I was in a big hurry to grow up back in 1969, so while much of America’s youth were in a field in Woodstock NY, I was in the Lutheran Church on the hill marrying the love of my life Judy.  Must have been the right thing as we are still together after forty some years.

   Come time for our Senior year, I just couldn’t sit there in the class room thinking of my wife working and putting me through school.  Somehow that just didn’t seem right and after the first couple of weeks I abandoned LHS to step into the work-a-day world of adulthood.  Many a day I have regretted that move but one can’t go back.

   After dropping out of High School my new wife and I moved to Cannon Falls Minnesota where I worked at a truck stop pumping gas, and for awhile at a small factory putting together racks for potato chips in grocery stores.  Living out in Minnesota just wasn’t my bag I guess so after about six months we came back to Lemmon but things were tough here as far as jobs go and after seeking work for a month or so I decided to join the U.S. Army.

   Wasn’t long before I was in Vietnam where I spent my year and even extended a couple of months so I could come home when my first child, our son John was born. 

   Came back to the States and served out the rest of my tour at Fort Lewis Washington and Fort Bliss Texas, where our second child our daughter Joanne was born.

   When I got out of the Army, I came back home, before leaving Fort Bliss I saw in the Leader that the police department here in Lemmon was hiring and needed a Vietnam Vet because of some sort of grant or another, so I applied there, and the same day I got home I was hired on the force.

 ......then moved on to other police departments, including a year in Philip, five years as the Chief of Police in  Bowman ND, and finished up my police career in New Rockford ND where I served first on the PD then as their Chief of Police for several years.  During those years I stayed active in the community serving in the Lions Club and as a member of the Legion.  I have also served on several boards including those overseeing drug education, child welfare and spouse abuse.

   A back injury took me out of police work, and I attended the University of North Dakota, Lake Region at Devils Lake earning my Associates Degree as a paralegal (Legal Assistant), I was never able to get much use out of the degree but college was great even for an old fart like me.

   While I was in college I developed a love for the English language and did some writing in fact I had several of my short stories and a few poems published over the years, one even managed to make it into a science fiction anthology called “Time Pieces” published by Adventure books of Seattle back in 2007.

   I spent a lot of time hunting and loved the gun show circuit although that is now in the past, even built some of my own rifles after taking one of those gun smiting correspondence courses and working with a trained gunsmith for a couple of years during my off hours.

   My Son John is living in Minot where he works for a local phone company doing their internet backbone work, our daughter Joanne lives here in Lemmon and manages the Lemmon Country Inn (the old Super 8 out where the Club used to live) where my wife fills in so our daughter can serve on the ambulance squad.

   My wife and I now enjoy camping and just being outdoors together, as well as seeing our two grandchildren up in Minot whenever we can.

    These days I find myself playing with computers, another thing that I seemed to excel at in college, I have built many of the infernal machines for my family and myself, also donated one to the local Ambulance Squad so they can keep their reports on a more modern machine, and have donated some to folk who home school and couldn’t afford a decent machine for their kids.

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