Person:Prentice Preece (1)

When Dad was a young man he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. He worked in Death Valley, California. While there he tried different things not usual to his life in Kentucky. He tried eating rattlesnake. He smiled when he told me. It tasted like chicken. In response to a letter I sent to the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni, 16 Hancock, Jefferson Barracks, P. O. Box 16429, St. Louis, MO 63125-0429, I received the following information: Prentice Forest Preece was a member of 912th Company, Camp funeral Range, NM-1 (National Monument-1), Death Valley Junction, California.

There was a time in his young life, after leaving Kentucky, he hoboed around the country. One night he thought he was going to freeze to death in a boxcar in Colorado.

He joined the U.S. Army in his 20's. He did not have any happy stories about it. Dad had this continuous smile on his face. ( I seemed to have this characteristic.) His sergeant took exception to his smile. He had to do laps around the field. He received an honorable discharge when his time was up. When World War II broke out, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard. He received an honorable discharge at the end of the war.

Dad took advantage of the G.I. Bill. He finished his undergraduate degree at Columbia University, New York, New York. He was an English/creative writing major. He had wanted to be a writer. He looked into going on for his masters degree. He said the counselor convinced him to get a Masters in Education instead of creative writing because it was more practical. Dad did his student teaching in a Harlem public school. At one point he was 'jumped' by some kids. His experiences there, as well as, his compulsive behavior, convinced him not to teach. It was about this time marital problems developed between Mom and Dad. In the 1980's Dad took a trip down to Jacksonville, Florida to fix up the house his mom had left him. He had planned to be gone from Philadelphia for only a few months. While he was down there, it became necessary for him to go on dialysis.

Dad had been living by himself on Gilmore Street. He was going to the YMCA a few times a week to swim. He was also using the public library and had made friends with some of the people there. He was also going to the dialysis center 2-3 times a week. It would leave him tired.

It was hard communicating with Dad. He had become hard of hearing. In addition, the phone he had bought from WalMart was malfunctioning. The phone would ring when someone called, but he could not hear anyone there. Mari and I had to call the police a couple of times to check on him, and to be alerted Mari and I had tried calling him to no avail. One day he had a massive heart failure at one of the local fast-food places a few blocks from his house. An ambulance was called, and he was taken to the emergency room of St. Vincent de Paul's Medical Center which is about five minutes away. He was not breathing on arrival. He was resuscitated.

1. ↑ He had been living there for about 2-3 years before his death.