By SANDRA THAMES / Community Columnist

Like so many small- town, large-family young men, Lessley Greene quit school while attending Thompson High School and got himself a job at Baker’s Dairy earning $1 per day working seven days per week.

With his $7, he gave his mother $5 and he kept $2 for himself.

“I had enough to eat and go to the movies,” said Greene.

When Greene turned 16, he got a job at the Siluria Textile Mill earning 40 cents per hour.

“Sixteen dollars a week. I thought I was rich,” he said.

At the age of 17, Greene joined the Navy and served three years mostly in Pensacola, Fla., and San Diego.

His girl was waiting back home all the time he was away. On Jan. 20, 1946 he was discharged, and on Jan. 23, he was married.

Friends joked that he went from real freedom to marriage without looking back.

Stella Blalock and Greene were married for more than 56 years, and were blessed with a son and a daughter. Now he has four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

After the Navy, Greene was back to the cotton mill, then Tennessee Coal and Iron for five years and then ABC Rail until he retired 25 years later.

Green is not a traveling man. Except for service time, he has always lived in Alabama, mostly in Shelby County.

A member of First Baptist Church of Alabaster since the mid 1960s, he is a soft-spoken, trustworthy, clean, neat and independent man. As the official tea maker volunteer at the Alabaster Senior Center, he works several hours at the center each day and is seldom absent. At the Senior Center dances at Thompson Middle School, he is the official coffeemaker and has worked at CityFest for nine out of 10 years.

In addition, this spry 86-year-old keeps two acres of grass mowed, loves to read and enjoys eating big juicy hamburger steaks from Lloyd’s restaurant.

Lessley Greene is a man who trusts the Lord in all things.

 

Community columnist Sandra Thames can be reached by e–mail at bobthames1942@yahoo.com.