b"How old were you then?About 21. I went to my mother and I told her. Mother said: You sure you want to do this? I said: Yeah, I think I'lltry. She said: But you don't know anybody in the states.How are you going to make out over there? I did have an aunt.My mother gave me her blessing, but my problem was with my father, how to tell my father. I went back to the same manthat gave me the letter. I said: I got a problem, I got a visa, I got everything, I got a blessing from my mother and I don'tknow how I'm going to tell my father.He says: Leave it up to me, I'm going to soften him up for you. So, he talked tohim. He came back from work and said: You crazy? You don't know what you're doing. You have a lifetime job. The onlyway you get fired here is that you do something out of the ordinary. I said to myself that he wasnt giving his blessing. I was sorry he thought I was making a mistake, but the man above is going to look out for me. And that was it.Where were you in the family of eight siblings?I was second. I had four brothers and three sisters.Did you ever take any civil service exams or training?The academy training was about two months full time. Then there was an exam you had to take to complete thetraining. Once you passed, you're in. When I was working as a family assistant, you needed to have at least three collegecourses. I was able to go to college in the summer and take six credits. Summer courses crunch up to fit everything in ashort time. It was very hard for me. The professor looked at me one day and said, I see you are having problems. I said,Yeah. She asked, Did you take this course junior year? I said, No, this is the first time I am taking it. It's very hard forme. I have never been to college before and I'm trying. So, I was taking six credit. I was hardly able to complete three.Well those three is what I needed to be in the program, I was able to drop three credits. The following year, I took anothersix credits.It was very hard. Once I left and started working for school safety, I had to complete the full course.I couldntgo part time, so I had to resign from there. My resignation was for the better.You got those credits for working as a family assistant. Then you went to the academy for your training to become a school safety officer. Did you have to take any tests after that?Yes. There were tests for promotion. They were not extensive and most of it is a job related, how you do your jobDid you have family that worked for the City?I was the first. When I was laid off from my first job with the machine company, there was a neighbor in my buildingwho just came out of the army. We went for an interview to be a transit worker. He was selectedbecause he was an armyperson, plus he was a citizen. I wasn't a citizen. I told myself: The first opportunity I get, I'm going to become a citizen.And that's what I did.When did you become a citizen?I think I become a citizen in 1980. I got a letter to report to a jury duty. When I reached jury duty, she says: Are youcitizen? I said: No. She said: What you doing here? I say: Well I just got a letter from naturalization that I was supposed She said: Oh, so yougot intention to be? I say: Yeah, yeah, I have intention to be. She says: Okay, you gotta serve. [laughs] Just like that.146 "