Family

An Interview With My Dad

by Stephen Kimball 
04/28/16
Not For Sale

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Interview with dad. Richard Edward Kimball Feb 20, 1933 (77th birthday)

A few years ago, I stumbled onto a similar interview and was taken with the idea. At the time we sat down to do this my father was showing the beginning signs of dementia and I thought, what better way to honor my dad than by taking the time to record, for posterity sake, his thoughts and memories while he still holds them secure in his mind. I am grateful for the example he has set for me and I am most grateful for the Christian heritage he has passed on.  Everyone has a story to tell and there is much to be gained from the wisdom of a life well lived. This is the story of my father and it is a privilege to write it down. My hope is that you too will be inspired and moved to record your family history, in one form or another, for future generations, God bless.

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I think it would be good to just start in the beginning.  Tell me about where you were born, your family, your upbringing.

My father ran off and left my mother with 3 kids, he run off with the maid. She had to support us. She sent my brother off to military academy, which he very deeply resented. My sister married a guy that was a hypochondriac. He had to put Lysol water all over him to get the germs off.

How old were you when that happened?

I was young when my father left. There was nine years difference between my brother Sam and myself and my sister, Maida, was one year older than him. My father was pretty close with my brother but I never really knew him.

Did he stay in contact?

He showed up one day, rung the doorbell, I opened the door and he says “Hi, I’m your dad”.

How old were you then?

We were just married.

And that didn’t go well, I take it?

No. I didn’t even invite him in. I was quite angry.

I could sense that growing up.

Yea….Uh…My mother was the first woman in business in Hollywood.

And what was her name?

Pearl McGee was her maiden name.

And your dad’s name was…?

Sam Kimball…Samuel L. Kimball

Let’s backtrack a little bit. Where were you born?

Hollywood Hills, Florida.

Do you know where your mom and dad were born?

She was born in Canada and then moved to the States. I don’t know where my dad was from.

We lived in the back of a store for a long time.

A book store, is that right?

Well, it started out as a gift shop, or a “woman’s exchange”. People would bring in their handiwork, their crochet work and she would take it on consignment and sell it. Then she started collecting books.  A library, gift shop and then greeting cards; She had all kind of greeting cards. There was a partition in the back of the store and we lived in the back of the store, for a long time…until I was 11 or 12 years old.

And then what happened?

My mother…She was having heart problems. She had an aneurysm and it calcified. The doctor told her to get to a hot, dry climate. So we sold everything and moved to Arizona. I was so miserable, I made it hell for her and so we went on out to Pasadena, California, because my brother Sam was in the Navy and stationed nearby, and bought a little house up in the foothills and I could go out in the yard, look up and see Mount Wilson observatory.   

How long were you there for?

About a year… I wanted to go fishing.

What else do you remember about your time out there?

I was kind of a bully in school... So we moved back to Florida and bought a house in Biscayne Park. It was one of the first houses that was for sale after the war. All the building materials, there was a…what’s the word…well they wouldn’t sell them, with the war effort. And we saved grease from the bacon and stuff, she’d put it in cans and take that in and get food stamps for it because they made nitroglycerine out of it. She was having a real hard time and she would…I think we had a bird, a parakeet, and she would take the feathers at the bottom of the cage, sort them out and then go to the store and buy plain earrings and pins and she would take Duco cement and glue these on and then the next day she would go out a peddle them.

Do you remember when she died?

No. Must have been mid-seventies. She was in a nursing home for a couple years and every time I would go to visit her, it was so emotionally upsetting, I finally stopped going. She would cry and carry on and say things like “oh, you come to take me home, get me out of this place”. It was terrible. So they called me one day and said that she had passed away in her sleep. That was it.

I remember vaguely going to her house in Biscayne Park.

10^th Avenue and 114^th street.

How would you say that your mom influenced you?

Not much.

Was she very permissive or was she a disciplinarian?

I was all the time fishing. I just loved to fish. I use to make my own plugs. I’d rather fish than eat. Daylight to midnight. As a matter of fact, I’ve still got the first fiberglass rod, when they started to come out with fiberglass. I’ve got one of the first ones made. The other ones were made out of Calcutta. Like a bamboo and you would wrap the guides on – I use to wrap the guides. I remember one time I was fishing out at the Hollywood bridge and man, the moonfish and snook were really bitin’, and I stayed out there too late – I was supposed to be home by a certain time. She came out there and grabbed me and broke a limb off of a bush and gave me a good whippin’ (laugh).

So she didn’t let you do whatever you wanted…

No. But I had a lot of freedom.

Do you think you had more freedom than I did as a child?

Yea. I was more or less on my own. She was working in the store. I would even help her sell greeting cards and gifts in the store, at a busy time. Like I say, there was a partition there and I had a little cot I slept on.

And when you got tired of working, you went fishing?

Yea. I’d walk down the street draggin’ a fish bigger than I was… Big snook. I’d take it to the fish market and sell it.

So you made some money yourself as a child?

A little bit.

So Hollywood bridge was your favorite fishing spot?

Yea. One of my best friends was Ed Hansen, I remember his name. He was a bridge tender. I use to go to a bar across the street and get a sandwich or something and bring it back and share it with him. Sometimes he would share his food with me. We were good buddies. But he was old. When a boat would come and blow the horn to open the bridge, we had to walk across, we had to go out and put down the gates and then there was a big wrench on the side we had to take that out and put it in the middle of the bridge in a socket and then push it (open)….it wasn’t a draw bridge, it was a swing bridge.

Who were some of your other childhood influences?

There was a boy named Tommy, he lived about a mile from us, and we used to go out and play cars. Little cars you know, in a sand pile. We would make houses and castles and roads and stuff like that.

I would imagine there was a lot of space…a lot of places to explore.

Yea, in fact, the next street over from Hollywood Blvd. there was a big empty lot and I use to go out and shoot my bow and arrow.

Any other adult influences?

Not really.

How about relatives?

There was an uncle. I had an uncle that was in the First World War that had lost an eye from poison gas - My mother’s brother. I also had a couple of aunt’s that lived in Chicago. We would go up and visit them once in a while - all my mother’s relatives.

What else did you enjoy doing as a child?

I made model airplanes. I’d make them in the store. I loved to make model airplanes. Back then you just bought the strips of wood and you had a drawing and you had to make it from that.

Sounds like the beginnings of a career.

Probably was. I liked building stuff. And I had a, call it a God given ability to look at something and be able to tell how it was put together.

I agree…a God given ability that I don’t have (laughs).

What about school? I know you didn’t finish…

I quit school at 17. I couldn’t wait to get out. By the skin of my teeth, I got by ninth grade. I started school a year late and I failed 1^st grade because I was absent a lot from sickness.

Why, do you think?

They told me I had a heart murmur. I’d get little flutters every once in a while, that’s it.

I hated school. I was a very poor reader. The teacher would always put me up front and call on me to read. That really upset me.

With your mom selling books, did she read to you as a child?

No… There was one book that she had in the store – Uncle Remus, with Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit, she would tell me those stories. 

What did you do after deciding to quit school?

I went to work in a cabinet shop, nailing up boxes. I think I was getting .75 per hour, or something like that. After about 2 years, the owner had to leave for a couple weeks and he put me in charge of the paint shop and the cabinet shop and I was resented. This young kid telling these old guys what to do. So when he got back, I think I asked him for a raise and he denied it. So I threw the keys on his desk and walked out.

So you quit your first job?! Probably drove you to going into business for yourself.

Probably.

Before we move on from your childhood, were there events that were turning points or life changing events.

Yea. I was about three years old. My father had cleared off a couple acres of land in the back and he had dug a big pit and threw all the stuff in the pit and burned it. The next day, my mother went on to work, leaving me with a deaf and dumb maid and I walked out to that pit, picked up something and threw it in but the sand had dried out so much, I slid right down into the pit and it cooked this hand, all the way up to here – see that scar? And my knee. I crawled out and went in and the maid saw me and she picked me up and started running down the road.

Must have been traumatic to remember that at three years old?

Yea. I had two doctors. I called them big doctor and little doctor (laugh).

My mom said that the neighbors did it. We had some neighbors that were at odds with my mother. My mother just bought a brand new refrigerator which made a lot of noise so at night she would close the kitchen door – we had a double action door. The dog was barking like crazy and she went in and when she opened the door the whole kitchen was aflame. So she closed the door and she tried to fight it herself and didn’t have any success. And then she ran back and kicked out a window and put me and the dog outside. She went back to try and fight it but she couldn’t. She called the fire department and the fire department had to call the mayor to get permission to go into the county because they were a city fire department – to fight a house fire. By that time the kitchen, the dining room and part of the bedroom was burnt off. I remember seeing the fireman take his ax and chop a hole in the side of the house and that upset me so much I broke down and cried (laughs). After the house burnt, we took up residence in the back of the store.

Another time, we lived in the back of the store, like I said, and we had a dog named chipso(?). He was a mixed breed. One night somebody tried to break in the back of the store and the dog got into a fight with the guy and he stabbed the dog seven times. Gang green set in and the dog died. He would get underneath my cot and I would try to pull him out and he would growl at me. He didn’t want to come out. That was traumatic.

Let me ask you about mom.

I was still going to school, I guess it was fifth and sixth grade and I would ride by her house on a bicycle and she would be walking so I would pick her up and ride her to the school on my handlebars.

She lived in Biscayne Park, near you?

Yep. And we started going fishing and stuff like that. Helen and I we weren’t even going to mention getting married to her mother cause she’d have gone off. But her dad was more understanding, I guess. So we said, “we’re going fishin’.” So we got up to Waco, Georgia and we sent a telegram to her folks saying “by the time you get this we will be married. See you in a couple weeks.”

I wonder how that went over?

Helen, was just about crying the last two or three hours coming home ‘cause she knew her mother was going to jump all over her. And we walked in the door, her dad was sittin’ there and he says – “well, did you catch any fish? (laughs)”.

How long did you know each other before you got married?

She was 17 and I was 19 when we got married. We had planned to, as soon as she turned 16, we were gonna get married. But we waited until after she graduated. I probably knew her 3 or 4 years before we got married.

Did you ever have any other girlfriends or was it just mom.

I had girlfriends when I was out in California -nothing serious. I was going with mom’s best friend, Elizabeth, in Biscayne Park, when I met Mom.

How did marriage affect you, how did your life change? What was marriage like before Susan and I were around?

I lived in my mothers house (she wasn’t there), for a little while. And they were building some houses right off 16^th Avenue and we were interested in one house. We took her dad over to see it. On our way back, they were building some other houses and we turned off 16^th Avenue onto 16^th court and we liked that on a whole lot better and it was about the same price.

How many years have you been married?

57, I think.  Let’s see…my mother mortgaged her house and bought two cars – they were 1950’s. Before that I had and old second hand Plymouth – the whole side was rusted out.  This was before we were married.

So your mom mortgaged her house to buy you a car?

To buy her one and me one, yea. We drove that quite a while. Then we had a Chevrolet station wagon. We had a Chrysler. Her dad had bought one and we liked it so we went out and bought one.

So how long were you married before you moved into the house that you built in North Miami?

I think it was pretty much a short time - about 6 months.

Tell me about life after you moved into the house. What were you doing?

She was working at the Teachers Credit Union and I was working in the cabinet shop. I was working at Bill Filer’s cabinet shop and I told him I wanted to go into business for myself. He say’s “don’t do it, you’ll never make it.” He say’s “you’re too slow”. Well, you can’t get quality working fast and I was more or less into quality. Interior designers or architects knew that and I got a lot of work from interior decorators.

We were married about 9 years before we had Susan. I got involved in the church after Helen’s sister died. The music that I heard is what got me involved... and getting saved. It was the music in the church....due to her sister dying. I didn’t get much from the sermons.

Were you married when she passed away?

No.

Did you go on your own, or with mom?

With mom…I think.

How big of an influence were her parents in you accepting Christ or going to church?

There was a deacon in the church called Cal Magnis. They used to have visitation days and he came out to our house and told me the plan of salvation and that, I think, was the first time I really heard it that way and I accepted the Lord. I got involved. I was ordained as a deacon in the church.

How has that changed you?

 I’ve changed a whole lot. I use to have a scooter and I’d crank it a few times and if it wouldn’t start I’d kick it, swear at it (laugh). Then it would start, after I kicked it. I used to cuss like a sailor.

Can you contrast the church today and the church from your younger days?

They had a strong alter call in those days. They don’t have it that much anymore – our church doesn’t. If you want to join the church, when you leave there is a couple deacons down front and everybody leaves instead of going down during church

Have you ever had times in your life when you have questioned your faith?

Backslid? Oh, I think everybody does.

I definitely believe that we have guardian angles. Helen and I were coming back from our honeymoon. We drove at night because we thought it was less traffic and outside of Tallahassee there was a five lane road -center lane was for turning. And this car had his bright lights on. So I blinked him and he didn’t blink me back – he just left them on, so I blinked him again and he just left his bright lights on. I blinked him again and he turned his lights out…Came across the center and was headed right straight towards me – and turned his lights on. Of course, I screamed and I made an evasive maneuver, and I went down a little embankment and turned around. Helen was asleep in the back seat…she got knocked off the back seat. So, then I got mad. So I took off back and I saw…we passed a filling station and I saw a car full of black people. Then I saw a highway patrolman or something like that and I told him about it. He says” yea, we got a problem, they try to wreck you and then they come back and rob you.” When we left, I saw my skid marks and we had just passed a bridge. A spit second earlier and I would have hit that bridge.

Let’s move onto the next stage in life – kids. Tell me about those days.

There are two things that change a person real quick and a lot. One of them is getting married and the other is having kids. You are restricted a lot from what you are used to doing. We traveled a lot.

Do you remember the day Susan was born?

She was born in St Francis Hospital, I think. They brought her out and she had hair that stood out like that (gesture). You were bald. We named Susan after Susan Hayward – the movie star. And your middle name “James” was after your grandpa.

Tell me about your life with young children.

I worked 15-16 hours per day. I remember spanking Susan one time, in a restaurant. She was real bad for something. I took her outside and spanked her. And these people come walking up and they look at me like I was some kind of murderer or something.

Did that affect you? ‘Cause you sure did whip up on me... Would you say you spent a lot of time with us – your children?

Not as much as I should have, probably. I was either working or fishing.

Later when we got older, you had a boat and took us fishing and we enjoyed that a lot.

I had a boat with a back canopy top and side curtains that made a tent all the way around. In order to put together the tent there were slides on the sides to set up the frame. We were going out to Key Largo, I think it was and I had slid the back and rolled it up and I forgot to latch it. And you were on the motor box. And we went across a wake or something and this thing came down and hit you right across the face. Do you remember that?

I was older. Yea, I definitely remember that. That was probably the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced (laugh). I can’t believe I had any teeth after that. They were all black – my gums.

Helen and I use to go beachcombing for shells.  We had shell collections – beautiful shells. we’d go over to the west coast, Marco Island – Caxambas Pass and go shell hunting. The shells were so thick you couldn’t step without stepping on them -a whole bunch of perfect shells. I’d never seen it like that before -  as good as that.  One time we were on Dania Beach, I had got a stick…well this old Australian Pine tree had blown down and the roots were all nice and bleached and smoothed, you know and Helen wanted a stick. She takes this limb and she tries to break it off…she pushes down, pushes down, she pushes way down…it broke off in her hand and came up and hit her right in the mouth and she has had problems with her teeth ever since. That was a long time ago.

Back to being a father. Is there anything you would go back and change? Back when we were in the house. Anything you wish you had done differently?

We had to work a lot. Nothing was handed to you…When my mother died, she did leave me a house in Biscayne Park. That was back when houses were eight and ten thousand dollars, which was a lot of money back then.

You think I have it easier raising kids today?

No. Today, there is so much more trouble they can get into. Sex is so prevalent on TV and everywhere you look. And drugs…I was sitting in my office at the shop and I saw a guy, in the middle of the street come up and sell drugs to a guy. Stay away from drugs. That ruins so many kids and adults too. They will grab you and tear you down.

Principles you have lived your life on.

The Ten Commandments. You try to do that but of course nobody can.

What are you most proud of?

My kids. Y’all turned out real good. A lot of kids cause a lot of problems.

Best times of your life?

Being alive. Being with Helen. We’ve had a lot of good times. She’s a real good woman, that’s the main thing.

What were some of the most difficult times in your life?

When I was overseas so much, away from home. That was challenging. For about nine years I was gone six or seven months of the year. I had tremendous responsibility. And the other people were very, very jealous of me. Backbiting…I remember we were riding in a car and I got in the back seat and there was this notebook back there. I picked it up and there was a report by this Tom Xxxxx and I started thumbing through it…”that’s my defect”…and I remember I had eighty some defects from this ship and you have to document them. I would scribble them out, fax them to Helen and she would type them up and fax it back to me so I could turn in a nice typewritten report every day. There were three documented things, more or less insignificant things, that I had written that were in this book. Tom Xxxxx had put his name on all the others. And I called him down about it. And I almost got the whole team of inspectors at TMP fired.

Would you do it all over again?

Probably. I had a fabulous job (with Carnival Cruise Lines). Good pay. And I had the respect of the Yard and the architects. I’d walk the ship twice a day. Even on weekends when nobody was allowed. Security would call me down and I had a paper giving me permission to be on the ship anytime I wanted to. I liked to walk on the ship when people were gone because you’d look at something…you’d look at the ceiling tile and get out your pad and start to write something and here they come…”what’s the matter, what’s the matter…?” “That ceiling tile is pretty crooked.” …”Come back tomorrow…” I’d say “okay”…I’d come back the next day and it was nice and straight. And they appreciated that…working with them. Instead of, like the others, just writing it down and giving them a hard time. I enjoyed that. But I know it was hard on Helen. I’d see her crying when I was going away. I flew with Mr. Arison quite a bit. He had a private 727, executive plane.

Tell me about how you met Ted Arison and how the project to remodel his apartment came about. I know that meant a lot to you.

It was the tower apartment, the top floor of the condominium. I had done some other work for him and he had so much confidence in me, he just said “okay Dick, go do your thing”.  I took the architects design but then I had to make the engineered drawings for the guys. I had twenty some employees in there at one time… working in the apartment.  It was a challenge, a real challenge. They would do one room at a time. I had a three man finishing crew and after we got through building it they would go in there and tape it off, put filters and fans in the windows to exhaust the fumes.

And how long did it take you to complete that job?

I think it was about three years. Yea, he was really good. That was my masterpiece.

I did another job for Joe Farcus (the architect), it was before the apartment. It was a bar, it was out of cherry and it was featured in Florida Architecture magazine and I put a full page ad in it. I got a lot of business from that.

How would you characterize your whole working career?

Successfull. Successful in the fact that I got a lot of enjoyment from doing it.

Where did the mini-storage fit in? That’s almost like an aside…although I know it was a big part of your life. It seems like it’s not the foremost in your mind.

I had those buildings, 4500sq ft…. It was my shop. I had the machines and everything all set up in there. And the building next door was kind of incomplete. It was built the same in the front as mine. But the walls weren’t complete, the windows weren’t in – it was pretty much incomplete. I looked around one day and all my lofts and corners were piled high with decorator’s materials. I was keeping this stuff for years. I thought I better start charging people. And so this building next door became available. I drew it – I had lockers, one bay. I kept 1000sq ft for my little shop…I was going to have a one man shop. It turned out so good, I turned the other place where my shop was into sheet metal lockers and it worked out real good.

If you could live one day over again, because it was so joyful, what day would that be?

I would say when the doctor comes out and shows me a baby.

You didn’t get to go into the delivery room back in the day?

No. Helen’s dad and I, we stayed at the hospital, in the waiting room. I think it was like two o’clock in the morning or something. Nurse comes out, shows me a red…with black hair (laughs) infant.

Were you able to go in and be with mom right away?

No. I don’t think so.

I saved the best question for last.

I had a time where I enjoyed - it’s one of the last places I worked. I was a draftsman. I use to draw it the way I built it. I’d build it mentally and draw it. There was very few people that would do it that way, they would just draw lines and put dimensions on it. And I knew if it was something kind of difficult for the cabinet maker I would detail it out and I really enjoyed doing that. When I got home I would draw…I got a mountain house drawn up. Did I ever show you that? Now, we sold the property.

Do you regret that?

No, and I’ll tell you the reason why. You go up there and you work for your two week vacation – working on the property, cleaning it out. We owned a house in North Carolina and one year the rats got in it and made a big mess inside. They got inside the couches and everything. So instead of going somewhere and enjoying yourself on vacation, you had to go up there and work. So, if I was off for five or six months a year it would be different.

Ready for the last question? What’s the one thing that you would want your grandkids to know and remember about you?

(Laughs) Well we’ve been married 56 years pretty soon and I wouldn’t want it any different. We have our differences but…she keeps me straight (laughs). I’ve had the opportunity to express and develop a God given talent and I’m really thankful for that.

Thanks for taking the time today to answer all of these questions.

Postscript

This interview was recorded Feb. 20th 2010 (It took a while to write it down)

Richard and Helen Kimball are still happily married and living in the greater Ft. Lauderdale, FL. area.

Susan (my sister) is retired today, an avid photographer, she lives with her husband near mom and dad.