Kyle's maternal grandparents arrived from Germany in 1896. In Woodbury, they farmed. In the early 1920's, his grandfather became the top man, or Grand Giant, of the local KKK.
"My granddad wasn't a racist, though. He only joined the KKK because they had a whiskey till."
"Oh, come on, man! He couldn't have just risen to the top like that."
"How many black kids were there in your class?"
"Two."
"Only two!"
"Yeah, and the other one, we voted her class president. We did it as a spoof to show that we weren't racist."
Overhearing our conversation, Bob, sitting at the end of the bar, jumped in, "When my brother was 15, he said 'n-word' at the dinner table once, and bam! My father just knocked him backward. He said, 'Don't you ever use that word again in my house. That man is just as good as you.'"
Kyle on Philadelphia, "When we were kids, we would take the bus to Philly for the Christmas show at Wanamaker's." It was a lush department store, now converted into a Macy's. "The big city was very intimidating. Later, I got a job for the phone company at 9th and Race."
"Chinatown!"
"Yeah, but I never got outside. I want to do pole work, but they kept me in an office, answering phones. I hated it. I only lasted 13 months and three weeks. It was affirmative action that kept me from going outside. I don't know if you remember? If a neighborhood was 51% black, then they had to send over so many black guys."
"What did you do after that?"
"All kinds of construction work. I've been in four different unions. I can fix or build just about anything."
"Did you do plumbing?"
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