Born June 11, 1944 in Springfield, Missouri.

My father, Leonard, was the second of 3 sons of Herman Erb and Mary Viola Sell.   Grandpa & Grandma Erb lived on a farm just south of Timken, Kansas.  All 3 of their children were born at the farm.   The oldest was Arthur Ceaser and his younger brother was Irvin Edward.  None of us knew Irvin as he was killed in a car wreck at the age of 24, before I turned 3 years old.  The story as I understand about the car wreck is, he was trying to show someone, maybe his girlfriend, how fast he could get from LaCrosse to the farm and crashed the car on a curve.  The roads then were dirt and as I remember them, they always had groves that car tracks made.  I can imagine how easily it would be to lose control on dirt roads, and I say that from personal experience. 

We all knew Uncle Art really well.  He didn’t have any kids of his own, so he smothered us with lots of love when we got to see him.  He was always boasting about us to anyone around.  At his funeral, they asked for people to speak about him and I regret that I didn’t get up to say how kind he was too us, but I wasn’t prepared to be asked to speak so I  just sat there like everyone else, but he knew we loved him.  Art married his childhood sweetheart, Laverne Lewis.  She was also kind to us.  They couldn’t have children for some reason, but they had a dog they treated like one.  His name was Bebo. They really cherished that dog. 

 Art worked in construction and they moved all over the state and lived in a mobile home.  I remember that he worked for a company that built the grain elevators you see all over the state.  I spent a couple weeks with them one summer when they were in Grand Island, Nebraska.   They also live on the home farm for a while after Grandma and Grandpa moved to the big town of Timken.  Big is quite an exaggeration as the most population it ever had was maybe a little over 300 people.  I spent some time with Art & Laverne at the farm one summer too.  My only memory of that time was, they also had a niece of Laverne’s staying there too.  Her name was Sherry Leiker.  We used to walk down the drive to the mailbox and get the mail.  It was a long dirt driveway.  Laverne said she was my first girlfriend as we held hands as we went to get the mail.  I don’t remember that part, just the teasing part from Laverne, but note that I do remember her name.  I’m guessing we were about 7 or 8 years old.

Grandma and grandpa lived in a house in Timken known as the Timken home as it was once owned by the “Timken” family.  The Timken’s, I’m not sure which one, invented the “roller bearings” used all over the world.  I don’t know much about that family other than what I’ve stated above.  The house was a very large two story home.  The upper floor was also used as an apartment rental.  I believe Art & Laverne lived in it for a while.  The only source of heat up there was a vent directly above the stove downstairs.  That was really only much help in the two rooms next to the vent.  The rest of the rooms were very cold in the winter.  I’m a little ahead of myself, because eventually, we moved there.  I’ll cover that later in the story.

My family lived in Springfield, Mo, where Mom & Dad met and got married.  We moved to Kansas and back to Missouri a couple times finally residing in Timken the remainder of my childhood.  Most of those memories in Springfield are vague because I was quite young then.  I do remember that we lived on LaFontaine Street, which was just a few blocks from where my mother’s parents lived.  Their names were Vincent Aloysius Smith and Theresa Freda Brugger.  Mom was the 3rd of eight children.  Their names were Joseph Vincent, Mary Catherine, Walter Henry, Paul Steven, Lawrence Albert, Elizabeth Theresa, Eugene Martin.  I vaguely remember that on our first home in Springfield was on Lynn St, which is also close to Grandma & Grandpa’s home on Calhoun St.  I don’t exactly know the name of the company that dad worked for, but I’m pretty sure it had the work “Farmers” as part of the name.  I could be wrong, but that’s all I can recall right now.  If I figure it out, I’ll update this.  We lived in Springfield until the winter of 1952.  I was in the 3rd grade and we moved during the Christmas break.  Grandma & Grandpa Erb had moved to smaller home across town in Timken.  They sold the “big” house to mom & dad.  At that time our family was up to 6 children. There was another child that died at birth in 1951.  I remember when mom was pregnant with him and went to the hospital to give birth. Later that night, all the Smith family, mom’s brothers & sisters, Dad and my brothers and sister were outside when the dad brought the news that the baby was not going to survive.  I was only 7, but I do remember that night very well.  It was a very somber night.

Our sleeping arrangements in the big house were, Jim & Irvin had one room which was probably the living room when it was an apartment, I and Philip (not born yet) had one room which was probably the kitchen, Betty and Theresa (not born yet) had the apartment bedroom.  Bill & Jerry shared either the sun room or the area probably used as a dining area next to the kitchen.  The sun room was extremely cold in the winter as it had a large number of windows with no access to heat.  Paul & Donald also shared these same two areas.  I’m not sure what the living arrangements were after Jim and I moved out after high school. 

Back to Springfield for a bit.  When we lived on LaFountain St, we went to grade school at St Josephs Catholic School.  We had nuns for teachers.  The only nun’s name I can recall is Sister Mary Cosmos.  They were not the mean kind that are so much maligned these days.  They were tough, but not mean as I recall.  I do recall that we did walk to school and it was quite a distance, not sure the mileage, but it was more than a couple miles.  I remember walking home past a house not far from home that the owner sold coffee that he ground in his garage.  He was friendly person and liked to talk to us.  The reason this is so clear in my mind is, one day I tasted a coffee bean and was so disgusted with taste that it has soured me on coffee and I have never drank coffee in my adult life.  When I was in the 2nd grade, I was part of a wedding play.  I was the groom in the play (pictures to document it). I used to remember the name of the bride, but it escapes me now. I want to say Julie, but not sure, if I think of it, I’ll add it later.  The priest was a kid named Reggie (Reginald), don’t remember his last name.  

Shortly after moving to Timken, mom gave birth to my younger brother Philip.  For some reason, maybe mom influenced me somehow, but I became Philip’s guardian of sorts.  I fed him anytime I could and changed his diapers, and rocked him to sleep.  His crib was downstairs, but when he woke up in the middle of the night, I came downstairs and patted/talked him back to sleep.  Eventually, when he grew too big for the crib, he was my bed partner upstairs.  To me, it’s almost like the feeling twins have, even though there are 9 years between us.  I also feel like I was his “protector” when growing up.  I remember one incident when I felt my older brother Jim had mistreated him and I chased him around the kitchen table with a butcher knife.  Of course, mom was there and she made sure nothing happened.  Not that I could have hurt him, he had the physical ability to take it away from me whenever he wanted.  He just laughed as I chased him.

I do remember playing a baseball and basketball as a grade school youth.  We didn’t have Middle Schools and Junior High Schools back then.  All grades 1st – 8th were all housed in the same school house.  In our later grades, we played basketball in school and baseball in the summer months.  Our school team name was the Timken Termites.  Jim Pivonka was our coach.  He worked with his dad and brothers at the John Deere store in town, about a block from the school.  He used his personal time to teach us sports. I’m not sure that he got paid, maybe he did, I don’t know.  I do credit him with whatever athletic ability I had in high school and my adult life of sports.  He taught us the fundamentals, which are the most important aspects of athletic ability.  Most kids have a role model growing up (besides their parents obviously), Jim Pivonka was that for me.  There is one other thing that I am eternally grateful to him.  He didn’t smoke and most everyone those days did.  I asked him why he didn’t.  He said he never had the desire and if I didn’t have the desire, then I should never start, as he didn’t.  I have lived up to that advice and am grateful to him for that.

High school was fun at times, especially the sports.  I didn’t get bad grades, but I didn’t get as good as I could.  I was heavy into sports and chasing after my future wife, Connie Steitz.  I was the only person in my class to earn an athletic letter all four years of high school.  I was lucky enough to get enough points (innings) to letter in baseball my freshman year and the other boys didn’t.  The school was pretty small.  Only 44 kids, 22 boys and 22 girls, made up Bison Rural High School in 1962.  Our graduating class had 11 boys, but the next year’s freshman class was a lot bigger.  I did manage to get in some trouble at times. There were 4 of us boys that hung out together and managed to get into the most trouble, Duane, Leroy, Gary and myself.  Seems like every time something bad happened, we got blamed for it.  Nothing serious though, like letting the air out of our English teacher’s tires one night.  We just knew we wouldn’t get caught, but the next morning, the Principal called for an Assembly.  When he walked into the room, he pointed to each of us and said “come with me”.  He took us outside and gave us a “hand pump” and walked us to the Miss R’s house and made us pump them up by hand.  I won’t confess to anything more here.

I spent many summers in Springfield, Mo.  I went to many fast pitch softball games at the numerous ball parks in Springfield with my Aunt Catherine.  My uncles played on various teams there. The summer after I graduated from high school, I spent it in Springfield before joining the Air Force.  During that summer, my uncles let me join their fast pitch softball team.  What a thrill that was.  I didn’t play much, but what an honor it was to be on the same team with them.  The team name was Crumps Auto.  I went to Springfield in hopes of finding a job.  There was only one problem, the draft was still an issue for young men fresh out of high school.  I could only get part time jobs and offers to come back and see them after I had completed my military service obligation.  Ozark Airlines actually flew me to St Louis for an interview.  They actually said that after I completed my obligation, that there would be a job for me with them.  That’s when I decided to join the Air Force even though that was a 4 year commitment vs. a 2 year commitment for the Army or Navy.  My uncle Gene had been in the AF and was a pitcher for the Keesler AFB baseball team.  That was more of an incentive to join the AF than anything else.  There was only one problem, after I joined, the AF stopped having baseball teams because they were too expensive to support.  I eventually made the AF a career and never made it back to Springfield for that job with Ozark Airlines.  I don’t regret it though as the Air Force was a great career for me.  Ozark eventually went out of business anyway.  

I spent 22+ years on active duty with the Air Force, then 20 + years of civil service with the Air Force.  37+ years of that time was spent on Randolph AFB, Tx, near San Antonio, Tx.  After basic training at Lackland AFB, Tx, I went to Personnel Technical School at Greenville AFB, Ms.  Greenville no longer exists as an active AFB.  After Tech School, I was assigned my first permanent party base, Randolph AFB.  Randolph is a uniquely beautiful military installation.  It was geometrically designed, but over time, not so much.  At the heart of the base is a building called the Taj Mahal.  The center part of the building is a tall water tower that services water for the base.  In my early days at the base, they used to let folks go to the top of the tower to get a picturesque view of the base.  My first assignment was to work in the Consolidated Base Personnel Office in the Taj Mahal.  That’s where I got my start in the “technology” world.  In the early 1960’s, the Personnel career field was just beginning to “mechanize” the personnel data.  Not sure why, but that seemed interesting to me, so I asked to join that part of the business.  I stayed in that field all the rest of my career. In July 1963 I got married to Connie and our first 2 children, Joyce & Phil (John) were born at Ft Sam Houston in 1964 & 1965.  In Sep 1966, I was reassigned to Air Training Command Headquarters (ATC) to work on their command systems team. During my tenure at Randolph, I began playing sports, fast pitch softball, basketball and flag football.  I also coached my first little league baseball team.  In early 1968, I was reassigned to Clark AB, Philippines.  Viet Nam was in full swing at that time, but there were very few Personnel positions actually in Viet Nam.  All the personnel records for AF members in Viet Nam were handled at Clark AB.  That changed some time after I left the PI when they actually opened Personnel Offices at Viet Nam bases.  While at Clark, the only sport I played was basketball and was quite successful at it, if I say so myself.  That was a very competitive league, most overseas sports are like that.  I also began refereeing basketball there.  I was reassigned to Bolling AFB, Wash D.C. in Mar 1970 where I was assigned to the Headquarters Command there.  I actually worked in the Airman Assignments Branch and not the Systems Branch because the Assignments boss wanted a Techie to handed technical issues for them.  I didn’t object because it was a plush deal.  I had a lot of time to play lunch hour sports. I also played off duty softball and basketball.  During this tour, in 1970, our daughter Janice was born in Malcolm Grove Hospital at Andrews AFB, Md.  I also did a lot of refereeing of high school basketball in the DC/Virginia area.  I probably overdid the sports things there because as a Technical Sergeant with 3 kids in the DC area, I had to also work another part-time at the NCO club as a cashier.  3 jobs and sports didn’t give me much family time as I should have had.  In Nov 1972, I got reassigned back to Randolph, where I never left.  I worked on a major project called the Base Level Military Personnel Systems (BLMPS).  We were basically still in the punch card era, but on a more sophisticated hardware, the Burroughs 3500.  We developed the first personal (dumb) computer interface with a mainframe computer.  By dumb, I mean, the terminal didn’t store data as the current PC do.  The data went straight to the mainframe (B3500) where all the activity was processed. 

In 1975, a long time friend of mine, Jim Marshall and I bought the baseball batting cages in Schertz.  The business was called “Batter Up”.  Jim and I worked together in the Taj Mahal in my first assignment and also played sports together.  After a year and ½, Jim decided that kind of work wasn’t his cup of tea.  I asked Connie’s folks for a loan to buy out his portion of the business.  From that point on, it was a family project until it wasn’t profitable any longer.  I enjoyed working there and coaching many kids in the art of hitting, but when our kids grew up and left home, it was down to me and hiring too many other workers to make a worthwhile profit.  When we first bought it, baseball was king.  But in the mid/late 1980’s, soccer became popular and many of the kids jumped from baseball and went for soccer and the business deteriorated  Softball for girls was just beginning and we couldn’t afford to redesign the place to handle both baseball and softball.  We eventually sold the business. 

In Sep 1977, I was assigned back to ATC.  The next phase was called BLPS, note the “M” was dropped because we not only managed the military personnel records, but the civilian records as well.  The civilian system not only supported the AF civilians, it supported the Army and Navy civilians and several non-Department of Defense agencies, e.g. SBA, GSA, Treasury, IRS and several other small agencies. I was assigned to the BLPS section as a Personnel Technical Systems expert to assist in the transition from the B3500 onto a newer/faster mainframe on a project called Phase 4. In Dec 1984, I retired from active duty.  Actually, I was hired by into civil service, while on terminal leave from the military, by the Small Business Administration in Sep 1984. I went to work at the same desk doing basically the same thing.  I was hired as an AF civil service employee several months later. In time, I eventually was promoted to the BLPS Section Chief position.  All during this time, I was active in flag football, basketball and fast pitch softball.  Eventually fast pitch went away due to lack of men wanting to take up the pitching of it.  Slow pitch took over and of course, I participated in that as well.  I didn’t enjoy slow pitch as much, but it was the only game in town for the summer.  Also during this time, I was very active in coaching youth sports.  I coached Pop Warner football, Pony youth baseball and youth basketball.  For 2 years, I was commissioner of the base youth flag football league and for 5 years, I was commissioner and head referee for the youth center basketball league.  I coached both boys and girls basketball teams.  Just as a matter of history, the first few years of girls basketball was with 6 players, 3 offensive and 3 defensive players on each half of the court.  Players were not allowed to cross center court during play.  I earned a pretty good reputation for my coaching and organization of youth sports during that time.  At times, all of that pretty much consumed me, again.  At least the coaching was with my son and daughter’s teams. 

In 1980, our youngest was born.  Candice Dawn was born on Grandpa Erb’s birthday, 29 Feb.  I remember when it was getting close to the due date and it didn’t look like she was going to be on time, I said to Connie, wouldn’t it be nice if she was born on Grandpa’s birthday. She was quick to reply “Hell No, I want to have this baby long before then” or words to that affect.  Guess the power of suggestion won on that one. If you noticed the 3 other kids names started with a “J”, but Connie wanted another name that didn’t start with a “J”. We came up with Candice, but searched for a middle name.  Not sure who discovered it, but when the name Dawn popped up, we felt it was perfect. She was born at Wilford Hall Hospital at Lackland AFB here in San Antonio. 

            In 1990, Connie & I divorced.  I have to admit that was the worst year of my life.  It was a really conflicting time for a Catholic boy that knew divorce was not supposed to be. Fortunately, we were able to stay friends. No further details to be provided here.  

            I became very active in officiating sports on Randolph.  I even picked up officiating volleyball, which I had never played.  After my first year in the Greater Randolph Officials Association (GROA), somehow I was persuaded to become the President of that association.  I gave up the position 5 years later.  It was a lot of work, with very little reward, certainly no money for the position.  Of course there was pay for the sports I did work, but with military monetary resources, the pay didn’t match up to what officials got for even Jr Hi sports and we were officiating grown men and women at the college level abilities.

            After the BLPS era, in 1992, I was promoted to a position as a Section Chief in the Civilian Personnel Data Branch.  After a few years there, in 1995, a new project was about to be undertaken, the modernization of the civilian system.  I volunteered to be the Project Leader, overseeing the software development to transition the old civilian system into the newest modern technology using Personnel Computers (smart systems).  That project was the most demanding of any job I had ever held or will hold.  The project was quite successful.  While only personally rewarding, the agency owning the system, in Washington, DC, decided to outsource the system to a civilian agency, ending many years of partnership with our organization.  That left many of us looking for jobs.  I ended up back working on the AF military modernization system.  I eventually became a branch chief supervising the functional development of that project.  During this time, I began playing golf as a recreational activity.   I eventually retired in Dec 2004 as a GM-13. 

           In 2007 I had a stent put in an artery. The blocked artery was discovered when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which I had treated with radiation and am cancer free today.  Just before the radiation treatment began, I had a stent put in an artery. I now have routine checkups with both my cardiologist and my urologist and continue to get a clean bill of health.  Knock on wood and thank God.  In May 2010, I had back surgery to repair herniated disks. Not sure when my back was injured, but the doctor said it was probably from a fall or multiple falls.  I had back pain through most of my military career.  In 2019 I filed for VA benefits for my back and lack of hearing.  I was given 60% disability. This amounted to a bump in my military retirement.

         After 2 ½ years of doing nothing in retirement but playing a little golf and coaching my grandson in baseball and basketball, I had to find something else to occupy my time. I continued to coach him, with his dad, until he entered High School. I got a job at a local golf course, Olympia Hills Golf Course in Universal City, Tx in July 2007.  I started out working in the cart barn for 2 years, which was fun and gave me the exercise I needed.  Eventually my bad back got too much for that job and I was allowed to begin working in the pro-shop.  I stayed at the golf course for 10 more years and finally fully retired for good in July 2019.  I enjoyed working at the golf course, but getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get to work by 6:00 am was a bit too much for my age, 75 at that time. After I quit the golf course, I purchased an RV.  I’ve traveled to many places with it.  I’ve been to Madison, Wi (where my grandson lived); Springfield, Mo (visited cousins); New Orleans, La (visited WWII Museum); family reunions every Thanksgiving in Kansas; Kansas City, Ks (visited brother Paul); Arvada, Co (visited brother Irvin); Graham, Tx (visited friend I was stationed with in the PI). I’ll make several more trips before I give it up.

 
That’s it for now folks.