Donald Eugene Braden was born in Beaver Falls. He went to school there and played Center on both his Junior High and High School basketball teams. He grew up, with his two older brothers, at his parents' home at 1910 5th Avenue.
There was a group of boys that called themselves the 20th Street River Rats and they called Don the ringleader. They swam in the Beaver River and never wore clothes. The police would come down there but they had to laugh themselves. Don and his fellow River Rats would go up by the train tracks - naked - and wave at the trains as they came by.
Don remembers his dad as pretty strict so far as being home at mealtime and things like that. Don recalls that he didn't hit him or his brothers or anything like that but he let it be known that there were certain things that had to be done and he expected them to be done.
Don recalls his Mom as a worker, and she also had a bridge club, and she played about twice a month, taking a turn at each lady's house. Mom was very social and well-known, good at using the sewing machine and sewing and always had a lot of friends.
Don graduated from high school in 1946 and enlisted in the Army with two friends. He went to basic training at Fort Bragg and was trained as an infantryman. He was then assigned to the 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, stationed in Beppu, Japan. At the time, an initial enlistment was 18 months. As Don's term of initial service was coming to a close, his Sergeant came to him and told him he was doing good and that he'd like him to extend. Don's response: "No, thank you." Don returned stateside to be mustered out with his Honorable Discharge and to later learn that his unit was one of the first thrust into Korea to stop the Chinese invasion of that country and that it suffered significant casualties.
Don went back to Beaver Falls and - like his two older brothers had done previously - took a train daily into Pittsburgh each day to attend the Robert Morris school to study accounting. (Now it's Robert Morris University.)
He rode the train for free because his father was an Engineer for the Pittsburgh and Lake Eerie railroad company.
At the end of the two year program, he was hired by hired by Sealtest, then by another company near home for a short time. Then he heard about Alcoa hiring and when he went to Alcoa it turned out that he happened to know the fellow that was doing the recruiting for Alcoa; he was a college recruiter. So Don got hired by Alcoa and worked for them for 33 years. He was a Construction Property Accountant. (Note all the multi-colored aluminum coat hangers in the house - all from Uncle Don.) In the Alcoa Accounting Department, they didn't have computers, they had large bound paper ledgers and did double entry accounting.
He retired in 1985 and then worked for Sears selling tools and appliances for 2 to 3 years. He met Carolyn when he was working for Alcoa. She was a social worker at one of the local hospitals and it turned out they had a lot in common. She was from Ellwood City and that's not far from Beaver Falls. He knew about Ellwood city because every Sunday in the summer his mom would pack a lunch for the family and they would go out to Huber's beach on the outskirts of Ellwood City and go swimming. A little lady would come out in her straw hat at the entrance and count how many people were in the car and that's how much you had to pay to get in. And the Braden Family always made a day of it.
One memory Don has of swimming out there was when he stepped in a hole and might've been gone except for his brother Bob who grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up and out. He saved Don's life.
After Don got back from the Army he joined the Masons Lodge 662 in Beaver Falls. And he became a life member. Over the next many, many years he did things with the Masons such as advancing himself to become a 32nd Degree Mason in New Castle Pennsylvania, and he went into the Shrine. As a Shriner he joined the Legion of Honor and participated in parades. Eventually Don became the Sergeant of Arms for the Shriner Color Guard. (Carolyn was a Worthy Matron of Eastern Star.)
Don got his first car after he got back from the Army. It was a Nash Ambassador, and He would always tell the girls not to push a certain button on the dashboard because it would turn the front seat into a bed. Jokingly of course. Don's second car was a 1957 Corvette. The whole Braden family envied its dashing bachelor.
On June 16, 1961, Don traded in his Corvette for a much better deal; he married Carolyn Collins and they had a wonderful life together including raising their son David.
