Max Eugene Harding, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, March 4, 2006: Saving the Legacy tape no. 757

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M G EH RDI R H4 2 6 made suffici nt progress that there was no need of me having a di ability and th r [! r that the VA would be absolved of any responsibility on my behalf. What did I d ? I called up the American Red Cross and talked to the supervisor and said I d like you to look in my file.' I said "I don't think that I'm at the end of the line where I want to b cut off, between me and my government." You know it wasn't but about three days and I had a phone call stating that my benefits had been completely restored. The American Red Cross did that for me. I couldn't fight. So figure about the good they do, they do. And so I go except for stops at the emergency rooms. I have colds and I have asthma real bad, which is a breathing malady. So if I have to go, I can see my primary provider up there twice a year. Otherwise I have to go up to the emergency ward to get medications or help. BEC: So once you got home, you told me that you had a career with Sears. MAX: What I did after I got home, that being November 7, 1945, my discharge date, I went to B YU and enrolled. BEC: So you started working for Sears in 1946? MAX: Reversing myself a little, as the first two quarters at BYU ended, I was needing some extra money so I ended up going to Sears Roebuck to see if I could get on for the summer, which I did. They were glad to have me, with my mechanical aptitudes and mechanics and automotive. So they put me to work. I stayed with that and went back to school and worked part-time in the fall. Then the manager at Sears Roebuck liked my work so well that he said, "If you went on and graduated in four years, you wouldn't be prepared for the job that I can give you if you'll take this Sears Extension Institute in plumbing and air conditioning. You can have that at no cost. That will make you a 39