He next found a job as a butcher at the University Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where several friends from camp had also resettled. He remembered receiving ice deliveries, and hanging blocks of ice next to slabs of meat in the freezer. He had a second job at Weber’s Tavern.
On his break one day, smoking a cigarette and sitting on the curb, he noticed guys walking in and out of a building across the street. He put out his cigarette, ran over, and asked what is this office? They told him, “This is the Army recruitment office.” My father said, “I’ll be back with a bunch of my friends from the Topaz camp.”