John C. Lindquist

By: Allison Sargent

1. When and where were you born? October 12, 1919 in Whittinsville Massachusetts

2. Where did you attend grade school? high school? Jack attended grade school in Whittinsville until the fourth grade. He then moved with his family to Flushing, New York where he attended catholic school until the eighth grade. He went to high school in Brooklyn.

3. Do you have a college degree? If so what was your field of study? He does not have a college degree but later in life he went to a few college courses while he was living in Wisconsin.

4. How did you decide on a career? His father was a plumber and so initially he also did work in plumbing. Then he got bored of this and enlisted in the air force in 1937.

5. If you served in the military, when and where did you serve and what were your duties? Jack served in the air force for seven years. It was called the “air core” back then but it changed sometime during the war. One of his brothers was killed during the war and another was wounded while serving the Navy in the Philippines and so Jack served as a training command pilot and a crew chief in Panama and in Hawaii. He served in Hawaii for two years (before Pearl Harbor) and he remembers that he was stationed at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor which was half air force and half navy. He remembers he was excited to come back to the states and experience the real weather but after landing in the cold weather he decided it was “just horrible.” One memory he has from his time serving in Hawaii was when he and two of his buddies filled their canteens with beer and snuck out into the sugar cane field. They stayed there for two whole days drinking beer and nobody found them.

6. What would you consider the most important inventions made during your lifetime? Jack hates all sorts of electronics particularly computers and “telephones” that cause trouble. He realizes the consequences of texting and driving and believes that no good can come from cell phones. He remembers when he was younger he used to work for a company that sold things to the service and he had the opportunity to have a six inch television and he remembers the first thing he ever saw on it was a speech by Eleanor Roosevelt.

7. How is the world now different from what it was like when you were a child? Jack grew up during the Great Depression and his father had to work 2 jobs to make ends meet. He did not go hungry and he always had decent clothes but times were tougher back then. His personal life changed when he went into the service and was forced to make it on his own. He believes the world has changed as a result of World War II and the few other wars since then.

8. What US. President have you admired the most and why? Jack admires Ronald Reagan.

9. Are there other important events (local, national, international) that have affected you? He was not directly affected by any event but he felt obligated to volunteer during 9/11 however his wife convinced him not to.

10. Was there a person that really changed the course of your life by something s/he did? Jack and his wife Hilde lived together for 66 years until she passed away in 2013. Jack says “She was the smartest woman I ever knew- even had a college degree. She was a teacher in Wisconsin for over 20 years.” Jack also said that Hilde was the person that he admired most in life and that she “made him an honest man.”

11. Have you ever met any famous people? Describe what happened. While he was stationed in Hawaii, Jack had the opportunity to meet Amelia Earhart and worked on her plane. According to Jack, Amelia’s first attempt to circumnavigate the globe was an east to west flight plan and it ended abruptly when her take off failed. The plane was brought to Ford Island and Jack was assigned to try and repair the plane however it needed to be sent back from the factory. Attached are some pictures he took of the plane in the hangar as well as some pictures of Amelia with the Mayor. Jack said that when Amelia shook hands with the mayor, he said that she should be at home making babies, not pretending to be a pilot.

Jack worked as a police man in Brooklyn for over 26 years. It was a difficult job and it put a strain on his marriage but he and his wife Hilde managed to stay together. He saw a lot of things going on in this time and noticed how the neighborhoods changed into some pretty shady places. After he retired, he moved up north to Garnet lake and bought a house and 65 acres of land for 4,000 dollars. He fixed the place himself; he did everything including the plumbing and the electrical work. They were able to sell the house for over 300,000 dollars. They ended up moving to Jainesville, Wisconsin because they were concerned about their health and realized that the closest hospital was over 20 miles away. His wife had a lot of family in Wisconsin and they were very happy there. Jack and Hilde have 2 kids who are in their 60s. Jack also shared that his first car was a 1941 Chevy convertible that he bought for 95 dollars when he was 23 years old. The best piece of advice he said he could give me was for me to do my own thing and live my life the way that makes me happiest.