93 Year-Old WWII Veteran: Worked on Mr. Potato Head and Still Tunes Pianos Today
Kate Nagle, GoLocal News Editor
93 Year-Old WWII Veteran: Worked on Mr. Potato Head and Still Tunes Pianos Today
At 18, Houle said he had had two choices -- enlist in the Army, or the Navy.
"At least in the Navy, it was two squares a day," said Houle, who said his boot camp was at Seneca Lake in New York.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHoule said he spent his time as a baker on LSTs -- landing ship tanks -- in the Pacific, where he baked "20 loaves a day."
"When I wasn't wrestling on the deck!" he said.
Hasbro and the First Mr. Potato Head
Houle said he started playing piano at 22, before needing to find work back home, which he did at Hasbro.
"I started sweeping floors, until one day my boss asked if I could operate a machine," said Houle. "I dropped the broom."
"I was the first one to take Mr. Potato Head off the belt in 1954," said Houle, who said he was required to sign a photo waiver, because of "all the officials" that were there for the big day.
Paino Repairs for RI's Most Famous
Houle said he began repairing and rebuilding pianos in the 1960s. When asked how many he thinks he's done, Houle replied, "I'd say around 30,000."
Averaging three pianos a day at roughly 220 working days a year for nearly 60 years -- that's a pretty safe estimate.
From pianos owned by Governor Joseph Garrahy, to Bishop Louis Gelineau, to the Ann and Hope and Burker King executives, Houles says he's "tuned them all."
And when he went to tune Clay Pell's piano a few years back?
Well, you can take the boy out of the Navy, but not the Navy out of the boy.
"We were on the floor, doing push-ups," says Houle, of squaring off against Pell, who had served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.
Now, Houle lives at Wilfrid Manor in Central Falls -- and when he's not visiting his wife every night for dinner at Grandview Center in Cumberland, it's a pretty safe bet where you might find him.
Playing the piano.