b"Happy birthday!And four days before that, Ill be married to Grace for 50 years.Oh, that's great.[laughs] Not that that's important for this, but she's good. I'd be one man that would admit that I give a lot of creditfor everything that I've done in my life to my wife. We always did things together and I so we have a great relationshipand that's part of why they say the secret to my success, rather than to fight and this and that, she was always on my side.What does it mean to you to be a union member before and after retirement?Well, you're not alone. As long as you do the right thing, you get backing or someone that is willing to listen to anexplanation of why you did that. If there is no union, they could easily cast you out and they do. I have seen people workfor 20, 25 years and all of a sudden, they are just cast out, without severance pay or anything. They could do anything theywant to. Some companies treat their employees well, but with the union, you're always got backup especially years agowhen it was even tougher. If you didn't do the right thing, you're out the door. You don't come into work on Saturday,don't bother coming in Monday. I always was proud and I thought, I always got along with the union. I always had a goodword and that is why I'm still active with the union in many different ways.I think we've covered mostly everything. If you dont mind, would you tell me, if you can remember, whatyour starting salary was when you began working for the City?Yeah, I remember. As I came in, I believe it was 4,200 dollars.Per year? Per year, yeah. Not a lot to make over time. It was supposed to be for three years, but they changed the program.They shortened it to one year, thank god for Barry Feinstein. We took an exam and a test after we had this training and webecame maintenance workers. And a maintenance worker, at that time, he probably, must have been around 8,600 dollars a year, 86, 8,800 dollars? Almost to 9,000 dollars or double the salary.How much did you retire at, if you feel like sharing?For the last three years, I was in field survey and it didn't call for overtime, so I pretty much retired with my regularsalary and I would say, 56,000, which is respectable. Now they're making a lot more.Yes, that was in '96. Did you take civil service examinations to get promotions on your job?Each time, yeah.Were they hard?It was. Maybe you notice, my speech is kind of funny and you probably wonder where I'm coming from. I was raisedin Italy until I was 14 years old when I came here. So, I had the challenge of learning the language. Learning how to readand write. And then, before you know it, as I became a teenager, I'm competing with people born in this country for the88 "