About Me

I was born in Faribault, Minnesota on July 17, 1945. That makes me.....well, you do the math! World War II was still going on. Hitler had just taken his life and the US was "hunkered down" for a long siege with the persistent Empire of Japan. Then, at 5:30 a.m. on July 16, the first Nuclear device was tested at Alamogordo, New Mexico's Trinity site. J. Robert Oppenheimer, leader of the Los Alamos Manhattan Project team that had created it, upon observing the blast, quoted from the Bhagavad-Gita: "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds." Thus began the Nuclear Age.

Life really got going for me during the 50's. By this time my folks had purchased a farm south of town and I had started country school. It was a one room country school --- eight grades in one room, no indoor plumbing and an old fashioned bell tower. And yes, I did walk to school everyday or rode my bike and yes it was about a mile from our farm!! A wood stove heated the place and the water for drinking was pumped by the teacher and students each morning before classes began. In this school, you started the day with a song and a prayer --- even the teacher! This was the last one room country school in that part of the state. It stayed open long enough for me to finish 8th grade there and for my sister to get through 6th. Thanks to this school, I read at the 12th grade level by the time I was 9 years old and got a great basic education. We took field trips every Friday to apply our science lessons to the rural environment that was part of our life. Every fall, the students and teacher worked together raking the leaves in the school yard and then roasted marshmallows over the fire! We played games called "Anti-I-Over", "Pump, pump, pull away" and "fox and hounds" and of course softball --- with wooden bats or big sticks if all else failed. My Dad's cousin Alice and her husband Ben owned a farm across the road. Their cow pond made a terrific ice rink in the winter! We did have problems. New kids rarely "fit in" and frankly we were not always very nice to them. One time, I brought an antique derringer pistol of my Dad's to "show and tell" and one of the kids took it, went home, loaded it and blew it up in his hand! Since "lawsuits" were not in vogue then, nothing happened, except he healed, returned to school (with all of us anxious to see his wounds), and my Dad was out one antique derringer. If that were to happen today.....well, I won't even go there! These pictures were taken by the Faribault Daily News in about 1957 for an article they did on the "last country school".

I started out wanting to be an English Literature teacher. I was about 16 when I thought that. It was actually an improvement over my aspirations at the age of 8, when I wanted to be a telephone operator! When I was 17, I was thinking about becoming a Journalist. Then I graduated and enrolled at Mankato State College (now Minnesota State University-Mankato). But fate had other plans for me and I was only there about a month. Let's suffice it to say that "there were other lessons to be learned"!! Not a part of my life I care to discuss here! Anyway, it wasn't until 1972 that I finally graduated from College. The University of Minnesota is my alma mater. Go Gophers!!

I did not become a teacher or a journalist. I became a bureaucrat!! Go figure!! I'm still a bureaucrat. Now some of you are probably wondering why I would admit to such a thing! Well, my theory is that if you admit you are one, you might work very hard not to behave like one! I think I succeeded. I will talk more about my job later.

After living for a number of years in Minneapolis, I eventually moved to my current home of Vernon Center, Minnesota. Vernon Center is a "teeny tiny" town in South Central Minnesota. I have a web site just for Vernon Center, so I won't talk a lot about it here, except to say that I like it very much! I did a lot of traveling in my 20's and 30's and am satisfied at this stage in my life with the peace and quiet the town affords. I live in what was once an old gas station back in the '40's. It has also been a barber shop, a chicken coop, two families raised a total of about 14 kids here and during prohibition, it is said they ran moonshine out of it!! A house with a history!! Given mine, it seemed perfect when I purchased it and still does!

I have lived here for 15 years now. Just me and my cats, Leo, Gizzmo and Lorraine. I suspect I will live here for 15 more and then......well maybe I'll sign up for the first civilian shuttle to Mars. Who knows!! Surviving until the Millennium arrives and making a successful transition to the WorkForce Investment Act (more about that at the "my work" page) is the first order of business.

Going to close this out with a few more pictures of me and some friends and let you move on to another part of my site or someplace totally different if that's your pleasure!

	Me and my friend Anita at my house in Minneapolis! Viking Fanatics! When the Vike's played out of town, Anita's husband and my boss, Lee, would cook brunch and we would watch the game! We all worked at the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce at the time and got to attend a lot of games at the Metro dome "gratis"!
A truly great car! My Datsun 280ZX. Dumbest thing I ever did was to trade it in. Here on a camping trip in Ontario.

Recent photo taken for agency annual report. Older, and grayer, but still truckin'!

A while has gone by since I've updated this site.....about 8 years to be exact! I decided I better do something because the border no longer fit on my wide screen and I got to thinking that if anyone does visit this page and has a wide screen, it will look pretty stupid!

So....what's new? I've retired! Turned 62 this past July and the end of August I retired from my job. I started selling on eBay a couple of years ago and plan to increase that and will also open a little antique shop here at the house. I have started a website for the shop. It's called: Minnesota's Highway 169 Antiques and Collectibles

I don't plan to add any more pictures.....for now. I got rid of the gray right after I retired and am now trying to get rid of the weight I picked up in the past 8 years! Maybe one day I'll put some pictures up of my shop! Just thought I better let whoever might wander this way, that I'm still alive.....and still truckin'!

I graduated from Faribault Senior High School in 1963.
Go Falcons!

Skiing the wrong direction in Vale, Colorado! Great trip with my sister in the '80's

With friend Lorraine at a campground near Sleepy Eye about 5 years ago. Lorraine, her husband Bob and I use to go camping about once a month. Time constraints on my part have put a damper on those neat trips.

Go Falcons!