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Ronald Leo Joseph Ouellette

Woonsocket, Rhode Island

Born Jan. 18, 1943

Mother: Florence

Father: Aldeo

My father, Aldeo, was a mill worker. He had a long list of names. The French Canadians are famous for that. They add Joseph to every boy's name and  Marie to every girl's name. I guess that's just tradition.

My father was born in Canada but he had dual citizenship through his father. My grandfather, Lucien, was born in Lewiston, Maine and migrated to Canada, Work, I guess. I never did find out why.

My grandfather and grandmother had 13 kids but lost two. They had six boys and five girls. Out of all of them, there's only two girls left. All the boys are dead. Heart and lung problems seem to run in my family. 

I was a kid. All I was concerned about were my toys, and eating and having a place to sleep. They sacrificed a lot for me.

I grew up in fear of my father, and unfortunately, I did the same thing with my children. My father was a screamer and a yeller and a pounder on the desk and on the kitchen table. He was an Archie Bunker type. He was very opinionated and I carry some of that into my adult life, although I'm a little more liberal than my father was. 

In its heyday Woonsocket was about 55,000. The city was broken up into different ethnic neighborhoods. The mill owners, the French and the Irish who owned the mills lived in the north end. That's where the synagogue is, where the Catholic churches are and that's where the rich lived.

But the city predominantly was tenement houses. The Italians lived in two neighborhoods. The Polish lived on Constitution Hill. The Irish lived in Fairmont. Of course we had our projects. We had two.

My father didn't like blacks. We had a small contingent in my hometown and they all lived in the crappy section of the city. I remember they all drove Buicks but lived in tenement houses. He was very, very opinionated. But that's where he came from. As I look back on his life, it was more ignorance than anything else. It was fear.

My best friend when I was seven years old was Dennis Teper. Dennis was a big kid, and I mean big. Dennis looked like he was 12 or 13. And I remember the kids used to pick on him. He lived right across the street from me and Dennis and I were very, very close. In fact he just passed away a couple of years ago. I think there was something physically wrong with Dennis but he was my best childhood friend.

By the close of the 19th century, a vast number of Canadians had migrated to the mill town of Woonsocket, RI. The Franco-American clergy of the area cherished the dream of assisting these immigrant families by educating the young, preserving the language and enkindling the Catholic faith. One local clergyman, Monsignor Charles Dauray, took the initiative and laid the foundation for educational institutions that would serve his parishioners. He invited the Brothers of the Sacred Heart to form part of this dream by staffing a school.

Mount St. Charles Academy opened its doors on September 14, 1924 to a number of boarders and commuting students. Br. Josephus SC served as the first principal. The school was immediately recognized as an excellent seat of learning and increasing enrollment and expansion marked the ensuing years.

The bothers at Mount St. Charles Academy used to smack us around.

In junior high school, Brother Cecilus kicked me one day when I was acting up in class. He came over and kicked me. I had an ankle that swelled up. I went home hobbling with a swollen ankle. Of course my father didn't work a lot because he was sick.

I went to the Brothers of the Sacred Heart High School. It was in another part of the city but was run by the brothers of Mt. St. Charles Academy Junior High School.

I fell in love with Michelle, who attended Woonsocket High School (Class of 1964). Michelle was my first love. I was maybe 17. She lived up the street from me. We were attracted to each other. She was 14. I was 17 and it was my first love affair. She really stole my heart. She really, really did.

I don't know if it was love or lust at that age but we were inseparable. When you saw me, you saw her. It was heavy and it affected me for my whole life.

The plan was. She was three years behind me (in school). I said "Look, I don't want to go to college. I've had it with school. Thirteen years of school was enough. I said. I'll join the Navy. I'll learn something, a trade or something.

I said that when I come back after four years, you'll have been out of high school for a year. We can get married, make a decision. Do we stay in the Navy or do we get out? I never loved anyone like her. I married a wonderful woman, a great wife, a good mother. I loved her but I never loved her like I loved Michelle

During Boot Camp I received a Dear John letter. Michelle said that she was 14 years old, and I didn't know where the Navy was going to send me. She wrote that she was still in school so she couldn't join me.  It's just the way it worked out. I realize today that it just wasn't meant to be.

Michelle's parents liked me but they didn't like the fact that they caught us making out a few times. Her mother was a war bride from Paris. In fact Michelle was born in Paris.  Her mother loved me and they wanted us to eventually wind up together but you know, when you're a kid you make mistakes and that's the way it goes.

Michelle wound up marrying a second cousin of mine, I wasn't close with. They had two children. During their marriage, Michelle attended nursing school and became a nurse. They were married maybe eight years and they divorced. I had issues with her. That's why I found her (in Virginia) last summer. I'm glad I went up to see her. Nothing torrid went on. We're adults now. We had a wonderful, wonderful weekend

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