b"They gave her the report card yesterday. Did you see your daughters report card? The mother says: I didnt come herefor that. I ask: Then why did you come? She says: Teacher hit my daughter. I get a copy of the daughters report card and show her that her daughter didnt pass any of her classes. Now, shecalms down. I say:We can go upstairs now and see the principal. Change of conversation, it's over, she's sorry. You havea special officer for special type of jobs. This is where I came in and I had fun.It sounds like you used your detective abilities a lot, just paying attention. Once you started working for theCity, was there someone on the job who encouraged you in your job, a mentor? No. I observe a lot. I admire what you do, I watch how you do it and I try to do my best. It could be a teacher, a friendon the force, you copy from them.When I was a young man in my high school in Panama, at 18, 16, 17, I was already doing whatever to get by andjobs weren't easy. When I was in junior high school, high school, I wanted to be a teacher. To be a teacher, you had to goto college. My parents couldn't afford it. There were eight of us. When I got a year through high school, there were nojobs. I put in some applications but nothing came through. So, I got a job in the canal zone, part time, little stuff, whichwas good. At that time, it was about a dollar an hour and everybody in the Republic was making 35 cents, 40 cents anhour. To me, if I worked two or three days, it was good. My grandparents came from Jamaica to build the canal. Theynever went back to Jamaica. They stayed here; they had my parents. I saw the struggle that my grandparents, my motherand everybody went through. So, I wanted a job and got working on the canal. My father was already working there, so I was able to work with my father for about two years. What kind of work did you do?I was a line analyst working the navigation division. You have to get a launch bow that has a special shape.Fromthere, they hand us the rope and then onto the tugboat, so they could pull it. The first opportunity I got for a vacation, I went to the states. I went down to the social security office and I applied for a social security card. The lady says: Haveyou ever applied for a social security card before? I say: No. She said: Okay. She gave me the card. That was around1968 1967. I put the card in my wallet, and went back to Panama. Working and things started getting tough. Nixon was president. He reduced the work force from 40 hours a week to 30 in the canal zone. My father was making a dollarthirty-four an hour. I'm just starting out making a dollar thirty an hour. I said to myself theres something wrong here. I went to the consul and applied for permanent residence. The lady reviewing my application said: I see you got a socialsecurity card. Where did you get those numbers from? I said: I got it when I went to the states on vacation. I took my SS card from my wallet and showed it to her. She said: Oh, youre in. I had a letter from my job from the superintendentof the navigation division who was also a friend of my father. I told him: I want to go to the States. This is a nice job, but I don't think this is a job for me. I'm young, I don't want to get burned out like my father with all these kids. I know if I start out in a relationship, I will have a lot of kids too because that's all we are going to do down here. He gave me abeautiful letter and I showed the letter to the lady. She said: Oh you were highly recommended. Do you have a job in the States? I said: Yeah, I got a job. I had no job [laughs], but it worked. She stamped my paper: You got one month to leave this country. Oh boy! There's another problem now, but I did things out of the blue and it did work out.145 "