My grandparents came from England to Canada. Several of my brothers and sisters were born in Canada. When my parents moved to East Rochester New York the rest of us were born.
My family would take the ferry across Lake Ontario to Cobourg Canada every chance we got, it cost $1.50 to cross. It would take about 2 hours to cross the lake, my family played cards on the ferry across to Canada. We would drink coke and play cards. We would play Fish and Old Maid. A Coke cost .05 each.
Spending time with my grandma making dinner in her old wooden stove is my favorite memory of her. I would have to pump water from the well and heat it to clean dishes.
My grandfather was a farmer and grandma was a housewife taking care of the kids.
My dad always taught me that if you get paid for 8 hours you do 8 hours work and make it an honest 8 hours.
I was born May 14, 1933 in the Genesee Hospital in Rochester New York.
I was named after my dad Douglas Sleeman Sr.
I have 6 older siblings and 3 younger. We got along just like any other siblings.
My family didn't really do things together, but I spent a lot of time during the summer at Lake Conesus.
I lived in East Rochester N.Y. until I was 18 years old when I enrolled in the Air Force in 1952.
When you have 10 kids in your family you have to share rooms Mom and Dad slept downstairs and the kids slept in the 3 rooms upstairs.
We used to jump on our beds and had pillow fights and jumped and wrestled a lot.
My favorite meal was/is spaghetti. My home town was 95% Italians so there was a lot of Italian food. I love spaghetti and hot dogs. My mom cooked most meals and we ate around 5 pm every day.
My favorite Popsicle flavor was orange.
We didn't go out to eat as a family very often. We would go to Don and Bob's or Seabreeze amusement park or Bill Gray's where they had a big jar of pickles. They had the best hamburgers and hot dogs.
I loved to play kick-the-can with all the kids in the neighborhood. We would stay out until 11 or 13 at night when we played.
We used to sit on the railing in the middle of town and watch the cars and people drive by.
The city had no little league set up but my friends and I used to play baseball at the park.
I used to play outside a lot. My friends would build forts in the sand hills. We had little trucks and cards and we would play in the sand building roads. We had a lot of fun.
I would chum around with friends that were good kids, we didn't have to worry about chugs. I ran around with Bob Tougher. He would say, "You may be tough, but I'm tougher." We used to work on cars all the time.
Monroe County sheriff's deputy Chester (Chet) Holden was sure he would catch us when we would drive past him "opening up our pipes" (unhooking the muffler so the car was really loud!) So one day we took a logging chain and wrapped it around his bumper and around a telephone pole he used to back up against. We drove by and the deputy jumped in his car to chase us and he didn't go very far. When talking to him later he told us he knew it was us, but that he couldn't prove it. I doubt he ever backed up to a telephone pole again. (I dated his daughter Beverly.)
The only pets we had was a small dog, like a house dog.
I remember always wanting to be a truck driver because my dad was a truck driver. I ended up being a truck driver. My dad had a moving company before the war, then had to close it down when he couldn't get good drivers. Dewey Veley Hoffman drove dads 1941 pickup first and broke it in. It ended up being the fastest truck in town.
My favorite holiday is Christmas.We never had a lot but we always had fun. We would sneak down to see if Santa had come and we would always get caught. Mom and Dad wouldn't let us come down until everyone was awake.
My school was two blocks away, we would walk to school everyday.
I attended East Rochester elementary, Jr. High, and East Rochester high school. We would come home every day for lunch because our school didn't have a lunch program. We would take a lunch and eat it at school if we wanted to.
All the grades had different classrooms. Grades 1-6 was elementary school, 7-9 was Jr. High and 10-12 is in High School. All the schools were in one building.
My favorite class was Home Economics, we used to cook food.
My grades were never the best. We weren't graded by letters, we were given grades by numbers, 60's, 70's. I goofed around in school a lot.
I liked going to the movie theater, there was a series of Clark Kent Superman movies that we would watch every Saturday. It cost $.10 to see a movie.
My first car was a 1939 Ford Convertable. It was gray and I can remember taking the engine out of it to put in a stock car for a race then put it back in my car. I think I paid $300 for it. That was a lot of money back then.
I worked at McConnell's Dairy in Pittsford, N.Y. on the weekends and at night. I also worked at Parkside Dairy delivering milk every morning. I was a runner so I would take the milk to the house from the truck. I worked at Parkside dairy when I was 12 years old then I moved up to a driver when one of the drivers got his wrist cut. I think I made $5 an hour, which was a lot of money back then.
I worked as a pin-setter at Nile's Bowling Alley. I was the fastest pin-setter because I could do alley's then most could do one.
The toughest job I had was working at RC Willey. I would rather work outside in the fresh air and not indoors.
I'm not sure I had a favorite job. I liked most everything I did. I worked hard at every job I ever did.
I left home when I was 18 years old to join the Air Force. I left home Jan 10th, 1952 to Basic Training at Sampson Air Force Base in Geneva N.Y.
I never attended college, only my brother Alan went to to college.
Gordon Simmons wrecked his car and needed a ride to the Air Force recruitment center so I took him and the recruiter talked me into signing up. My parents were not too happy I signed up without telling them, but I also had to tell Lona who was washing mirrors at the ice ream shoppe, I told her that I had signed up and I was afraid she was going to break the mirror.
I attended basic training at the Sampson Air Force Base I was there for 12 weeks and took an aptitude test and I was qualfied to operate heavy equipment so they were sending me to Fort Dix in NJ. At the last minute someone called me back and told me I was heading to Fort Sam Houston (Army Base) for 8 weeks of medical training. I learned how to give shots with oranges. I was in the 49th fighter bomber wing, 49th medical group. They flew me from Sam Houston to Pittsburg CA to get on the ship. We passed Alcatraz Island and under the Golden Gate Bridge. I spent 14 days on the USS Gordon on the way to Korea. The rough water didn't bother me, but the calmest water day I got really sick. I threw up in the head (toilet). I remember seeing Tony Rosati (Infantry- front line) on the ship. I saw his name on the back of his jacket. I yelled his name and he turned around and asked "What are you doing here?" I replied "The same thing you are." He didn't make it home. (Not sure of destination Seoul Korea) They would bring the wounded to the field hospital in a helicopter, and I would drive them in the back of an ambulance to the hospital. The bad shape ones were sent to a hospital in Germany. After 3 months they called the 49th back home. I was sent to Tague Korea (1952) in the 58th medical group. That's where they brought a lot of the wounded soldiers in. I drove ambulance back and forth there as well for about 8 months.
uss gordon
Seabreeze amusment park
Lake Conesus
gray's
Bob
Dewey Veley Hoffman living with parents
Movie theater you would go to?
