A Short History of Joe Leyes (as written by Joe):
I was born very young so I really don’t remember much of that time.
The first thing I remember was when I started school at Blessed Sacrament School. My first teacher was Sister St. Pierre. All I remember of her is that she only had a face and two hands; every thing else was under a black dress with white cardboard on her forehead and around her neck. I also recall that Sister was shorter than almost all the kids in my class. My first look at Sister made me think that she was in witness protection but before long I realized that all the nuns couldn’t have been. I didn’t do well in first grade. I failed show and tell because Sister said it was not a good thing that I brought my fathers gun to school, he was a police officer. He also failed me. In that school we had goils in the class. No that’s not a misspelling that is a woid, at least in Brooklyn. Something around this time I took up for a short time hair coloring. I dipped the ends of the pigtails of this goil named Margaret Keller who in an inkwell on the desk. I really didn’t like her she never failed anything. I failed that subject also. Her parents also failed me. This is the truth and you can ask her about it. You know her as Midge. Most of the rest of my grammar school experience was uneventful I did learn a lot about being a carpenter because the nuns gave me many lessons with a yardstick. They were always measuring the back of my hand with them. In the seventh grade I really started to behave. I think that this is due to Sister Jarleth ( I think that this is the way she spelt her name) I also wasn’t very good at spelling. Sister was about 6’2” and where other nuns had holy pictures and script letters around their rooms Sister Jarleth had football players and she could through an eraser as good as any quarter back around.
Somehow I graduated and went to High School; nothing big happened except the goils were better looking and had make-up. There were very few goils in class, only about 1% of the whole school; and no inkwells.
I joined the Police Department 56 days after my 21st birthday. Three years and one day after that day I married that goil from Blessed Sacrament. We have two children a goil and a boy and they have the same. About being a “COP “ many people have asked me how did anyone do it. Well keep this in mind - many of the recruits didn’t know that the whole world wasn’t just like New York because most of us hadn’t been outside NY for any reason so it was easy. I had a wonderful career filled with many happy memories and some sad ones. I believe I made an impact on people who I came in contact with professionally. While in the Police department in order to comply with the department “suggestion” to get involved I joined the South Farmingdale Fire Department (Long Island NY). This was a great thing for me because it gave me an outlet. I am still a life member since I became a chief.
I had many jobs since retiring from the PD. One of the most interesting was working for Nielson Media Research aka The Nielsen Rating People. Now I’m retired here in Virginia having a good time. Other than the Knights. I’m involved in an organization called CERT, Community Emergency Response Team, a growing organization made up of volunteers who will self activate if there is any type of disaster natural or man made.
Past Grand Knights
