"I want to acknowledge all the distinguished guests and veterans in attendance," said Roberson. "Think about the changes in your life. The first school you went to, when you got married, your first job. Well, cities go through changes too, along with nations and the world."

Roberson shared the story of James "Bill" William Caps, born Sept. 18, 1920, in a very small town 100 miles north of the California border in Sixes, Oregon. In 1939, Caps joined the Navy since farm life was not for him. Years later, Caps would become a great source of change for Roberson.

"In third grade, I attended five schools because we kept moving," said Roberson. "At the time I didn't know why, but it was because mom couldn't pay the rent.

"In the summer of 1954, I was eight years old when my mother brought home a Chief Petty Officer whom she had met in Alameda at the Chief's club," he continued. "Two weeks later they went to Reno and got married, and now I had a stepfather … This was a monumental change."

Roberson often wonders how things would have been different without this change in his life.

"Would I have become the Mayor of Monterey? Would I have graduated from college? What if my mother continued to be a single mother? That's what changes are about," said Roberson.

It wasn't until many years later that Roberson heard about his stepfather's accounts of Pearl Harbor, something Caps would not talk about previously.

"Let's go back to 1941, [my stepfather] barely 21 years old in a barracks room at Pearl Harbor, and he witnesses the attack. Think about what you were doing at 21 years old," said Roberson. "He witnesses two waves of fighter planes, bombers and torpedo planes. He sees battleships destroyed, cruisers sunk, he witnesses the entire event. How do you process the loss of 188 aircraft? How do you process 2,403 of your comrades killed? How do you process 1,178 wounded? And then you have go help in the chaos?

"Those events have to live with you forever. Talk about changes in one's life," stressed Roberson.

For almost 50 years, Roberson has served the people of Monterey as a teacher and civic leader, he is currently in his third term as Mayor of Monterey.