lamp, a kerosene lamp that was our light. We had a three-room house, had one fireplace in that three room house, one fireplace. We didn’t have any plumbing. We had an outhouse. We had a community well. The well would service about 20 to 25 families, so every afternoon late we’d go down and fill your buckets up and bring them home. Then another vivid memory I have, the mill company had a black person and a wagon and a mule and they’d come around periodically and clean out those outhouses. That was always an adventure for us kids. (laugh) He’d come by and do that but we didn’t have any utilities. We didn’t have anything. MIKE MONCUS: Who owned those houses? RICHARD WOLFE: Dunson Mill. Dunson Mill owned 330 houses. MIKE MONCUS: And that was basically in the community around RICHARD WOLFE: Right around it. Everything revolved around the mill. They built the churches, Dunson Methodist Church, Dunson Baptist Church, Dunson School. They would furnish coal to the families, back then I believe it was 25 cents a week per ton. You knew exactly how long a ton was gonna last, you know because we didn’t have any money. We were poor folks, very, very poor, so everything revolved around the company; they were like shepherds to the people. They had influence when they moved from the farm into these houses. The houses were an incentive to the people to come and work in the textile plant. They were very structurally sound, very structurally sound; most them are still there. Certain areas of that village people, well the company sold the houses in 1953 to the employees. Whoever was living in the house could buy it, very reasonable price, zero interest, take out so much money out of their check each week to pay for the house. Well that rocked along O.K. for, I’d say, ten years. Then at that point in time, most of those houses became rental houses, because the people normally died out. That really created a problem because the houses started going down. Now there are certain areas in Dunson where, it’s strange, if one person renovates a house, a neighbor takes enough interest and says I’m gonna work on my house. So I can see the condition of the houses in Dunson village beginning to come up, slightly, not a lot, but its sad to me to ride through the village and remember how the houses were well kept, neat yards, and to see how they are today. But hopefully that condition, or hopefully that situation will improve. MIKE MONCUS: Hope so. Hope so. Where did you go to elementary school? RICHARD WOLFE: I went to Dunson School. It was on the corner of Cary Street and Hogansville Road. MIKE MONCUS: So it’s not where the Dunson School building, the last Dunson School building it wasn’t in that location. RICHARD WOLFE: Oh no. It was a freestanding brick building, first through the six grades on the corner of Cary Street and Hogansville Road. Miss Mary Duncan was the principal. She was a role model for me and very strict disciplinarian. She used a bicycle tire for disciplinary reasons wherein she could be fair. Her sister was Miss Edna Duncan, who taught the sixth grade. I can remember every one of my teachers from the first grade through sixth grade at that school. MIKE MONCUS: So you would’ve been there about 1932 thru 1938? RICHARD WOLFE: Well probably ’31 thru 37. MIKE MONCUS: 31 through 37. How about naming, you named the principal, Mary Duncan and your sixth grade teacher, Edna Duncan. Name a few more of your teachers. RICHARD WOLFE: O.K. First grade was Miss Lila Speight, second grade was Ms. Caswell, third grade was Miss Eva Mae Brown, fourth grade was Ms. Gardner, fifth grade was Ms. Perkerson and Miss Edna was the sixth grade. MIKE MONCUS: O.K. Now after there, after you finished the sixth grade there, where would you go? RICHARD WOLFE: Well, I went to Hill Street Junior High. MIKE MONCUS: O.K RICHARD WOLFE: That was a traumatic experience and I’ll tell you why. We lived in one of those environments, all cotton mill folks, went to school together, played together. Then at Hill Street Junior High, we integrated with people from all over LaGrange. I remember I wondered how I would compete with people from all over LaGrange. This might sound strange, but I did. Strangers I didn’t know. We had a very very small school, but very shortly I personally learned that I could compete, so I had no problems. But Hill Street Junior High School is no longer there, as you know. MIKE MONCUS: And then you would’ve gone on to LaGrange High School? RICHARD WOLFE: Uh huh. I remember, I’m telling you another thing that you don’t care anything about. MIKE MONCUS: Yes I do. RICHARD WOLFE: We were so poor that it’s just unbelievable. Miss Thomas, who taught at Junior High School, I made good grades and I’m not boasting but the Good Lord blessed me. She wanted me to say the opening prayer and the benediction at the Hi-Y banquet. We had the Hi-Y Club back then and it cost fifty cents for the student and one parent to attend, and it was a banquet type. I told her, I said Miss Thomas I don’t have any money, I mean I really didn’t, we didn’t have fifty cents. She said Richard you made such good grades and I want you to be a part of this program. Said you go and round up all the coat hangers you can find, anyway you can. I don’t care and bring them to me and I’ll take them in lieu of the fifty cents. And that’s what I did. I say all of this just to emphasize it cause we came up the hard way. Very, very, very difficult. But we didn’t know it; we thought everybody, you know, came up the same way. We didn’t know any difference, but I’ll never forget her telling me to go out get all the coat hangers you can find and bring them to me, and I did. And my daddy went with me to the banquet. MIKE MONCUS: Good, good. Tell us a little bit about the years at the High School. Now, you wouldn’t have gone to the High School building that’s there now, you would have gone to the one that burned before this one was built wasn’t it? RICHARD WOLFE: That’s correct. Uh huh. Er, those were happy, happy days. We only went through eleven grades at that time. I, I’m not boasting or nothing. In a lot of incidences I have to be careful what I say. I was out in…, I’m not going to say it, it sounds a little boasting. MIKE MONCUS: Well we’d like to know. We would like to know in what areas you did well. I mean this is about you, so, you know, I will encourage you to, if you’d like to say it, go on and say it, but if you don’t, then that’s your decision. RICHARD WOLFE: Well, I was always at the top of the class. It was always very competitive between Claire Rowe, at that time, Claire Newman, you know Claire. MIKE MONCUS: Oh yeah. RICHARD WOLFE: And Helen Jabaley and myself. We’d always be one, two, three, or three to one or whatever and I had to study though. They were brilliant; I don’t think they ever studied. My daddy and mamma would get up at 4:30 in the morning to go to work at 6. I’d get up at 4:30 and they’d go to work at 6. I’d get up at 4:30 and that’s when I’d do my homework. Seemed like my mind was fresh and I could do a better job from 4:30 till 6. It didn’t come easy; I worked at it. I wanted to participate in sports and I was too small. I only weighed 130 pounds. I remember that I went out for football and the coach was Mr. Dubose. I remember two guys on the varsity that just beat me to death, to a pulp, not purposely, I guess I was not physically strong enough, was Robert Taylor and Junior Reynolds. Those names might not mean anything, but I remember they were big. And I also remember that Woody Cosper played on that team. They were seniors and I was an older freshman or sophomore. But I did run track. I could run and I guess athletically, I guess that was it. I had a lot of speed, so I ran track, hundred-yard dash, two twenty, four forty on the relay team, and I lettered four years in track. But that’s about all I can tell you about. MIKE MONCUS: So what year did you graduate from high school. RICHARD WOLFE: ’42. MIKE MONCUS: So you were in the class of ’42? All right, what did you do after that? RICHARD WOLFE: Well, after that I went to Auburn. I went to Auburn on a, and there’s no reason to give the details, I went to Auburn when it was Alabama Polytechnic Institute. At that time, I wanted to major in Chemical Engineering. I loved chemistry in high school. Mr. Keller was our chemistry teacher in high school, W.W. Keller. Went one semester. Didn’t have any problems. Made the baseball team that following spring as a freshman. I got homesick. I was in love with the girl that I later married so I’d catch a ride home from Auburn to LaGrange every weekend. The coach finally told me, he said Wolfe, he called me, and you’re going to have to make up your mind between your girlfriend and LaGrange and baseball. I said I’ve already made up my mind. He said “what is it?” I said the girl in LaGrange. He said well turn in your uniform. I’d made the team as a professional second baseman. Then in March, Mrs. Duke Davis, her husband was the mayor, got word to me through my family to come home that my number was coming up through the draft. And that was in 1943. And I did. I’ll never forget, I checked in with her and she said Richard you’re going on the next call. I said when is that going to be? She said next Thursday. Well I came home from Auburn on Friday and went on the troop train to Fort Mac. Several of us went to Fort Mac. [NOTE: Fort McPherson] . . MIKE MONCUS: So you went in, in 43, and there was 2 more years of the war, where did the Army use you? RICHARD WOLFE: (laugh) I never did know how this happened, but they decided that I would make a good medical technician. So they shipped me from Fort Mac in Atlanta to Camp Barkley, Texas, and from there to basic training. Suppose to be 16 weeks. Mainly it was basic first aid, physical training, obstacle courses, that type thing. They taught you discipline. At the end of eight weeks, they called me in before a panel of officers and I didn’t know what was going on. They said you don’t need any more basic training. We’re gonna place you at the higher level, they said. I’ll never forget that. Higher level. They said we want to send you to Officers Training School, medical administrative officer, not a doctor but the administrative part in the medical corps. And I told them I said naw; I don’t want to do that. I don’t know why, I just don’t want to do that. They said well son, they called you boy back in those days, said well boy where do you want to go? I said I want to be paratrooper. And the reason I did, I wanted to come to Fort Benning, that’s where the jump school was. And they laughed at me and said no you’re too light you couldn’t even pull a chute down. And they named over several other options and I didn’t care for any of them. A few days later I was on a troop train going to Fort Bliss at Beaumont General Hospital in El Paso, Texas. I didn’t ask to go there, and they didn’t ask me if I wanted to go and I got some wonderful training. It was medical technician, surgical technician at Beaumont General Hospital. Well trained and I loved that, I really did love it. Then the war was really raging in 1943. They had planned to keep me there as … and being instructor and one day they were shipping me out. They shipped me to the port of embarkation in New Jersey and I went overseas. When I got overseas I was a combat medic, or medical technician. I could go on and on about that but anyway I went in to invade France, at Omaha Beach. Only two in my outfit got off at Omaha Beach …two of us. I never did know what happened to the others, I don’t know whether they were killed; anyway I never saw them again. We went on to 1945 non-stop. I got a Special Commendation for participating in the invasion of France. Then we got all involved in the Battle of the Bulge. Then we got trapped in a small town called Malmedy and some of the guys referred to it as our being Malmedy prisoners of war. We were just surrounded there. The war was winding down…And that’s my war experiences. Proud of that. Not many W.W.II veterans are left. MIKE MONCUS: True. RICHARD WOLFE: I read somewhere where there is 3000 a day dying, now. So there’s very, very few left. MIKE MONCUS: That’s true. RICHARD WOLFE: I’m proud of my military service. MIKE MONCUS: Well you should be. So now the war is over and you return home. RICHARD WOLFE: Yeah, I came home. A lot of things happened to me within a short period of time after I came home. I got home on January l, 1946. I was discharged at Fort Gordon in Augusta. On January 10th, ten days later, my mother died. On January 18th, eight days later after my mother died, I married. MIKE MONCUS: Now who did you marry? RICHARD WOLFE: I married Marion Virginia Howard. MIKE MONCUS: And she was a LaGrange native also. RICHARD WOLFE: Right. MIKE MONCUS: O.K RICHARD WOLFE: Yeah, we were just childhood sweethearts and we’d meet at the Dunson Methodist Church on Sunday night. That’s where we courted at church, you know back then. Course you had to be at home before dark back then. We were married on January 18th of 1946. MIKE MONCUS: How about your work? What did you do as far as work after coming home? RICHARD WOLFE: I’m going to get around to that in a minute. But when I got out of the Army, they gave me $300 mustering out pay. They gave everybody $300. I thought I was rich, I thought I’d live forever on $300, which was a good bit of money. Well my wife and I, Renee’s mother, we honeymooned for three months. I didn’t work and it really upset Marion’s mother because I didn’t have a job. I’ll never forget that. But I told her when the money was gone, I would get a job and go to work. That was not a good answer but anyway, in the meantime, I’m rambling a lot but I’m trying to put it together. My daddy who had worked at Dunson Mill had personal problems and he’d moved down to Enterprise, Alabama, just needed a change of environment. Marion and I moved down and lived with him for 6 weeks to help him get his house straightened out. And that summer I played baseball, class D baseball with the Enterprise Boll weevils. They were a good baseball team. The history of the bollweevil, at that time, all the cotton farmers, and the bollweevil came into that part of the country and devoured the cotton crops so they were forced to go to another money crop. Then they started raising peanuts. So they erected a monument to the bollweevils on the square in Enterprise, Alabama, and it’s still there. Monument to the bollweevils. So when baseball season was over the team I played on and they talked to me and told me they want you to move up to the southern league and play second base with them. Well that was a temptation. About that time I got word from the manager of Dunson Mill, and I want to certainly mention his name, his name was Mr. Walter Morton. He was my mentor; he was mine, ours, and one of the finest people I’ve ever known, a very gentleman. He got word to me that he had a job that he would like for me to come and to talk about. So my wife and I went with what few possessions we had back to Dunson Mill. I accepted this job, which was not much of a job, a clerical type job. And right after that, around 1948, Ricky was born. Then I got real lucky, when I was 21 I was promoted to department head in the carding department. And I eventually became manager of Dunson Mill in 1968. MIKE MONCUS: Let me back up a little bit and ask you, when you moved back to LaGrange from Enterprise to take the job that Mr. Morton had offered you, where did you live? RICHARD WOLFE: O.K. we lived in two rooms of a four-room house and shared that with another family. Shared the kitchen, shared the bathroom. And the family we shared the house with was named Bonner. The Bonner family. MIKE MONCUS: Where was that house? RICHARD WOLFE: It was on Hill Street, 1010 Hill Street, a four-room cotton mill house. We’re got along great, no problems. (laugh) MIKE MONCUS: And then Ricky was born in. RICHARD WOLFE: Yeah, when I was promoted to department head at that time the house went with the job, and it was a much, much nicer house. It was on Greenville Street, we moved into that house. I didn’t want to move into the big house but my wife did because she said they had a phone and a bathtub. MIKE MONCUS: Now where was that house exactly? RICHARD WOLFE: It was right near the mill. It would be at the corner of Ragland Street and Greenville Street. MIKE MONCUS: O.K. RICHARD WOLFE: Huge house, it was a lot more than we needed, but it had a phone and a bathtub, the first one we ever had and Ricky was born when we lived at that house. He was born May l, 1948. I didn’t think I’d ever leave Dunson, I loved Dunson, loved the people and that was my home. My wife and I built a house on Pineview Terrace. It was a brick house. We were so proud of it. I didn’t know how I could ever pay for it, but she wanted to build it and it was a Cape Cod type house. It was a good neighborhood. It cost $20,008. I understand the last time it sold, it sold for more than $100,000. I didn’t think we’d pay for it, our payments was $l65 a month (laugh). That was in 1963 when we moved into that house. In 1971, the company talked to me about relocating for a promotion and opportunities. I very reluctantly accepted and it was the manager of Lanett Mills, which at that time was one of the largest mills in the world. It’s still there. It’s known as the mile-long mill. But the plan was to go in and gut that mill completely. We located any good machines and then buy a lot of modern machines. At that time technology in the industry really began to change. You could buy something today and it would be obsolete in 5 years, so it took 5 years to complete that assignment. And then I got restless and they gave me another promotion, and I hated every minute of it. They gave me the responsibility of six plants, as general manager and I didn’t like it. I missed the people; contact with the people, I missed the machinery. It was strictly an administrative type job. Couldn’t get anything done. When you’re a manager of the plant you could do this, that and bam, bam, bam, bam, bam and on an administrative type job you gotta sell the manager on doing it this way. I didn’t like it, so I started considering changing companies really and had a good offer. Then Joe Lanier, Jr. who was the CEO of West Point Pepperell. He called me to his office one Friday afternoon; never forget it. He said, “Richard you’ve been bugging me now for months about going back to the mill.” I want to go back to the mill, and he said, “I’ve got a mill for you.” And I said great, where is it? Lindale, Georgia. That was one of the six plants I had, and I’m gonna hafta to be careful what I say here, did myself bad, and I confessed it, not making any money and the plan was to shut the plant down, close it. But we didn’t we had a lot of luck along the way and it came out to be the most rewarding experience I ever had. Made denim. We made a million yards of denim a week. That’s a lot of denim. So I finished there and I was thinking about retiring so we built a house in Rome, Lindale, a suburb in Rome. Real nice house and then by then I had about 52 years service and they wanted me to take one more assignment and I agreed and that was to go to Maracay, Venezuela, to build a textile plant. That was the most fun job I ever had. We had a group of 5 guys and I was the group leader. We went down and built a plant from the ground up. Electric machines, pop machines, stock machinery, trained the people, did it all. The only problem was the language barrier. It was a joint venture of a textile company, already in Venezuela, but they wanted technical assistants. So I did that for 2 years. Go down and stay 2 or 3 weeks and come back home and stay a week and go back. My wife would go … It’s just a beautiful country, all kind of natural resources and oil and it has its problems now, as you probably know. And then I really got in bad health. Retired January l, 1996. MIKE MONCUS: Now you were still working with the Venezuelan Plant at that time? RICHARD WOLFE: Yeah, uh huh. My title then was Vice President of Manufacturing International. The title didn’t mean anything to me. It never did, but that’s how I closed out my career. MIKE MONCUS: So that was West Point Pepperell at that time, right? RICHARD WOLFE: Naw. In 1985 Greenwood Mills, Greenwood, South Carolina bought Lindale Mills from West Point Pepperell so at that time it was Greenwood Mills. MIKE MONCUS: They were building a plant in Venezuela. RICHARD WOLFE: Right. MIKE MONCUS: Go back and tell us about, you mentioned that your oldest child, Ricky, was born in ’48? RICHARD WOLFE: May 1, 1948. MIKE MONCUS: Tell us about your other children. RICHARD WOLFE: O.K. We couldn’t have, my wife couldn’t conceive, and she went to Dr. Willis Hendricks, and every time I’d see him, he’d tell me I’m still trying to get your wife pregnant. He was a witty guy anyway. Didn’t anything happen, didn’t anything work. When Ricky was six, we adopted Renee. My wife loved children and she wanted to have more children and she talked to me one day about making an application to adopt a child. Well, we waited and waited and she called me at the mill one day all excited and said they’ve got a baby for us. I didn’t know what she was talking about. I’d forgotten all about the application on the baby. I was busy making a nickel, and she reminded me that we have a baby. So we got Renee. I looked at Renee one time and I said, I fell in love with her, we want that baby. Took her. They wouldn’t let us carry her home that day. They’d make you go back to the motel and think about it overnight. We were there the next morning in the early hours, before they opened up. Apparently we wanted Renee. Renee is 49 now. Best thing that ever happened to us. Best thing that ever happened to us was when we got Renee. Then as it so often happens, after we got Renee, my wife got pregnant. We had a son, named Eric. Eric died at the age of 38; complications of diabetes, he was a juvenile diabetic. And then 22 months later we had another baby, a boy. His name was Jeff. He was career military. Been in 18 years. Worry about him every day so, that was our family. Eric died in December of 1998 and my wife died in December 2000. We had two pretty hard licks there. Back to back. MIKE MONCUS: You did a good job describing the change in Dunson village over the years and how you hope it’s beginning to come back a little bit. I think that’s happened in a lot of areas in the City of LaGrange through the years. Tell us about some changes, other changes that you’ve seen in LaGrange, maybe the downtown area, things that, so you’ve lived here since 1925, course you’ve been away and back and away and back, talk about some of the changes in the face of the City of LaGrange. Good and bad. How about the old courthouse? You remember the old courthouse? RICHARD WOLFE: I’ll always remember the day the courthouse burned. MIKE MONCUS: Tell us about it. RICHARD WOLFE: Well, I was in Dunson School; I can’t remember the exact year. I have it written down somewhere. They told us the Courthouse was on fire and it was to me late in the morning and my memory is just a little fuzzy. That was a long time ago. But I remember our teacher, Miss Edna Duncan, walked us up to the Hogansville Highway so we could get a better view of the smoke coming from the courthouse burning. I’ve got a very vivid memory of the courthouse burning. As far as LaGrange, I was away from here. I left here in ’71 and came back last year so I was away a long time. Other than some changes in roads, bypasses, all the changes in there at Lee’s Crossing, just pass Lee’s Crossing. Then the Industrial Park impressive, very much. I think LaGrange did a very smart thing, rather than going after huge industries that employ 2000 people, and then they get in trouble and they shut them down and you got 2000 jobless. Seems to me like they went after small high tech industries, which makes a lot of sense. Their success rate shows very good compared to a massive technical plant, for example and if they did go under, you know you’re only talking about maybe 20 people being displaced, or out of work. That’s really impressive. The downtown area to me is far superior to many I have seen. I think somebody’s done a real good job on it, revitalizing and maintaining downtown LaGrange, particularly Main Street. That’s impressive to me. I see a lot of new buildings, restaurants. The Recreation Department, I guess education, two things that really impress me about LaGrange, and I’ve lived a lot of places so I can compare with other places, I think LaGrange has an excellent educational system. I like to see the physical plan. Now I don’t know what goes on inside the schools, I have no idea, but it’s obvious that a lot of money has been spent on education. And the recreation, I don’t know of a city anywhere that would compare with LaGrange in the area of recreation. I don’t, really. Cleaveland Field, Shuford Field …this little park down here at Granger Park, the way they’ve maintained it, the usage it gets, it, it amazes me, far superior. I’d like to mention education and recreation. A lot of people think you shouldn’t spend money on recreation. I do. I think it keeps a lot kids out of trouble, if they have somewhere to go or something to do and I can go down there right now and there would be a bunch of boys down there playing basketball or walking. But I don’t think spending money on recreation is a mistake, I think is absolutely necessary. The churches in LaGrange, I’m a Methodist, joined the Dunson Methodist Church when I was six. I’ll always be a Methodist. You can put that in your write up, I don’t care. (laugh). When I came back I joined the First Methodist, I really like Greg Porterfield, and he’s meant a lot to me since I came back. They have a breakfast club that meets every Saturday at eight o’clock over at Katie’s. We’ve become very, very good friends with Paul Baxter. I think he is a very good person, good pastor. Another pastor, the interim pastor at the First Presbyterian Church. When I see these new churches just springing up all over town; anywhere you go you see them. New churches being built. But I’d have to certainly say some good words about religious life in LaGrange. I think it’s wonderful, absolutely wonderful. MIKE MONCUS: We’ve got a few more minutes on the video. Think back now, if there’s anything now, anything that you want to be on this recording and the transcript that will be made from it that people of the future might see or hear or read, anything that I haven’t asked you or that we haven’t said that you might want to go on it. RICHARD WOLFE: Well, I don’t know. But when, my wife died suddenly. We’d been married 55 years. Childhood sweethearts. I never had another girlfriend. She never had a boyfriend, another boyfriend. I was away from her for 35 months. In World War II, I was overseas 29 months. Her death was devastating to me. She was sick eleven days. I knew not to make a hasty decision in moving back to LaGrange, because your mind is all messed up when you lose a close loved one. I got involved with Hospice LaGrange and I waited a year and a half. Renee and Ricky pressured me every day to move back closer to LaGrange and I knew I’d know when the time came, I did. My daughter-in-law found this house. Beautiful home. It’s hard to answer your question. I thought when I moved back, due to my age, that I would know very, very few people. That concerned me. But I know that at least ten of the members of my high school graduating class still live here. I know at least ten. People come up to me now and say you don’t know me do you. It’s embarrassing to me because in many cases I don’t, but it’s a new generation and my generation is passing on. And I guess just seeing the cross section that we have in LaGrange, the diversified industry, diversity of people, the different cultures, all of that impresses me. I want to put in a plug for one thing. I was a combat medic in World War II, I’ve told you that, a medical technician and a good one. I’m a Hospice volunteer, patient care, and men really can but they don’t want to do that kind of work, patient care. To me it’s a ministry because I feel like I’m providing a service for the people, comfort. This facility we have out here, I don’t believe anybody else has one that can even compare to it. We have 4 units, with 4 beds each, 16 beds. And that’s how I’ve spent my time since I retired. I think since I’ve been back I’ve probably had 12 patients. I just think LaGrange is one of the finest places in the world to live, to raise a family, to worship. I didn’t mention medical care a while ago, but we have wonderful doctors, I think we have anywhere. I’ve had a lot of health problems since I’ve been back. I just think it’s just a wonderful place to live, and I’m so happy to be back at home. I think Thomas Wolf was some way I’ve been told, was a distant relative of mine. That’s not confirmed, but he wrote a book, you’ve probably read it, “You Can Never Go Home Again,” but I disagree with my great, great, great, great uncle, whoever he might be, and I certainly favor to come home again. This is my home. MIKE MONCUS: Well, we thank you MR. RICHARD WOLFE. RICHARD WOLFE: Is that all right?