Autobiography - The Beginning - July 1, 1951

Most of it’s magic, not much was tragic and I’ve had a good life all the way. I am almost 70 years old so it is time to document my life for any future generations that might have an interest. I have waited to take my social security until age 70 so we will see who wins, the government or me? A joke that lots of old people tell is “if I thought I would live this long I would have taken better care of myself.” I am hoping for 90 good years. Much of my life has been lived to the soundtrack of Jimmy Buffett music. That might explain a lot.

I will write random free thoughts about my life as much as I can remember while I can still remember. My plan is to revisit sections from time to time to fill in more details. My wife Priscilla is already helping fill in a lot of details. I will create this blog posting with photos to make it more interesting. I have a fairly extensive website detailing my many adventures www.captainfatherjohn.com and a YouTube channel of my musical talents www.youtube.com/captainfatherjohn that still might exist.

I was born at South Shore hospital in Weymouth, Massachusetts on July 1, 1951. My mother told me she became pregnant on her honeymoon. My uncle Dick Willis told me my father danced on the table at Darcy’s bar in Hull when he heard I was born. I guess fathers didn’t attend the birth back in the day. I was given the name John Robert Simons Jr.

I do not have any very early memories other than what I have seen in photos or have been told. My mother Anna Marie Miller grew up in Hull. Her father Lloyd Parker Miller was an entrepreneur. He owned a boat yard at U Street in Hull. He had also owned the Hull bus service and a Model T Ford repair shop. Her mother Ruth Miller helped with the family business and was very involved with the Hull Methodist Church. My Father John Robert Simons sr (aka Bob) (aka Si) was in the US Coast Guard stationed at the Point Allerton station in Hull. The Simons family is from Perkasie, Pennsylvania and were successful pig farmers. I guess he wasn’t interested in pig farming and joined the Coast Guard. He didn’t tell me much about his life but I believe his father was abusive so he decided to get away from the family business.

When I was two years old my father left the Coast Guard and we moved to the family farm in Pennsylvania for a year or two. I guess it did not go well because he rejoined the Coast Guard and we moved back to Hull. Fortunately pig farming was lucrative enough that my great grand father bought both of his grandsons houses. Bob and his brother Bill never had mortgage payments. We lived in a three bedroom, one bath house at 1 Central Avenue, Hull, MA. The house was located on the corner of A street and was one block from Hingham Bay and a 10 minute walk to Nantasket beach. Hull is a seven mile long peninsula that is just south of Boston harbor.

My memories of the Simons family pig farm come from an 8mm video that I have seen. There are family members shoveling garbage from truck beds into pig styes. I see my great grandfather grampy Simons and my grand father Pop Pop Simons. Pop Pop’s second wife is Gerty. She had a coop full of parakeets. I remember the noise and the smell of the pigs. Very odorous. My father Bob and his brother Bill’s mother committed suicide by walking in front of a truck. That is the rumor I heard. They also had a sister Patsie that I know very little about. Pop pop and Gerty had a son. My father tells a story of a small aircraft crash landing in their corn field. All went well until the corn field ended at a road. The pilot survived but the plane did not. The town of Perkasie named the road that lead the family farm Simmons Road. Yes, no matter where you go people mispronounce and misspell the Simons name. I always congratulate the 1 in 1,000 person that correctly pronounces my last name.

My fathers brother Bill’s wife is Anna. Just a coincidence that Bobby married an Anna. Bill had two children Scott and Kathy. I was the wedding officiant for Scott’s third marriage. The Bill Simons family visited us in Hull once or twice. My father whose nickname was Si tended to be a bit unsociable and worked his second job as a marine mechanic most of the time while they visited. They decided he was trying to impress them with how he was such a hard worker. They never came back.

A story my mother told me about Si is he was very shy and had severe anxiety with public speaking or speaking at all when he was young. He had a friend that would tell people what Si wanted. In the final year of his life I took my children to meet him. He was living in a condo near Paragon Park. He was dying of emphysema due to heavy smoking his entire life. He was on oxygen through tubes near his nose. He lit a cigarette. I am amazed he never blew himself up.

After his divorce from Anna after 25 years of marriage he sired three more children out of wedlock using the alias Meahan. His offspring are turning up in DNA searches on Ancestry.com. We did not hear he had passed away for several months after he was buried. His girlfriend finally called my mother and told her. Our best guess is she needed the time to hide all his assets.

Bob and Ann - perhaps on their first date.

Wedding photo for Bob and Ann - September 1950. Left to right ?, Sonny Miller, Anna (Perkasie) Simons, William (Perkasie) Simons, Bob, Ann, Lloyd Miller, ?, ? Front row ?, ? Anna Maud Perry. ?

Anna Marie Simons - Age 2 - Millers Boat Yard - U Street, Hull, Massachusetts

Anna Marie Millers Hingham High School senior photo - given to Bob Simons

Johnny age 2 at the Simons family pig farm in Perkasie, PA in 1953.