Simon Kalmas - May 25, 1982
Being a U.S. Citizen
What kind of work do you do here?
I’m the same in sheet metal.
Mm-hm.
I was doing heating and air conditioning. Where else in the world can a man—I know, because I’ve been these places—can a man come in with not a penny in his pocket and to be frank and honest about it, not even a decent pair of pants on his tuckus— to come to that and be able to retire after thirty one years, being in a country. Where else? Can anybody do it Germany? Can they do it in, in England? Even so, you know, England’s supposed to be a democracy. Can you do it in France?
Have you become a citizen?
Oh yeah, a long time ago. A long time ago. I was in the country, I believe, four years. That’s what the requirements was. Four years and I got my citizenship here. Even so, even so I don’t care to go to elect a president because I was very much disappointed in 1956. When damn Eisenhower ordered the Israelis, the British and, and, and the French out of the Suez area—I don’t know if you remember that, that he ordered them out of there. We wouldn’t have that mess that we—in the Middle East that we have now if their presence would have been there. He ordered them. I said, “Oh, heck with it.”
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