Mr. Albert Smith June 30th Interview
Jesse: "Can you tell me briefly
about your first contact with India and Vedic culture?"
Mr. Smith: "The Vedas I knew, when I was in high school.
I didn't know what it was, but it sounded good to me. I wanted to know
more about it. As a farm boy in Kansas there was nothing at all. A Catholic
church, a Baptist church, a Methodist church but nothing to do with
the Vedas. There was no one there to teach me."
Jesse: "Can you tell me about your career?"
Mr. Smith: "Yes. I graduated high school, and went to the army,
in 1950. October 25th, 1950 I entered. They drafted me. And then I spent
two years in service. I was in an MC unit. Then I transferred into the
army band."
Jesse: "Which instrument?"
Mr. Smith: "I played the trumpet." "Of course
I got my two years in the army.
There was a program that gave me money to go to college.
So I did. At first, when I got out of the army I worked for General Motors
on the assembly line. I got out of the army in '52. At general motors
I worked at night, and went to school during the days. It was kind of
hard. In fact I will probably never recover from the stress and hard work
that I did. You know, not much sleep. So, I went to the University of
Missouri. First, to the community college in Kansas City, Kansas, and
then I transferred to the University of Missouri here in Missouri. I liked
biology. I was interested in life, what is life. I thought, maybe biology
was what it was.
Jesse: "So this was your area of study?"
continued on page 2
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