When the bakery he worked at was sold he quit going to work. When the new owner finally called to ask why, he told them "He wasn't a slave, he didn't automatically go with the bakery, he hadn't been asked if he was willing to work for the new owner." He was finally offered a job but declined the offer.

     When my father was young he was very sick and almost died. (Of what I don't remember, Rheumatic fever maybe) When Joe entered Kindergarten he only spoke German. He started school young, being born in September, and graduated at 17. He wasn't much of a student but always excelled in common sense and hard work. After joining the Navy at 17, the Navy decided they didn't have a place for him and discharged him after boot camp. The Army tried to draft him near the end of WWII but he was told to ignore the notice because the war was ending. As I young man he played soccer on a city team  in the Albany area. His hobbies included  golf, bowling and puttering in the yard. He loved his front lawn and his flowers. Although raised a Catholic he eventually abandoned religion and didn't believe there was anything after death. (When I was a kid my mother would bring the family to church on Sundays, including my father) He liked westerns and war movies and the family often went to drive in movies on Saturday nights during the summer, his only night off from work. (Cheaper than the regular theaters because you could bring your own concessions. I remember Royal Crown Colas and Orange Crush in the ice chest) His choice of comedy tended towards physical or slap stick and the hardest I remember him laughing was at the Palace Theater on lower Clinton Avenue while watching either the Shaggy Dog or The Absent Minded Professor. 
     He had two good friends when I was young that we called Uncle. Emil Meister and Bill Stutsrim. Emil worked at the family market, which specialized in meats and Bill worked as a mechanic at Dell's Garage on Delaware Ave. When I was very young Bill and my father were out drinking and got into an auto accident which sent them to the hospital. Although he would have parties in the basement bar he had built, I never remember him as an excessive drinker. He never could understand my alcoholism, "Why can't you just stop after a couple" He would have one beer when he came home from work with his lunch and another with his dinner. At one period he would have a total of three, capping the 2nd lunch one for dinner. Once he had his metal valves put in he went to drinking near beer and having a glass of wine or high ball in the evening. He slept in two shifts while he was a baker. After lunch from about 10am to 4 pm then a short nap for a few hours before he went to work around midnight. My mother would work Mondays & Wednesday's from 3pm until 11pm as a head floor nurse at St Peter's Hospital. She had to make sure she was home in time for him to go to work because they never had more than one car. She could have made more money than him working full time but he was of the vein where a woman takes care of a man's house and children. His Birthday dinner was his favorite, meatloaf and he would much rather putter around in the yard than travel.
     As a baker he worked for Henry Engel at the Delmar Bakery located at the 4 corners in Delmar, his father's Ace Pastry Shop, Walter Wheeler's Bakery (which he had bought and ran for a year) and Phil's Pastry Shop. He also set up a bakery in a grocery store and left after it was up and running. His last job before having metal valves placed in his heart in 1993 was vacuuming rugs at Filenes for a few hours in the morning at the Crossgate Mall around Albany.
     His home of 60 years was a two bedroom Cape Cod style home (A high pitched roof) The attic he made into two more bedrooms. He also built out his basement to include a bar and gathering place. He built a backyard patio of flag stones from the Heldeburgs and cobble stones from Albany streets to include a cobblestone fireplace. He always had a band saw in the basement which he used to make lawn furniture and ornaments. In his latter days his hands shook while he painted his wind ducks. He took his walks ( a mile or three) even in the winter and puttered around the yard or garden until he was reduced to sitting in his chair in the corner of the living room with his wife in her chair near him. For years he slept in one of the bedrooms he had built out in the attic, because of his wife's respiratory problems. (loud snoring & wheezing)