Throughout the year 1963, our father & grandfather engaged in one of the dirtiest businesses a man could imagine.  He went around cleaning septic tanks.  For us, it's hard to even imagine that a man of his stature would perform such a lowly service.  From a historical perspective, however, it is quite easy to imagine that this was in all likelihood, a very profitable occupation for him, because few black families enjoyed indoor facilities; or city sewer services.  At that particular time, only a fortunate few of us lived on paved streets, or had inside water.  For many of us, sewer ditches were dug out behind our houses, to simply run out and be soaked into the ground.  

For the overwhelming majority of that particular year (1963) we can observe the many regular advertisements that appeared in the local newspaper