Sept 23 notes

"50% of people want you to fail. The other 50% don't give a shit..."

"Bad blow on the way... Think I'm gonna stay home and spank mama."

German Joe Story:

"German Joe" as he is known on the docks, owns perhaps the finest deep water lobster boat on the Southern Maine coast. Over 70, short and stout, demanding and direct, he captains the Mary Lou IV and fishes "outside" in the frigid deep waters of the Gulf of Maine. MOst of Maine's 4,000 lobster fishermen

He up in Germany during WWII. Father went to the Russian front. Mother beat him severely. He would go to school and get beat by the teacher then go home and get beat by his mother. Every time he opened his mouth he was beaten, so he stopped talking. At one point he didn't utter a word for a year. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, he stuttered. And he stutters today.

When Aliied troops overran Germany, his cattle were straffed by fighter bombers. He hid in the attic of his house and peered out the louver vent at the approaching soldiers. Thinking he was a sniper, the troops machine gunned his house and he barely escaped with his life.

After the war, his parents somehow received permission to move to the US and the fmaily entered the country through Eliis Island in New York City. His mother enrolled him in school. Unfortunately for him it was a Jewish school. He woke up every day knowing he would have to fight someone. It was a brutal, violent upbringing.

Joe had happy memories of fishing in the river near his home in Germany and so he set his mind to fish. He dropped out of school and spent his time on the docks of NYC until he gained enough information and a fundamental grasp of English. And then he went to sea