JoeC's Member Spotlight

Lefty

Yank
Tell us a little about yourself - your family or household, kids, pets, occupation, etc.

Well I was born in Miami, Florida and lived there till 1970. I had a serious accident on my 12th birthday that changed the course of my life from that point on. After years of being put back together physically I missed most of my childhood. I meet my wife in high school and married with in months of graduating. Well we got married in Feb. 1964 and we are still together today. We had 4 kids, 3 boys then a girl who died on September 13th, 2001 at 31 years old. My kids have been a prolific bunch in that we have 17 grand kids and 3 great grand kids. I used to tell them when they where young to find something they like and stick with it. I meant a job but then kids hear only what they want to hear when their father speaks.

We have always had cats and dogs but with kids we sure have had a lot of exotic pets through they years too, especially living in South Florida. We currently have 3 house cats and a dog.

Occupations let me think, I've sure had a few in my life. When I graduated high school my first full time job was as a draftsman for a yacht builder in Miami. I then joined the sheet metal apprentice program at my step father's urging. In late 1969 my wife and I packed up the kids and moved due to no work in Florida to Vidor, Texas. One of the first things I did when we got there after going to work was look for some where to work out. I meet a guy that had just got his black belt and was opening a school in Vidor so we opened it together running it together till 1980. In December of 1980 due to some health problems my wife had we moved back to Miami. I quit working as a sheet metal worker in 1979 and was doing body guard work from some corporations while still in Texas. In 1980 I had earned a good reputation and got offers as a free lance courier as well as a body guard for many different groups from governments to private parties. I traveled to 94 countries over the next three years and quit doing it in early 1984. We moved to Louisiana for less than a year returning to Homestead, Florida in early 1985. I then went back to school and got a BS in Computer Science taking a job with Dade County Public Schools as a systems analyst until 1994.

In 1994 we meet a couple that managed a storage facility next door to our place in Homestead Florida. They told us about the storage business which got my wife and I interested in trying it. In 1995 we went to work for Public Storage managing a place in Pompano Beach then in 2000 moved to an Extra Space storage facility in West Palm Beach. We left them in 2003 and moved to my son's in North Carolina whom we stayed for a few months. We then came to Lexington to visit my youngest son and found the place we are at now; we took over a self storage business in Lexington, Kentucky.

What part of the world do you live in?

I'm now living in Lexington, Kentucky but have lived in Texas, Louisiana as well as out of a duffel bag from time to time.

How did you find the NCT community?

I saw it mentioned by a guy who used to be here called the Tourist that has posted about this group forming up in knifeforum.com. So I came over and checked it out and have stayed.

Do you have any hobbies besides cooking?

Boy I've had a bunch in my life. They cover a lot of territory here from the martial arts to art in the form of painting be it on canvas to motorcycle and car art. I used to be an avid golfer, scuba diver, sailing to car racing. I've now slowed down to simply reading, and staying close to home.

Give us 5 words that describe you.

Fearless, Honest, Trustworthy, Curious, Happy.

Tell us one thing about yourself that people would be surprised to know.

I hate crowds and I'm pretty quiet when around others.

How and at what age did you start cooking?

As a kid, don't really remember my age at the time but learned from my Grandmother.

Do you have a signature dish or one that you make especially well?

Not really as I'm always trying new things and recipes.

What is your favorite spice?

What ever spice gives the flavor I'm looking for in the dish of the moment.

What is your favorite restaurant meal?

Surf and turf, lobster and steak regardless.

What would your last meal be if you could choose anything at all?

Shrimp cocktail followed buy Lobster tail and rare steak, baked potato with all the fixing and a fresh garden salad.

If you could host a dinner party with 6 well-known guests, living or dead, who would they be and what would you serve?

Albert Einstein, Nicholas Georgeade (doctor at Duke who put me back together again), Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Bill and Hilary Clinton. Probably a menu from one of the meals Thomas Jefferson was known to have put out for guests.

If you were going to be stranded on an isolated island for a year, what 6 foods would you want to have to readily available?

Sea food caught from the waters around the island, fruits, vegetables, pork, and beef.

Who would you most like to prepare a meal for and why. What would you serve?

My daughter, grandmother, grandfather, my wife's parents all of which are now gone. I would leave it up to them as to what to serve, whatever they wanted I would make for them.

Who would you most like to have prepare a meal for you?

Martin Yan or Emeril Lagasse

100 years from now, how would you like to be remembered?

Guess it would be nice to just be remembered.

Anything else you'd like to tell us about yourself?

If I told you more, I would probably have to shoot you.

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QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
Wow, Joe, you have led a chock-full life! A Renaissance Man!

Thanks for sharing yourself with us!

Lee
 

Deelady

New member
You have definately overcome some great hardships but at the same time been given some great blessings!
Thank you for sharing with us :)
 

Cooksie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
JoeC said:
"My kids have been a prolific bunch in that we have 17 grand kids and 3 great grand kids. I used to tell them when they where young to find something they like and stick with it. I meant a job but then kids hear only what they want to hear when their father speaks."

I love it! :lol::lol::lol:

I really enjoyed reading that. I bet you could tell us some intriguing body guard tales. :applause: Thanks!
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
"My kids have been a prolific bunch in that we have 17 grand kids and 3 great grand kids. I used to tell them when they where young to find something they like and stick with it. I meant a job but then kids hear only what they want to hear when their father speaks."

I love it! :lol::lol::lol:

I really enjoyed reading that. I bet you could tell us some intriguing body guard tales. :applause: Thanks!

I probably could write a book based on those 3 years or so I did it. I also have a few scars from it as well. :mrgreen:
 

lilbopeep

🌹🐰 Still trying to get it right.
Site Supporter
great read joe!! thanks for sharing your life with us. i also loved the comment on your kids finding something they like and sticking to it!!

:flowers:
 

Doc

Administrator
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
Great job Joe. Thanks for sharing!!!!!!! :thumb:
Thanks for including the pics. :D :thumb:
 

buzzard767

golfaknifeaholic
Gold Site Supporter
Great to hear your story Joe. You're one guy who didn't sit and wait for things to come to you. You went out and grabbed life by the throat. Way to go. :)
 

Miniman

Mini man - maxi food
Gold Site Supporter
Zoowee Joe, I always thought you had an interesting background, but you certainly were more than that. Thank you so mich for opening up.
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
I liked the part about the kids finding something they were good at, too. Funny.

Well nature only has one natural parent really. It is the bumble bee, their babies are born, then they seal them in a wall and don't let them out till they have a job. Now if they don't work, they eat them. Me being a human no such instinctive knowledge, I had bungle through like the rest of us. :mrgreen:
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
Not far from the truth there Buzz, I have been in all 50 states as well as all our possessions but they don't count in my country count since I'm from the US. I really don't think I could list them all as many that where aren't and a few that weren't are countries now. The way I kept count was by the stamps on my 3 passports. :lol:
 

Fisher's Mom

Mother Superior
Super Site Supporter
I bet you could tell us some intriguing body guard tales. :applause: Thanks!
Now I'm dying to hear some stories from your bodyguard days, too, Joe! Do you think you could share some of them if you didn't actually name names?

Thank you so much for sharing, Joe, and to you, Lefty, for making it happen. Your spotlight reminds me of this guy - the Most Interesting Man in the World.
 

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joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
I don't know who that guy is FM but doubt I would be in that class. I did work as a bouncer in an on premises swingers club for a few months in Miami which I thought was fun. It is now gone so I can tell you the name, Playhouse South. It was owned by some old friends of mine from the CIA if you must know since both are now dead. :yum:

Body guard work was mostly boring in that you travel with some guy/girl that is scared of their own shadow and no one really knows who they are much less cares. Courier work was kind of fun but not really dangerous in that I would fly with something, usually first class, then be picked up at the airport by embassy staff and taken to an embassy. Once done back to the airport and on to the next job.

I guess the best job I had was for two years in a row I went to Costa Rico with a rather famous drug lord's father who had alzheimer's to a whore house. This was his son's birthday present to his father. Well the first time the old man (86 yr. old) picked out 4 women and spent a week in a room with them. The second time was pretty much like the first except he fell coming down a fight of stairs leaving the room, breaking his hip in the process. He died before the next year so that contract ended.

Another good time was going to Montana Deer hunting with an Arab Sheik and once getting there they found out deer's have a split hoves hence against their religious beliefs to eat. Me and the other two body guards left them (15 people) in their cabin while we went deer hunting and got a good one too. :whistling:

Now I also did some serious security work from time to time with the down sides of that being many. It is also the reason I finally quit doing it. Those down sides would be a bullet wound through the left fore arm, 24 clamps close my stomach which was cut open by a machete in a jungle in Nicaragua while traveling with 20 mercenaries, a month in a Columbian prison and being a passenger on a helicopter that fell out of the sky when hit by ground fire. Hence I'm happy I'm still alive and those I told are only because those involved are dead. :yum:
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
That has been my problem from time to time, Buzz I don't always duck when I should. :whistling:
 

buzzard767

golfaknifeaholic
Gold Site Supporter
MIMITW on self defense: "The right look should suffice."

I love that guy.... no, not gay. :yum:
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
I would look a little like him if I grew a beard again but with a patch on my left eye. I'm also a tad heavier than he looks though I really can't tell. I guess I've seen these commercials just never paid that close of attention to them.
 
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