A Native American Acquaintance

A Native American man is in his mid-eighties. He grew up in great poverty, the baby of 14 children. When he was 16, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. He begged his mother to sign the papers so he could join the Navy. Finally, she did. He enlisted and says by the time he reached San Francisco, he knew how to smoke cigarettes and gamble. He discovered he was good at the latter and during his 4 years he sent all his winnings home and his mother saved it until his return.

When his ship landed in Indochina, he was astonished how much he resembled the populace. He participated in all that was required of him while in the navy and continued gambling and winning. When he returned home his mother brought out all his savings and it added up to thousands of dollars. She refused taking any he offered. The school he had attended prior to enlisting issued him a high school diploma and he entered college using the GI Bill. He lived frugally, graduated with a master's degree but couldn't get a job in the city. He thought it was because of his ethnic heritage.

He finally got a job with the state and lived in a small Oklahoma town as head of the welfare department. By this time he was married and had 2 children and both grew up to be highly educated.

When he was growing up as the baby of the family, even though they were very poor, he was babied and catered to, especially by his mother and sisters. Apparently, he never outgrew this, based on what was observed by those around him. After many years of marriage, his wife came up with cancer and did not survive. He was near age 65 and soon retired. Over the years, he was careful with money, but made many investments and ended up a wealthy man, possessor of over 10 million dollars.

He lives in a modest home and drives a decent car; otherwise, he lives like a pauper. He goes to various places in town where free food in available for the needy. He appears to be needy according to how he dresses himself.

He likes to play cards, but has great trouble finding partners who are willing to put up with his criticism of how they play. He can't seem to accept just keeping quiet about the mistakes made by others. Over and over someone will agree to be his partner, but eventually, they refuse because of his behavior.

I once agreed to be his partner and managed to do all right with him, then one day, after a few months I was someone else's partner, but we were at the same table. After the round was over, he reached over and picked up the hand I'd just played and I said he couldn't look at it, that he needed to request permission. He became very agitated and jumped up telling me I was no longer his friend and he never wanted me to be his partner again. He left and though he returned to play a few more times with others, it soon turned out no one else would agree to play cards with him.

He thought he overcame his poverty stricken childhood by being a world traveler and wealthy. Apparently he blames his ethnicity as being the reason things don't work out for him. He did experience some discrimination, but I think some of it is imagined, although not all, since I know there are those who are biased toward Native Americans.

He accomplished so much, yet seems to spend his years a lonely old man. Sometimes when I am out and about, I see him and he turns his head away. He's a good card player and I enjoyed games with him as my partner, but apparently he has been unable to escape the baby of the family syndrome of getting his way and he prefers sitting at home over playing cards. I think it's a perfect example of him cutting off his nose to spite his face.