because of my retired status from the navy, I could afford to teach. Of course, Arlen
 started her professional career as an extension home economist. She was highly
 successful.

CJ: Did she start that when you all moved to Boca [Raton] or had she been doing that
 before?

RJ: Oh, she did that in Brevard County. Then she got transferred down to Palm Beach
 County a year after I started teaching in Boca. Both of us are now retired and living
 here in beautiful Lake Placid, which is very placid.

CJ: Where did Arlen and Pierce stay while you were in the hospital, and when you went
 back on to active duty?

RJ: They lived there in Jacksonville Beach. Oh, I had a marvelous time in the hospital.
 I learned an awful lot about medicine--particularly orthopedic surgery. I am a real
 expert on that. They did a very rough type of carpentry, but the military has some
 excellent doctors. They seem to always concentrate them in the hospitals. My
 orthopedic surgeon, a big Jewish gentlemen, was one of the finest people I have ever
 known.

 Then this other doctor treated me for my burns (my face was third degree burns).
 He would allow nothing to touch my face and as a consequence did not shift any
 tissue. My face became so stiff that nothing could move but my eyelids. But he kept
 me soaked with mineral oil. Oh God, I hate the odor of mineral oil. But it was a
 wonderful thing for me because it kept the air and bacteria away from me and the
 tissue did not shift. As a consequence, my face is not scarred. Whereas, it would
 have been horribly scarred if they had very foolishly put bandages on. Bandages on
 burns are not a good idea in my estimation, at least this doctor convinced me. He
 was very fierce in protecting me from any kind of bandage or anyone touching me.
 He just had an awful battle with the dentist who was trying to wire my jaw back
 together. He stood over the dentist to make sure that he did not touch my face.

 But I had a wonderful time in the hospital. We pulled pranks on each other. [I
 have] a funny little story about that. In the officer's ward, my room had double doors
 leading out onto a lanai in a U-shaped enclosure. My doctor was the chief of
 surgery--Captain James Brown. And it was so funny, because I recognized him the
 instance I saw him; I thought he was his father. His father was Dr. John Brown of
 Hendersonville, North Carolina, who delivered me as a baby. So as a consequence,
 I was very powerful. I had a corpsman sitting by my bed twenty-four hours a day.
 One day this retired officer came by. (They had a lot of retired, high-ranking officers
 that would come there for treatment.) This fellow walked in and he said, "Hey
 Jonesy! I am going over to the exchange and to the post office. Can I do anything
 for you?" I said, "No--I don't know." And then I said, "Oh, wait a minute. [There


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