VOICES OF OUR REGION
Frank Ventrosco
Transcript
Interviewers: So next time you come in the building down there and I see you, then we’ll know each other.
Frank: Okay.
Interviewers: My name is Judy.
Frank: Okay. I heard your name mentioned there.
Interviewers: Did you?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Yeah. Rachel probably.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Well the first thing we want to do Frank is just you say…so we get it on the recording. Are you ready Tony? Yes. So we get it on the recording we just want to say your name and where you were born and if you have any family. What your family is. So go ahead.
Frank: My name is Frank Ventrosco. And I’m…I don’t have a family. Everybody passed away. Except…
Interviewers: Go ahead.
Frank: Except for my cousin, she lives in North Hills. And I live over at North Side.
Interviewers: And that’s were you grew up?
Frank: Yes. Over Chestnut Street, Triply Street, or Spring Hill.
Interviewers: Oh yeah.
Frank: Up through there.
Interviewers: My son goes to North Catholic.
Frank: Ah. In Troy Hill.
Interviewers: Yeah. Well, Frank, tell me a little bit about your life. What did you do? I know you were photographer, right?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: You are a photographer.
Frank: I went to five years of school over at Allegheny Campus for it. In 2001 I stopped smoking and I said, well, if I got $6 for pack, two packs of cigarettes a day, I got $6 or $7 for a box of film that last me a week. So I quit.
Interviewers: Ah.
Frank: And I saved all that money up that year. And I got a camera and all the equipment and went to school. I’m a happy man. I’m still living. I’m not dead from smoking cigarettes.
Interviewers: Good. Good. Good. So do you have a disability?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Do you mind if I ask you what it is?
Frank: They never told me.
Interviewers: What do you mean?
Frank: They never told me. They probably told my wife, but I don’t know. They did tell me I got…got a learning disability.
Interviewers: Okay.
Frank: And I got…I got problems with my legs.
Interviewers: Okay. Okay. And are you on medication?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Yeah. So how long has that been? A long time or just recently?
Frank: A long time.
Interviewers: Wow. And did that affect what you did in throughout your life or you just?
Frank: I just go by day by day.
Interviewers: Day by day. Yeah. Well what was so…tell me what was interesting about your life.
Frank: What do you want to know?
Interviewers: I want to know everything.
Frank: I feel like I’m in a police department.
Interviewers: No. Tell me some of the a…You went to regular school.
Frank: Yeah. I dropped out when I was 18. I got a job working for the city.
Interviewers: What did you do there?
Frank: Parks.
Interviewers: Oh.
Frank: And I was landscaping all my life. All the way up to the Gulf War, well 1990…’72 I started working in the cemetery. In ’81 I broke my leg in the cemetery and my legs got bad after that.
Interviewers: Oh.
Frank: An 800 pound headstone went on me.
Interviewers: Oh my gosh. What were you doing?
Frank: I was moving a headstone.
Interviewers: Oh moving it?
Frank: We lost the balance on it. I got pinned underneath the stone.
Interviewers: Oh my gosh.
Frank: I almost died.
Interviewers: Did you? What did it…I mean it what, smashed you leg or?
Frank: Um hmm
Interviewers: Oh my. Oh my. So, I’m going to try to turn this thing off, if I can get the kid to stop…This is my son calling me. Don’t you hate it when that happens.
Frank: I’m 58 now, so you figure 1981. How old was I? I forget.
Interviewers: I think that was twenty…
Frank: I feel like 60 now.
Interviewers: Twenty-seven years. You were like… you were 31.
Frank: Hmm.
Interviewers: Wow.
Frank: Same day when the president got shot in the head. Reagan. Same day it happened.
Interviewers: Oh.
Frank: Same day it happened.
Interviewers: Oh my. It wasn’t a good day for anybody. Geez. Did you know, you said you worked the Did you know Gary Cavalli?
Frank: Maybe to see.
Interviewers: Who did you work for?
Frank: I worked for St. Michaels.
Interviewers: St. Michaels what?
Frank: Cemetery.
Interviewers: Cemetery? Oh. Oh. Okay so that happened so then you couldn’t work…do that kind of work anymore with your legs?
Frank: No.
Interviewers: Yeah. So then what did you do?
Frank: Got on disability.
Interviewers: Oh. Um hmm. But then you eventually you went to CCAC.
Frank: Um hmm.
Interviewers: How did you get interested in photography?
Frank: My wife was dying. She…She had a stomach operation. Well, I…I don’t know. An angel came down and saved my life I think. She was dying from a stomach operation over at Allegheny Hospital. And I was depressed and I said I can’t be depressed for all my life with this problem. So for some reason I went to school.
Interviewers: That’s a good thing.
Frank: Everybody said, ‘Frank going to school. Come on.’ Not Frank. Well I show everybody. I showed everybody up.
Interviewers: Good for you. Good for you. So tell me about a…So up until that accident you didn’t have a disability then up until ’81?
Frank: Hm umm. Yeah, before that. I was test out. I don’t know what they said to me at the time, you know. I didn’t pay too much attention.
Interviewers: But something like a learning disability.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Yeah. Yeah.
Frank: Everybody got problems.
Interviewers: So you were married.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Any kids.
Frank: Yeah. I was married three times. The first marriage, I was married. My son got killed. He got shot to death.
Interviewers: Where, on the North Side.
Frank: Cherridan
Interviewers: Oh my.
Frank: It was…It was in the news. That happened about 12 years ago. I’ll tell you about that after this program is finished.
Interviewers: Okay.
Frank: The second marriage, my son is a fireman out at Sharpsburg right now.
Interviewers: Really?
Frank: A volunteer fireman. And he’s a chef.
Interviewers: Where does he work?
Frank: Jimmy’s Restaurant out in Sharpsburg.
Interviewers: Yeah? I know it.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: I grew up in Etna.
Frank: Oh.
Interviewers: Right there. Yeah. I worked for them.
Frank: Yeah. His name is Craig.
Interviewers: Must have been about three years ago.
Frank: Do you know Craig?
Interviewers: Off the top of my head, no. But if he was there three years ago, I would have worked with him for sure.
Frank: Tall…Tall dude.
Interviewers: So you…So that’s two. Is that…You just have the two?
Frank: Um hmm.
Interviewers: Two boys? So do you see Craig?
Frank: Oh, yeah.
Interviewers: Yeah. That’s good. That’s good. And now you…you live…you have your own apartment.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: On Turman.
Frank: Um hmm.
Interviewers: Yeah. Yeah. Well what did you…So during that period between getting hurt and then going to school what did you do with life? What did you do everyday?
Frank: Just search around and see what…see what I was interested in.
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: I wanted to go to art school.
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: Doing stuff like that.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm. It sounds like you have sort of a creative side.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Like landscaping is creative, too.
Frank: Um hmm.
Interviewers: Yeah. Well that’s good. Did you make any money off taking pictures?
Frank: Umm, sometimes.
Interviewers: Did you? Yeah?
Frank: Freelancing, you know.
Interviewers: Good. Good. What…Oh, I forgot. I had something on the tip of my tongue to ask you about that. How did you get involved with Rachel and that group.
Frank: Through my girlfriend.
Interviewers: Tell us about her.
Frank: Well she works for the clubhouse down town. I don’t know how she got involved with Rachel. She told me to come to the meetings. Meet new people. So I went and I’m out here now.
Interviewers: You’re an advocate.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: That’s for sure. Yeah. Where did you meet your girlfriend?
Frank: On the…On the 500 bus.
Interviewers: No kidding. On the bus. Well I never thought about meeting people. Meeting a boyfriend on the bus. And you hit it off or what?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Did you talk to her? Didn’t know her, just started talking?
Frank: Talking.
Interviewers: Yeah.
Frank: I have some pictures of some tigers I took out at the zoo two weeks before that. I was going somewhere with the pictures and I showed her the pictures. She asked me for one and I gave her one. And we started hitting it off.
Frank: I teached her about photographing.
Interviewers: Oh. So where you onthe bus at the same time all the time?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Going somewhere?
Frank: Um hmm.
Interviewers: That 500 goes everywhere. It’s true. I see. So that would be your meet up place.
Frank: In a way.
Interviewers: And where did she live?
Frank: Down North Side.
Interviewers: Oh, she lives on North Side, too. All right. All right. So what else can you tell me about your life, Frank. What’s there…What’s…What’s had a big influence on your life. Anybody in particular?
Frank: Singers, music. Stuff like that.
Interviewers: What kind of music do you like?
Frank: Rock.
Interviewers: Rock. Old rock or…?
Frank: Yeah. 60s.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm. And how has that influenced you?
Frank: I was raised on all that stuff. Beatles and Abba. All kinds of groups like, you know…
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: …back in the 60s.
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: I’m interested in music, too.
Interviewers: Are you?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Do you play an instrument?
Frank: Guitar.
Interviewers: Do you serenade your girlfriend?
Frank: Once in a while.
Interviewers: Oh, wow.
Frank: My landlord, he lives upstairs and he’s pounding on the floor most of the time. ‘Shut that noise off.’ Tuff beans.
Interviewers: Well after a certain hour.
Frank: Well, I’m talking about 12:00 in the afternoon.
Interviewers: Oh, really? Oh.
Frank: He doesn’t know nothing about all the stuff I do.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Like what? Your music?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Yeah.
Frank: Or shooting photographs?
Interviewers: Yeah. Yeah.
Frank: He hates to see people get ahead.
Interviewers: Really. What’s he do? Nothing?
Frank: Starts trouble with me.
Interviewers: Have you been in trouble?
Frank: Nope.
Interviewers: Nope.
Frank: No way.
Interviewers: What do you do with Rachel’s group?
Frank: Well, go down to Harrisburg. And she asked me to photograph the people in the auditorium and we was just down there a couple weeks ago for that $60.
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: For people…
Interviewers: For personal care kind of stuff?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Yes. Yeah. How did that go?
Frank: Good.
Interviewers: Where there a lot of people there?
Frank: Oh, yeah.
Interviewers: Who pays for the bus? You guys don’t have to pay for it, right?
Frank: I don’t know who pays for it. I keep out of that stuff.
Interviewers: But I mean they don’t ask you for money.
Frank: No. It’s none of my business, so.
Interviewers: You mind your own business, uh? So, Frank, what…in terms of your life, like, has it turned out the way you hoped it would, or?
Frank: I wish I was rich.
Interviewers: Don’t we all. But you are rich. You have friends.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: You have a girlfriend.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Yeah. That makes you rich. In a different way. Yeah. But anything else, I mean like, do you still wish you were able to do the landscaping?
Frank: No.
Interviewers: No.
Frank: That takes a toll on your body.
Interviewers: Yeah.
Frank: Standing on hillsides like that with a wacker, you know, weed wacker.
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: It really takes a toll on you.
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: That’s why I walk with a cane, because, you know, working in the cemetery you always had to do that, you know.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm. Maybe you could give my son some advice. He’s doing landscaping now.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: He’s working for a landscaper. He hates it. It’s killing him. It’s hard.
Frank: Yeah. Hard on your bones.
Interviewers: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So what do you do everyday?
Frank: Loaf around mostly. Go out with my camera.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm. What kind of camera do you have?
Frank: I’ve got six.
Interviewers: Oh. I got one. Well that’s good. So different cameras for different things?
Frank: Yeah. In a way, yeah.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm.
Frank: I’ve been taking pictures of trains recently.
Interviewers: Yeah?
Frank: Good subject.
Interviewers: Ym hmm.
Frank: I was at Kennywood a couple of years ago. Three days in Kennywood taking pictures of the rides out there. I used black and white film. All the pictures came out great.
Interviewers: Maybe they would like to use them for publicity or something?
Frank: Maybe.
Interviewers: What about Rick Seeback…
Interviewers: …did that whole thing…
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: …on the lost Kennywood or something like that.
Frank: Um hmm.
Interviewers: Right?
Frank: Every time I get a hold of him, he’s never around. I know he’s a busy guy.
Interviewers: How did you meet him?
Frank: In a book store out in Waterworks one day. We went out there with our digital camera. Asked him if we could take a picture of him and some other people out there. He said yeah.
Interviewers: You got out there on the 500 didn’t you?
Frank: Um hmm.
Interviewers: I know that bus.
Frank: David Crowley, he was there, too. He’s wild.
Interviewers: Yeah. What were they doing?
Frank: Signing books.
Interviewers: Oh.
Frank: Dave, he wrote a book about cats.
Interviewers: Cats?
Frank: Poem…Poem book about cats.
Interviewers: Oh.
Frank: That guy is a very talented man.
Interviewers: Hmm.
Frank: Did you know that?
Interviewers: Mm mmm.
Frank: He just did another book again.
Interviewers: Is he the guy that’s on KDKA?
Frank: Yes.
Interviewers: Hmm. I didn’t know that about him.
Frank: I like…I like to me, telling people because they’re very interested in learning things off of him. You know?
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: You know what I’m getting to? If you talk to people like that you can learn a lot off of people like that.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm. But you’re interesting, too.
Frank: Yeah?
Interviewers: I mean everybody has their little things, right?
Frank: Um hmm.
Interviewers: Who’s the most interesting person you ever met?
Frank: I was down town a couple of years ago and I met Trini Lopaz, in person.
Interviewers: Really?
Frank: At the Renaissance Hotel. I got his picture at home, too.
Interviewers: Really?
Frank: Yeah. Do you know who he is?
Interviewers: Hm hmm. She’s too young.
Frank: Yeah. I got his picture at home. He was doing an oldies concert in Pittsburgh.
Interviewers: Oh, no kidding.
Frank: He came out from the Renaissance Hotel. I said Trini Lopaz? He said, ‘Yes sir.’ I said, ‘I’m one of your old fans. I got lots of records by you at home.’ And he said, ‘ Yes.’ He said, ‘What records…What songs did I do?’ And I named them. He’s there, Hhhhhh.
Interviewers: Aaa.
Frank: I said, ‘I collect records, too, sir.’ I said, ‘You got time?’ He said, ‘Now a little bit of time.’ He said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘You get your guitar out. I want to do a song right here on the street.’ Yeah. He was shocked. He said, ‘Boy, very smart man, sir.’ I wanted to do a song with him.
Interviewers: Wow.
Frank: Just to be with him for a couple of seconds, or minutes and, you know, that feeling you get, you know?
Interviewers: Yeah.
Frank: He said, ‘I’ve got to get going.’ And he reached in his pocket. He was looking for tickets, but he didn’t have no tickets for me.
Interviewers: Ahhh.
Frank: I said, (snap).
Interviewers: Yeah. Oh, man. Does he look the same?
Frank: He got old, real old.
Interviewers: Yeah. Real old? Really? Wonder how old he is?
Frank: Maybe in his 60s now.
Interviewers: Yeah. Boy that was exciting, huh?
Frank: I went home, I called everybody up. They said, ‘No way.’ I said, ‘Don’t believe me then.’ I said, ‘You’s never believe me when I photograph people, famous people.’ And I got the pic…You know, I got the pictures developed. I sent the pictures to all my relatives. ‘Holy smokes, he is telling me the truth.’
Interviewers: Yeah.
Frank: What’s wrong with people? They don’t believe you when you tell them something, you know?
Interviewers: It sounds incredible.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: You were in the right place at the right time.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: That’s what you have to be.
Frank: I got…I got pictures of Letterman in person, too.
Interviewers: Really?
Frank: Yeah. I got pictures of them with me standing in front of them.
Interviewers: Oh yeah. Oh, wow. What about when the…we they had the all-star game here. Were you taking pictures at all there?
Frank: I’m not into foot…baseball too much.
Interviewers: Oh, no, no. Other kinds of things. Music.
Frank: Music. Fishing. Mostly fishing.
Interviewers: Fishing?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: You like to fish?
Frank: Oh yeah.
Interviewers: Where do you fish?
Frank: All over the place. Anywhere my rod takes me.
Interviewers: The a…You don’t fish in the river do you? Do you? You don’t eat those fish do you?
Frank: Do. You’ll die.
Interviewers: I know. Jeez. Wow. Well, how long have you been fishing?
Frank: All my life.
Interviewers: Really? Who started you off fishing?
Frank: My friend’s father when we was little kids.
Interviewers: Um hmm. He took you fishing?
Frank: Yeah. At North Park. And before we came home we stopped at McDonalds out on McKnight Road when hamburgers were $.05 a piece. I got good memories.
Interviewers: I hear it from my parents.
Frank: Huh?
Interviewers: I don’t remember those days.
Frank: No?
Interviewers: My parents tell me about things that are so cheap
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: They used to have that commercial $.47 for a three course meal…
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: …at McDonalds.
Frank: He…
Interviewers: Tony would remember that?
Frank: He used to buy us a big bag full of hamburgers. ‘Eat up, boys.’
Interviewers: That was nice.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Yeah. Do you have any friends from those days still around?
Frank: Yeah. One.
Interviewers: Do you?
Frank: Most of them…Most of them got killed over at Vietnam.
Interviewers: Really?
Frank: I was searching for them back in the 60s and 80s. I heard they all got killed. All the teenagers I used to went to school with.
Interviewers: Um hmm. You didn’t a…
Frank: They got drafted in that.
Interviewers: You didn’t get drafted?
Frank: No, because I was the only son in the family.
Interviewers: Oh. Oh.
Frank: But when I broke up with my first wife, I wanted to go. And they said, ‘No way.’ I said, ‘Well…’ I said, ‘My marriage is done for.’ I may as well go to the service.
Interviewers: Yeah.
Frank: I wanted to go, too. By back in that, I could have made a career. And lived like a king when I got out, probably.
Interviewers: Um hmm. But they…they wouldn’t take you?
Frank: Nope.
Interviewers: And your parents were still alive?
Frank: My mother was.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm. Oh, so you were their…Do you…
Frank: I was the only son.
Interviewers: So do you have sisters?
Frank: No.
Interviewers: Oh, you were an only child?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Oh, I see. I see. That’s why. Oh. Yeah, but…
Frank: I wasn’t afraid to go.
Interviewers: No. Yeah. That was a scary time though.
Frank: Yeah. Me and my girlfriend, we came from her apartment one day. We’s going up to my apartment over North Side and some bullets come flying up the street last year ago. And almost hit us. And I heard…We heard the guns going off down an alley way and we heard the bullets coming up, and I said to her, I grabbed her by her coat, I said, ‘Duck behind a car.’ And the bullets ricocheted of the house. One bullet went though the window. I was fuming. And a cop came about 10 minutes later. You know how the cops are
Interviewers: Hmm.
Frank: That guy said, ‘Are you alright?’ I said, ‘You give me a badge, you give me a gun, and I’ll go down there after them guys myself.’ He looked at me. He said, ‘You’re a brave guy.’ I said, ‘It took you 10 minutes to get here.’
Interviewers: What part of North Side was that?
Frank: Off of Brighton Road and California Avenue.
Interviewers: During the day?
Frank: Yeah. I said, ‘It takes you 10 minutes to get here. I’m not afraid of them guys. Without your guns, you’re nothing. With your guns, you think you’re Mr. Macho.’ But without your guns, they’re weasels, I think. I’m not afraid of them idiots. He just looked at me. He took off after the guys.
Interviewers: Really? Did they ever catch them?
Frank: Oh, yeah. We heard they caught the guys.
Interviewers: Um hmm. It’s dangerous down there. You like living there?
Frank: I was raised on the North Side. I’m used to that kind of stuff. Everybody says to me, ‘You’ve got guts, Frank.’
Interviewers: Especially where you live.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Yeah. Wow. I’m surprised you don’t still live where…out by Chestnut.
Frank: Even surprised I’m not shot yet, right?
Interviewers: No.
Frank: I don’t know how to handle myself other there, that’s why.
Interviewers: Well, that’s good.
Frank: Um hmm.
Interviewers: Yeah. That’s good. Wow. That’s a…I have friends that live up in Brighton Heights. Not far from Turman. That…That seems kind of safe up there.
Frank: On certain sections, yeah.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm.
Frank: Down where I’m at by the state store, it’s crazy down that way.
Interviewers: Oh, hmm.
Frank: But upward by Eckard’s Drug Store.
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: It’s pretty safe up that way.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm. Wow.
Frank: And most of the time people know not to mess with me. I don’t take it off of them, so they leave me alone. They say hi to me and bye and that’s it.
Interviewers: So do you ever hang out with your friends?
Frank: Which ones?
Interviewers: You said you only…Yeah, you have friends.
Frank: Yeah, I got friends, yeah. In Brighton Heights, yeah. One guy, a neighbor of mine…
Frank: …he plays blues music.
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: He’s got his own band. I go up to his house sometimes and he got six guitars and I play music with him.
Interviewers: Were you ever in the band?
Frank: No.
Interviewers: No.
Frank: I just help him out a couple of times at his house.
Interviewers: Um hmm. So when you and your girlfriend get together what do you do? Where do you go?
Frank: Go out and take our cameras out. Go to the flower show in Oakland. Places like that.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm.
Frank: Venture.
Interviewers: Um hmm. That’s nice. That’s nice. Got any questions? No, just a…Actually, photography is such a hard thing to break into for jobs. How do you hustle jobs, just word of mouth?
Frank: Pardon me?
Interviewers: How do you get jobs with photography? Just word of mouth or…?
Frank: I guess. If I figure you’ve got to ask the company if they need you or not. That’s what I’ve been taught.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm.
Frank: But I just go out and shoot pictures, you know.
Interviewers: Are you doing it all digital or…?
Frank: Now I am. Yeah.
Interviewers: Do you have a computer then. Do you bring them into the computer?
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: What program do you work with?
Frank: What program?
Interviewers: When you bring them into the computer, how do you…?
Frank: Oh. She’s…she’s ain’t on the internet. We just get a cd and then we put the pictures in a computer and print them out that way.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Frank is there anything, like, we’re doing this cd for people to hear and to learn about people’s lives in this area. Is there anything you’d really like to say that you want on this cd?
Frank: I can’t think of nothing.
Interviewers: Got any words of wisdom?
Frank: Let it be.
Interviewers: I don’t know. You’re a comedian. I don’t know. You missed your calling. Oh, my. Oh, my. The Beatles.
Frank: People say, ‘You got an imagination, Frank.’
Interviewers: Wow. Did you ever think about getting…You’re 58. Ever think about going back to work? No.
Frank: No.
Interviewers: You’ll have…You got your disability. You can’t.
Frank: No.
Interviewers: Not really can you? No. Wow. So that’s your words of wisdom huh? Let it be. Let it be.
Frank: For everybody else, too. Do what you have to do in life. You only live once, you know.
Interviewers: Um hmm. Um hmm.
Frank: Yeah. Think about that.
Interviewers: That’s true. I believe that. I believe that. How about you, Thena, any questions? No, but I think I had keep on
Frank: You probably…
Interviewers: Go ahead, what?
Frank: The problem was the most interesting person here today, me. Huh?
Interviewers: You’re interesting all right. We’re laughing a lot with you. At least we’re not bored, right?
Frank: No.
Interviewers: Whjere do you see, you know, your life going? Do you think you’ll keep going with photography. Is that something you’re…
Frank: I love it.
Interviewers: Um hmm.
Frank: I wish I…I wish I did it back in the 60s.
Interviewers: Yeah.
Frank: To shoot pictures of hippies and a (? - 0:08:42) back in them days. I could have be famous now like other people are.
Interviewers: Yeah. Oh, you probably would have of my parents everywhere.
Frank: Pardon me?
Interviewers: You probably have had pictures of my parents from everywhere. I was named after The Who song Athena. Really? That’s how I was named. So I grew up with 60s rock music being.
Frank: Oh yeah?
Interviewers: Um hmm. Yeah.
Frank: That was…That was great, great living back in them days. Sometimes. My mother was pretty strict with me so I listened to her. That’s why I’m a good guy.
Interviewers: Umm.
Frank: That’s why I don’t have a police record.
Interviewers: That’s good. Where your parents young?
Frank: No.
Interviewers: When did they die?
Frank: Well, my father was 43 when he died.
Interviewers: That was young.
Frank: Yeah.
Interviewers: Yeah. Um hmm. And your mom still living?
Frank: No. She died in ’83.
Interviewers: Oh.
Frank: From a stroke.
Interviewers: Mmm. Um hmm. That was awhile ago. Twenty some years ago. Twenty-five. Yeah.
Frank: And she raised a good kid, so.
Interviewers: That’s good.
Frank: And I’m proud of myself.
Interviewers: You should be. You should be. You’ve never been arrested.
Frank: I wasn’t raised like that.
Interviewers: But you yell at the cops.
Frank: Huh?
Interviewers: Are you…Do you yell at the cops?
Frank: Sometimes.
Interviewers: And they don’t arrest you?
Frank: If I know I’m in right.
Interviewers: Well, okay.
Frank: You got to think before you do things.
Interviewers: That’s right. That’s right. That’s right. Wow. Well, I really appreciate you doing this for us, Frank. Is there anything you want to tell us with the…mic…with the recorder off?