Keith Tillotson
New Orleans (1945)
So I got off in New Orleans. Paid off – I remember I paid off with about four thousand dollars. I went to the bank and sent it to Uncle Leonard to put in the bank back in Iowa. I got a letter from him later, says, "I'm not gonna tell anybody." And he didn't. He went down and put the money in the bank.
When I went through a little later I run and got some traveler's checks from 'em and then was spendin' my money. I ate that up in a hurry – didn't take me long to get rid of that four thousand dollars. Just a savings account, whatever it was. I wanted some money, I would just wire 'em Western Union.
When I got back it was 1945. That's when I bought this watch in New Orleans. So that thing now is 55 years old – the only watch I ever owned. I only use it when I go out. I don't wear it anymore. I used to wear it while I was workin'. Get it all dirty, put it under water and scrub it with a toothbrush. I had to have a new spring put in it. I put a couple faces on it 'cause I used to scratch 'em up a lot working, you know. Junior told me it's probably worth about 500 dollars now. Wore out a lot of bands. I only use it to go out now. I used to wear it all the time, get it all greasy and I'd bring it home put it under the faucet and scrub it. I've had it magnetized, de-magnetized. I'd magnetize airplane struts – landing gear. You put 'em in this big machine. They weigh about a thousand pounds or more each. Shoot the juice to 'em and – "Oh, I forgot to take my watch off!" That would stop it. And then I'd de-magnetize it. You have a machine to just reverse it, sort of. You de-magnetize it. They have a little magnetizer you can magnetize a strut or a sway brace on a landing gear right on the ship. Then you can de-magnetize if you want to hammer on it for a while and take the magnetism out of it. You could do that.