Biography of James Roberts

I thought some of you would like to know a little about me and my life. I will try to give you a brief description of who I am and where I have been.

I was born in Walker county, Alabama on March 23rd, 1940 right after a very large snow. I was raised there until about the 6th or 7th grade when we moved to Jefferson county and I started school at Greenwood Jr. High School. We first lived around the Eastern Valley area south of Bessemer and then moved to a small farm close to Genery's Gap in Jefferson county which is close to the Shelby county line. My brothers and myself, Mickey and Carter spent a lot of time swimming in and camping along the Cahaba river not far from Helena, Alabama. I went to McAdory High School and dropped out in Dec., 1958 to enlist in the U.S. Army. I obtained my GED diploma after first enlisting and had my GED before my classmates finished up their senior year. I served at several duty stations in this order, Ft. Jackson S.C. on Tank Hill (basic training), Ft, Belvoir, Va. (Engineer school), Ft. Ord, California with "A" Co. 84th Engineer Battalion (const), then to Hq & Hq Co. 2nd Engineer Group (const) K-14 at Kimpo, Korea which was southwest of Seoul near a small village of Oso-ri and then to Ft. Benning, Ga. assigned to Hq & Hq Co. 2nd Engineer Battalion (combat) where I finally finished my tour of duty after being extended an extra 3 months because of the Cuban Missile Crisis. We went through a very unique training course ("Intensified Combat Training Course") for 14 weeks there preparing for an invasion of Cuba which was called off at 11th hour.

I met my wife, Carol after getting out of the military and we were married in 1963. She attended Hueytown High School in Hueytown, Alabama. She was raised in Concord, Alabama which is a small community near Hueytown. I have two natural children, a daughter (Cheryl) and a son (John) and two adopted children (Jessica) and (Erin). We built a new house in 1973 and lived for about 27 years at McCalla, Alabama (Rock Mountain Lakes community) and had many friends there and still do. I sometimes miss moving away from our friends back there.

After my military service I went to work for Weber Sheet Metal Co. in Birmingham, then to Vulcan Trailer Manufacturing also in Birmingham. After that I worked for Jack Cole Trucking Co for about 2 1/2 years and then after applying for a civil service job, I was hired by the Bessemer Police Department and served as a police patrolman for about 8 and 1/2 years. I got my associates degree in Criminal Justice from Jefferson State Junior College and started into my Junior year at Samford University for a while until I used all my veteran's benefits on schooling. I didn't get to finish as my work and schedule restricted me from finishing, plus not enough money to pay for it myself at the time.

Not being completely satisfied doing police work due to the wages and spending a lot of my off time in court from that duty, I resigned that position. I then drove for a couple of trucking companies (Fontaine Truck Equipment Co.) and (Fleet Transport) for a couple of years before starting to work for U.S. Steel in Fairfield, Alabama in 1976. During my early years with U.S. Steel, lay offs came often and long and my trucking experience paid off for me in that I was always able to work during those times for one trucking company or another. I mostly drove flatbeds but graduated up to hauling specialized permitted loads which were all sizes, weights and shapes, everything from 155mm Howitzers for the Marine Corp to 96 feet bridge long Interstate bridge beams and overhead cranes using either a 3 axle drop neck lowboy trailer or stretch trailer extended out to where it was capable of hauling the extremely long loads.

I worked my way at U.S. Steel from an entry level position up to a Powerhouse Teamleader where I worked at the powerhouse. My duties there consisted of supervising a shift in which we maintained steam boilers, electric generators, a 50,000 HP steam operated turbo blower to supply wind to a blast furnace. We also operated water pumps, air compressors and controlled all the water, gas and compressed air for the plant. We monitored this equipment and made changes as needed along with switching high voltage 44,000 volt switches in the switchyard. I finally got in a lifetime of work and am now retired to do things at my own time schedule and what I want to do. There's no need for an alarm clock anymore after all those years of working for someone else.

As you might have noticed, I like to hunt whitetail deer and I load my own ammunition for hunting and target practice. I also like to take trips to the Smoky Mountains and cruise the backroads there looking at the scenery. I also enjoy hiking, camping, fishing and have did some white water canoeing as a white water instructor in that sport, some caving and arrow head hunting.

I recently built a new house in St. Clair county atop the tallest mountain in the county which is my retirement home. This mountain is near the town of Steele and about 15 miles south of Gadsden, Alabama. The mountain is very unique in that it is a plateau with a rock bluff completely around it and is approximately 7 miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide. It also is the 3rd tallest mountain in the state of Alabama and was the home of Creek and Cherokee Indians before it became occupied by settlers. Actually from what I have read, the Cherokee and Creek Indians signed a treaty with each other on the mountain.

From my front porch, I can see about 25 miles or so on a clear day. I have seen an American Bald Eagle soaring around the bluff in front of my house, whitetail deer walking across the property, red tail hawks soaring, hunting squirrels, wild turkeys gobbling, coyotes hunting and howling and numerous other wildlife from my front porch. Two construction workers that worked on my property watched two small black bears walking along the bottom of the bluff one day. On another occasion, we watched a thunderstorm moving across the top of the next mountain over while the sun was shining on ours. I think that God was really feeling good the day that he made the area where I live as it is very scenic. It took me several years of looking to find a place like this. My long commute to work a distance of 62 miles each way to work which took me an hour to drive has finally came to an end. I have now retired from my job at U.S. Steel and plan on doing things that we have always wanted to do, not what someone else wanted.

I am getting loads of SPAM or JUNK EMAIL as they call it and only trying to hide from this junk email. This is an attempt to stop the automatic "harvesting" of my email address from my web site. All those junk emails is getting just too much to bear. To send email to me, use the address below:

Note: You will need to type it into your email "Send To" window, because the email address above is a picture file. Thanks!

Hopefully the automatic email harvesting routines will not be able to figure this out...Yet!!

Thanks for your email!