Tom Spence : simplebooklet.com

Tom Sr Rena Tom Helen Philip in Sligo Ireland 1956 Thomas Spence has come a long way from his childhood in the gritty southern district of Glasgow called the Gorbals Aside from Scotland he has called London Boston Syracuse and Chicago home always finding work easily thanks to his quick wit and adaptable nature He has played soccer against the Luftwaffe and has shaken hands with the King of Greece And all of this might not have happened after receiving his Last Rites at the tender age of 7 A freak accident left him with meningitis but thankfully he recovered I ve been living 66 years on borrowed time I don t mind thinking about kicking the bucket But at 73 years with loving wife Mai kids Katrina Marie Fiona Thomas and Sarah and now 8 grandchildren he s not going anywhere Born November 14 1942 to parents Thomas McGuire Spence and Philomena Flynn Tom was the second oldest of four with older sister Rena and younger siblings Ellen and Philip Growing up in Glasgow life was as rough as the kids that ran the streets with clear delineations between the rich Presbyterians and then everyone else They controlled the jobs They controlled everything To entertain themselves while their bellies were rumbling they played football in the street and ran from the cops 5

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It was a tough area full of ruffians and I was one of them Some of my pals were thieves and hooligans but that was what Glasgow was like in the 1940s People were good but just really poor Many among the Scottish working class worked long hours at the shipyards or coal mines then blew off steam as well as much of their paychecks at the local pubs Thankfully Tom s dad wasn t one of them Instead of drink his vice was betting He spent his days at the railyards working as a shunter unhooking train cars as they came in with goods from all over After work he moonlighted as a bookie It was the 1920s and his office was the street corner The cops would dress as women to try and catch him But the cops in Glasgow were over 6 feet tall and most of them were from the Highlands They were big men they had to be My dad could see them from a mile away During WW2 Tom Sr was stationed in England in a division called the Green Howards and defended the shores of Britain My old man called them the Green Cowards Wife Philomena worked the streetcars collecting fares during wartime The entire family felt the effects of WW2 Families everywhere already struggling to feed their kids were rationed by the war You could only get one egg and half a pound of sugar You didn t have enough Nobody had enough Before the younger two kids Ellen and Philip were born Tom and older sister Rena lived in a single end a one room apartment that consisted of a concealed bed for his parents a sink and a fire heated range 6 Rena Ellen and Tom 1945 Philomena in Glasgow 1956

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St Gerard s football team 1955 56 The sink was used for cooking and bathing Tom and Rena slept on the floor When the war was over the family found a two bedroom flat in Kinning Park It was higher class less ruffians We had toilets in the houses It was a big step up The Spence children all attended Catholic schools at no cost since they were run by the government Tom excelled at school first Holy Cross then St Margaret s for primary then tested into the top Catholic high school St Gerard s It came easy I never studied at anything I could pass anything so long as it was multiple choice His natural smarts came from his father Self educated his dad was well spoken and had perfect penmanship and spelling My old man bought me encyclopedias when I was 9 or 10 I still have them I read them all the time But Tom s love for reading did not come from his dad He didn t read anything but the racing forms After many years under the watchful gaze of the Catholic schoolteachers Tom longed for change and a ticket out So when a government recruiter visited looking for students interested in agriculture for programs all over the UK Tom was eager to volunteer I said that sounds good to me I had wanderlust and wanted to go somewhere This sounded like a way to escape 7

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At the age of 14 Tom set off for St Patrick s Agricultural College in County Monahan Ireland and spent the next year and a half helping to run a fully operating farm After learning the inner workings of horticulture he was ready for paid work Tom s father wrote about a job opportunity back home in Glasgow It was an apprenticeship in exterior design for an industrial estate with plenty of gardens to maintain So I decided I ll apply anyways I told them that I was involved in soil science and horticulture and all kinds of baloney in Ireland And they gave me the job Tom returned home to Scotland to earn his first paycheck Only the money wasn t great There was no money in it I said to hell with it The coal mines though dangerous promised better pay So he left the factory gardens for work deep in the mines making 4 pounds a week Still Tom was restless for more In the summer of 1959 Tom along with a group of friends left for Camden Town in London and quickly found jobs in construction They worked 6 days a week 12 hours a day but also enjoyed many pints after hours We made big money and we spent it Drinking gambling and horses It was stone mad The young men also went to special lengths to save money on rent We all lived 6 or 7 of us in a basement apartment One bed 8 Rena and Tom 1954 Tom s grandmother Catherine and sister Nell

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Tom with his mother 1987 The landlady was unaware of the arrangement To her knowledge she was renting the apartment out to two respectable young Catholics We d come out of the pubs at 10 at night then go down to where the apartment was and would have to wait for her light to go out Gerry Carrol would go in open the basement window for us then we all piled in Oh God it was unbelievable After months of adventures in England Tom returned home A new town Cumbernauld was being developed outside of Glasgow to handle the population overflow Workers were needed to build the town from the ground up Tom and a crew of mostly Irishmen worked the sewers The bus would take you out there at 6 in the morning You d be out there 12 hours a day You could work 7 days a week if you wanted We loved it The money was great Most of Tom s earnings went to his parents I took just enough for me and they got the rest In 1960 Philomena s sister Molly visited from America She left young Tom with an open invite to come to New York If Tom was looking for opportunity and a way to escape the sewers of Scotland this was it and his dad knew it My da says to me you should go to America Give it a try Because you re going nowhere here 9

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With the Protestant stranglehold on all good jobs and opportunities Tom Sr knew his son would be better off across the pond So in August of 1961 Tom went from sewer work to Syracuse I thought I had died and gone to heaven It was unbelievable It was as clean as can be You could ve eaten off the streets The place was absolutely spotless Molly worked in a factory specializing in ophthalmological equipment and offered to find him work there but Tom instead found a job at the local saw mill for 0 99 hour But the money at Molly s factory kept calling Tom decided to give it a shot and was soon making double what he made at the mill working a lathe to produce surgical needles only 1 8 of an inch long You had to wear magnifying glasses Even though he had a stable skilled job in Syracuse that paid good money opportunity kept calling from elsewhere Over the holidays in 1961 one of Tom s close friends from Glasgow Dennis Ruddy visited from Boston and lured Tom to return with him with promises of work and fun times Tom was eager to move out on his own 10 Tom with Mary Margaret Molly s daughter his Aunt Molly and friends from Scotland Peter and Annie Quinn Syracuse 1961

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Tom in Syracuse 1979 Dennis Ruddy Tom and Thomas 2015 Molly was at least 60 and to me then that was old She annoyed the hell out of me I d be smoking and I d put the cigarette in an ashtray and the next thing she s getting the ashtray and emptying it So I got the signal Tom was also tired of walking on eggshells when he came in from a late shift and a few pints After walking a mile and a half home often through snow he wasn t ready for a lecture She was the typical American Nobody could come in the front door You had to use the back door and take your shoes off After trudging through 12 inches of snow I wouldn t take my shoes off until I got in and she didn t like that Reflecting now Tom knows the issue was really their age gap She was a good woman but she was old and I was young So in 1962 Tom left for Boston to meet up with Dennis Ruddy Like always Tom found a job easily this time with a bakery He fibbed his way through the interview claiming to have bakery experience in Glasgow But the work was less baking and more manual labor which Tom had plenty of experience with The job was lifting 100lb bags of flour throwing them into these big drums They had sheets on the wall telling you so many bags of flour so many bags of sugar Tom was living the good life making over 100 a week then spending his nights with Dennis at local dances or playing the piano at the pubs He found more permanent lodging through a Glasgow man by the name of John Kerr who befriended Tom and offered him a room in Dorchester Tom stayed with John and his family for the next two years enjoying homemade meals such as hamburgers and fries made by John s mom and trading barbs with one of her 9 kids all of whom Tom 11 can still name

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Marian Jean Ann John Andy Peter Archie Jamie and Louis Paying Mrs Kerr 10 a week Tom had his own room and plenty of money left over I had bags of money The fun came to a halt with the Vietnam war Tom was drafted in the summer of 1964 and reported to Fort Dix New Jersey with a group from Boston Instead of starting basic training Tom was shuffled around and ended up in Fort Jackson South Carolina thanks to a mix up with his paperwork It was August and 100 degrees There were bugs everywhere Tom sporting long hair among his buzz cut comrades still wasn t in the right place and spent the next week waiting for his assignment Finally he was sent to Fort Gordon Georgia to begin basic training and advanced infantry training That was the end of his long hair In 1965 Tom was sent with the rest of the 24th Infantry Division to Bremerhaven and Augsburg Germany He traveled to Greece and Turkey to conduct military maneuvers and other preparation for a war that never arrived It was a cold war Every couple of months you would fire your gun just for the hell of it We were playing war games We were waiting for the Russians Tom remembers one military exercise involving running full stop down a field to try and outrun a jet flying low overhead They would knock you down While conducting military maneuvers with allies in Kavala a city in northern Greece Tom was chosen to be a part of an honor guard welcoming and shaking hands with King Constantine 12 Greece 1966

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24th Infantry Division Soccer Team in Germany 1965 He was the tallest Greek I ve ever seen taller than me In addition to field exercises Tom further trained on the soccer pitch He played soccer for the 24th Infantry Division which treated him to weekends off to play games and the chance to travel and stay in expensive hotels The division had a team just for German American friendship baloney to get along with the Germans But it was great In August of 1967 Tom was released from service and returned back to Scotland working again in construction and living with mom and dad He had one year to return to America on the military s dime Before I knew it it was August of 1968 and I had to make a decision Once again the old man told me to go He said What are you going to stay here for You ll do nothing here besides more or less kill yourself working He knew all too well after a lifetime working in the railyards He wanted a better life for me But getting back wasn t easy Tom had just a day left on his papers was sporting long hair and wearing street clothes when he attempted to board a military aircraft back to the States 13

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Sgt Where s your uniform Tom I dunno I lost it I was cheeky and knew who to talk to He convinced the base s Chaplain who happened to be a Lt Colonel to get him on board Tom left the U K and landed on McGuire Air Force base in New Jersey without a dime to his name Instead of staying on the East Coast Tom decided to go live with a friend from the division Mick Byrne who had settled on the west side of Chicago Mickey wired him enough money to get himself to the Midwest Again Tom found work fairly easily in construction rebuilding Chicago s enormous McCormick Place Convention Center after a fire destroyed it in 1967 After that job he landed work at a nuclear power plant in Zion Illinois about 40 miles from the city That was huge money I was making time and a half working shift work at 11 75 an hour I was making 500 a week It was around this time Tom met Mai Walsh at a house party When I seen her I thought that s the one for me A few weeks later Tom bumped into Mai at a crowded dance at the Holiday Ballroom on the northwest side and shared a few dances Then they started dating She lived on the north side of the city and Tom lived on the west side but even without a car Tom figured out a way to keep seeing her I d take the bus up Central Avenue to Irving and then another bus over to where she was living Once a week we went to the dances on Saturday After I was going out with her for a couple of weeks her brother Pat loaned me his car 14 Mai and Tom 1970 The couple on their honeymoon 1970

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Mai and Tom s wedding day Valentine s Day 1970 In September of 1969 Tom asked Mai to marry him There was no kneeling down and all that carrying on Are you kidding That s a lot of nonsense All them marriages end in divorce I said I d like to spend my life with you Will you marry me And she says okay That was it The couple married at the Immaculate Heart of Mary church on Valentine s Day 1970 Over 400 guests attended the reception at the Lyons Club of Oak Park and Tom relished the cash that came with them I remember I was in the toilet opening up envelopes of money My best man Dennis Ruddy had to come looking for me It was the happiest day of Tom s life The couple s first dance was to Jumping Jack Flash by the Rolling Stones The two were ready for adventures beginning with a honeymoon road trip to Syracuse and Boston Tom had borrowed a car from Mick Byrne for the occasion We were headed for New York and the wheel fell off I ll never forget it The car was going wobble wobble wobble so we got off at the exit for Hamburg I was looking for a gas station or a garage and the wheel fell off as soon as we got there Though they didn t plan to spend the first night of their honeymoon in Hamburg New York a mechanic there was able to fix it and they were off to Syracuse in the morning 15

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Back in Chicago the couple settled on the north side of the city in Mike Luby s basement apartment that left much for improvement Every time it rained the sewer backed up and it was all over the floor It was no place to start a family Mai was pregnant and Tom wanted his first child born in his homeland of Scotland But they wanted to arrive in style Tom had traded up from his first car a Corvair that ran like a lawnmower for a Ford Galaxy 500 Tom and Mai took the new car and their American money back to Scotland to welcome their first child They drove to New York and took a ship over the Queen Elizabeth II The boat was complete with a dance floor a Harrods and even a priest Father Carroll saying mass twice a day It was absolutely unbelievable It was like in the movies The couple visited both Mai s family in Kerry and Tom s family in Glasgow where daughter Katrina was born at St Frances Nursing Home in 1971 After a final visit back to Ireland to show off the baby the couple was broke Tom headed back to Chicago to earn enough money to send for Mai and Katrina Daughters Katrina and Marie 1972

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With daughter Fiona 1987 Daughter Sarah 1982 Tom fell back into construction jobs and the family reunited back in Chicago Soon the Spence family grew welcoming Marie in 1972 Fiona in 1974 and Thomas in 1975 Tom and Mai were renting a modest two bedroom apartment from Tom s army buddy Mick Byrne Space was getting tight but Tom had saved up enough money to buy something of his own He was also about to find his true calling In 1976 Tom and Mai bought their first house at 4420 N Tripp from a Croatian by the name of Nikola Papic He says to me You should go into real estate because you ve got the blarney You d do well He was a bullshitter Nik promised if Tom would get his real estate license he had a job at Town Reality What Nik didn t know is Tom never shied away from a challenge In 1976 Tom got his GED and a week later sat for the real estate exam He returned to Town Reality for the promise of a job I could tell when I walked in that he was surprised to see me He was just giving me a story because I wanted to buy a house off of him But I knew that Tom I got my license Nick When can you start Tom I ll start right now 17

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Tom had quit construction and wanted to start his life as an agent right then and there Nik was skeptical so assigned Tom floor time He says How about coming in here Saturday morning from 8 12 and anybody that comes in here to buy a house that s your customer This is the honest to god s truth He was giving me a big story He wanted someone in there to answer the phone As luck would have it someone did come in and Tom leapt to action Dorothy McCarthy was looking to buy an apartment building was flexible on location so long as it was occupied and on the market Tom found a building in Franklin Park showed it to her and by noon had written up an offer Nik Papic returned to his office later that afternoon to find Tom with a signed contract in his hand I told him I sold a ten flat He nearly died Tom worked at Town Realtors for four years selling houses to everyone he knew which turns out was quite a lot of people At one point Papic tore a page out of the phone book handed it to Tom and then told him to cold call them to see if they wanted to sell their house Tom was insulted I said Are you kidding I know a ton of people I ll call them Tom sold hundreds of deals with Town Realtors and a successful agent was born Following years of success with Town Realtors Tom and Mai bought a new house at 5219 N New England in 1979 Two years later they had their fifth child Sarah Then in 1982 Tom launched his own business Spence Real Estate right on Northwest Highway close to home 18 Ellen Thomas Fiona Katrina and Marie 1978 Son Thomas 1978

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Spence Real Estate on Northwest Highway New office on Devon Avenue 2008 Mai ran the household while Tom was growing the business The kids all went to Catholic schools first St Edwards or St Monica s then the girls went to Resurrection High School Fiona and Sarah excelled at bagpiping which took the family to Canada several times a year for competition All the girls went on to university and are now established in different fields They all got bags of education Son Thomas born with Down syndrome brought a unique set of challenges When Thomas was born they told us to put him away in a home There was not a chance we would do any of that Not a chance He s terrific He s a blessing He s very knowledgeable He doesn t talk much but he knows everything that s going on Everybody loves Thomas Tom credits most of his happiness to his wife Mai I couldn t get a better wife You have to have a good foundation Know who your partner is They will be married 46 years on Valentine s Day 2016 Tom and Mai s faith is another key to a good life The couple rarely misses a Sunday mass at either St Monica s or St Eugene s I don t consider myself religious We were brought up to go to mass and we still do it I think we are blessed While his girls have settled into careers and some have gotten married and had kids of their own Tom is settling into the role of grandfather and getting used to retirement He barely works these days keeping his real estate license active in case anyone needs his help but spends most of his time either walking his 10 000 steps each day or spending time with family 19

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Life has turned out pretty good for the Scottish kid from the Gorbals I never imagined my life to be anything specific I guess I wanted to be like my old man Tom s father who passed away in 1992 is still missed everyday Tom s life would ve been a lot different without his father s influence The day he died was the saddest day of my life He was a great man He was the one pushing me to go to America But even though Tom Sr persuaded his son to leave Scotland he never lost touch with him My dad sent me a letter a week for 30 years He was a very thoughtful man Even though Tom s dad left big shoes to fill he filled them well enough He made a life for his wife and 5 kids in America He launched a successful business And now he is surrounded by family and friends that love him With his Irish wife and friends from all over Tom knows a lot of people in both the Scottish and Irish communities He and Mai are active at the Irish American Heritage Center Gaelic Park Gaelic Football circles and frequent benefits plays weddings and wakes If some Scotch guy is in a pub or at a wedding and meets an Irish guy they ll start talking and will find out the common thread is they know me Everybody knows me Most of his time is spent these days with family spoiling grandkids Clare Maeve Nora Liam Caroline Maggie Gracie and Thomas Hardly a week goes by that we don t get together It s just one big party Tom Spence s life is full And as his father used to say from a small acorn a mighty oak grows Love Daddy Spence

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Mike Byrne Jimmy McCarroll and Tom in 1966 Maggie Liam Nora Maeve Caroline Grace and Clare Marie Fiona and Thomas Solan s house Syracuse Tom and Fiona 1989 Maggie Nora Alex Sarah Clare Caroline Grace Maeve Celebrating the Northwest Side Parade 2014 Sarah and Alex visit Scotland in 2015 Back row L R Paul and Theresa Shalley Connor Colin and Clare Shalley Malcolm Veronica McNiffe and Stewart Whitelaw Middle row Mhari Whitelaw Grace Malcolm Aidan Conor and Daniel Malcolm

Tom Spence

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