Editing Joybubbles (section)

==Later life==
{{Section citations needed|date=May 2022}}
In 1982, he moved to [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]]. He lived on his [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]] disability pension and a job as a test subject for scent-intensity research. He was an [[Minister (Christianity)|ordained minister]] of his own Church of Eternal Childhood, and ran a one-man [[Nonprofit organization|nonprofit support organization]] for people rediscovering and re-experiencing childhood, called "We Won't Grow Up".<ref name="Lapsley2013">{{cite book|last=Lapsley|first=Phil|author-link=Phil Lapsley|title=Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell|url=https://archive.org/details/explodingphoneun0000laps|url-access=registration|accessdate=10 July 2014|date=2013|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-9375-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/explodingphoneun0000laps/page/316 316]–317}}</ref> He tried to remain an active member of the children's community around his home, giving readings at the local [[library]] and setting up phone calls to [[terminal illness|terminally ill]] children around the world. He often contributed to the Bulletin Board section of the ''[[St. Paul Pioneer Press]]'' newspaper.

[[Child sexual abuse|Sexually abused as a child]] by one of his teachers, Joybubbles "reverted to his childhood" in May 1988 and remained there until his death, claiming that he was five years old. He legally changed his name to Joybubbles in 1991, stating that he wanted to put his past, specifically the abuse, behind him.<ref name="Lapsley2013"/> He was listed in the local phone directory as "Joybubbles, I Am".

An avid fan of [[Fred Rogers|Mister Rogers]], Joybubbles was mentioned in a November 1998 ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine article about children's television host [[Fred Rogers]]. In the summer of 1998, Joybubbles traveled to the [[University of Pittsburgh]]'s ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'' Archives and watched several hundred episodes over a span of six weeks.<ref name="Lapsley2013"/><ref>{{cite journal | last = Junod | first = Tom |date=November 1998 | title = Can You Say...Hero? | journal = Esquire | url =http://www.esquire.com/features/can-you-say-hero-esq1198?click=main_sr}}</ref>

An active [[amateur radio]] operator with the [[call sign]] WB0RPA, he held an amateur extra class license, the highest grade issued.<ref>[http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2007/joybubbles.htm Joybubbles – S.K.] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20150315233129/http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2007/joybubbles.htm |date=2015-03-15 }}</ref> As shown in the [[Federal Communications Commission]] database, he also earned both a [[General radiotelephone operator license]] and a commercial radiotelegraph operator's license, as well as a ship radar endorsement on these certificates. He was one of the few to qualify for the now-obsolete aircraft radiotelegraph endorsement on the latter license.<ref name="mason">K.C. Mason (8 August 1982). "'High-Rise Joe' Phones Moscow And Has Ma Bell Whistlin' Dixie". ''The Buffalo News''; p. G-10 (p.90). United Press International (UPI).</ref>