Carnivals, Korea, Chimps, Papa Joe's Seen It All
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Deddo ran away from home when he was 17 years old and joined a carnival, where he spent many years.
In 1949, with $2 in his pocket and the clothes he had on, 17-year-old Joe Deddo ran away from home, crossing the bridge that took him from Staten Island, N.Y., to New Jersey, where he promptly joined a carnival.
This cast him on life's roulette wheel, which spun him from the carnival to Korea, then a "Chimp Farm" and, eventually, landing him near Pisgah National Forest, sweeping the floor, wiping down tables and greeting patrons of the Waffle House in Brevard, where people know him as "Papa Joe."
When not at the Waffle House on his weekend job, he gets up in the morning during the week a...
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