O.K. Jim Ross I haven't stretched the limits of my autobiographical talents. But I have a little time for a synopsis.

Jim Bates grew up as the son of two wonderful parents. Both of them during his life had monumental obstacles to overcome. It wasn't always pretty what their day to day struggles looked like but having never given up they set a great example of what personal fortitude can achieve. Helen Catherine Murphy Bates was born July 10th, 1928 in Ferndale, Michigan to Frank and Doris Murphy.A brief description who Frank and Doris were is in order although that really short changes thier story because what made them who they are could fill volumes.

Frank Murphy was kicked out of school in the fifth grade after placing the girl's hair in front of him in the inkwell. He then took his families experience as a glassblower and rode the rails ending up in Toronto where he later met his future wife Doris Lyman. Fast forward to Detroit, Michigan where Mr. Murphy was working on the line of the Plymouth Lynch Rd. Assemsly plant.The General foreman was asking Franks foreman "why is Murphy here after losing the sight in his eye to the accident earlier" his foremans reply was "I dunno boss, all Murphy said to me was-I'll be blind at home as well as at work, so you tell me. What is the point in staying home?"

So here you have it. This is one of the building blocks of who Bates is. Mr. Frank Murphy went on for some decades as the superintendent of the Plymouth Lynch rd. assembly line, a man with a fourth grade education who had the respect of both the management and the unions alike, a man who knew everyone by their first name and a man that knew how to get things done. A man who walked out for two weeks when a new assistant plant manager told him "Frank we have to get more production out of the men" this was stated by a man who in Franks words were "his only qualification is not from experience but a piece of paper from college" After the plant workers began staging walkouts because Murphy was gone, Frank agreed to come back on the condition that only He ran the assembly line.

Franks wife, Doris knew how to get things done also. Having grown up with a Mother who was a Midwife in the slums of Toronto and a father who fed his family by picking up junk off the street curbs and reselling it. Doris used to, as a little girl go to the train yards and pick up coal to warm their little flat. Doris had to grow up fast as kids sometimes do. Her mother after having seen five of Doris's brothers and sisters die of starvation back in England and on the journey over and after delivering hundreds of babies in Toronto in poverty, drank carbolic acid as her ticket out of the misery. Doris however chose to seek the silver lining in the storm clouds of life and hitched her wagon to Mr. Frank Murphys.

Mom used to tell of the day that Michigans Governor Frank Murphy was elected. In the midst of all the flowers and congradulatory telegrams that showed up at their home on St Louis Blvd. in Ferndale, Michigan. Someone showed up in a long black limosene, it was Governor Frank Murphy and she never forgot the snapshot in her mind of the two Frank Murphys shaking hands and the Governor thanking him for all the votes he received by people actually thinking they were voting for my Granfather.

Helen Catherine Murphy had the world in the palm of her hands after spending 13 years in school at St James in Ferndale she met a young sailor in Algonac by the name of Charles Thomas Bates. Helen was very interested in writing, a lifelong skill she utilized as best as she could. After being married fir six years, Helen went into the University of Michigan hospital in the spring of 1958 to be treated for euviitis an inflamation of the eye muscle. the good doctors decided to experiment on this beautiful young woman, a young mother with three children at home and a bright future ahead of her living out the American dream. Well, after injecting enough steroids of the rather new drugs Prentalazone and Cotrtezone to deflame an elephant. The good doctors were perplexed as to why this a woman was babbling and seeing spiders. So not (maybe?) knowing that they had created another case of steroid Phycosis, thereby ensuring Helen a long and painful struggle for her health and sanity. Her health and sanity in a world she loved dearly, one that included her family and God and all of her previous hopes and dreams. They instead said, oh so she is schidsophrenic. However drawing on her upbringing and a deep sense of faith and in the beauty of love, Helen went on in her periods of sanity between the relapses of psycosis that returned every couple of years to continue to write about education and children and now to write about her new found hobby The struggle with sanity in a world that now seemed off kilter at times. She also gathered 160 some credit hours from college along with starting a Great Books Discussion Course amongst women in St Clair County. the ladies would read books like Dante's Inferno and discus there thoughts about the books. While Helen could add her own personal depth of understanding.

Charles Thomas Bates was born September 25th, 1926. Born to Fank and Cora Bates and groew up in Algonac. Charlie grew up a happy kid. Sometimes helping his dad working in the families Butcher shop in Fair Haven, Michigan. A real treat considering this was during the Great Depression. When he wasn't there he was caddieing on the Golf Course that is now overgrown by the St John's Marsh. Kindof Southeast of Algonac, Michigan. charlie was on leave from the U.S. Navy when he met Helen Murphy. They were just a stones throw from the St Clair River where he had fired the boilers on the Great Lakes Freighters at age 16. He used to shovel the coal by hand into the hoppers and had arms like Popeye and now between wars he was falling in love with a beautiful woman. This woman and him shared some great common ground. The both of them could swim the powerful waters of the St Clair river like fish. Helen having been taught by Japanese POW's on Walpole Island ( where Frank Murphy was also an honorary Indian Chief and where she spent her summers) to freestyle dive 40 feet down in the swift river currents and Charlie well he was like Tarzan anyway. And now he had met his Maureen O'Sullivan.

Charlie would prove out his whole life to be the best at anything mechanical he attempted. And he attempted and accomplished a lot. Charlie was a sailor, he also worked for the Grand Trunk Railroad as a fireman on the steam engines and having been self taught he spent 40 years in Local 636 Pipefitters union being the best in the field of installation and operations of large HVAC and Pipefitting systems.

Yep, Charlie was well respected, and by the people who were close to him especially, because although they did understand all of the dynamics of his wifes illness they did know that he always did his best to stick by and love her while trying to provide for his children. Putting himself last in the scheme of things.

So who is James Bates? He had to quit high school at age 15 because of the diffaculty of having to move four times in the same number of months due to his mothers recurring illness. But the next year Jim started college at age 16 when his Mother encouraged him to "just try." From that vantage he was able to learn more about the world and how to maybe change it. He helped to start a free clinic in Pennsylvania and learned from that experience what a cooperative effort could accomplish.

He tried on many hats while trying to find some synergy amongst people trying to bring some sanity and sustainable goodness to a troubled world.

For the next 32 years. Jim worked in varius aspects of the Electrical industry

there he while trying to help his mother and younger Brother and are all the sum of our experiences and how we have chosen to utilize the knowledge imparted on us by those experiences. I have learned from those people that that have crossed my path. From some of those people I learned what to do and from some I have learned what not to do. People should always learn from the good and bad examples in life. When one learns to dance this tightrope they can achieve a balance and thereby affect some small difference in life for themselves and those met along the way