Start of a great weather day in Naples

The next few years seem to fly by.  About the fall of 1971 we made a big decision.  It seemed that I was into Deaf Education for the duration of my working years.  It also seemed that I may have ideas, a work ethic and enough new ideas that my classrooms would be successful.  It was decided that I should engage in grad school and my goal was to have a Master Degree by the time John started school.  It started with a class at Devils Lake Community College in the winter of 1971.  Then in the spring of 72 I received a bulletin about a workshop for teachers of the deaf that would be a 6 week session at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  I applied and was accepted.  In June of that year we stopped at the Saunders farm and changed out of our 70 Chevy Impala into Grandpa's Chevy truck with a small camper on the back.  We had decided to forgo the dorm experience as we had John, 2 1/2 and Travis, 1/2 and felt that was a recipe for disaster.  I had contacted a camp grounds just outside of Lincoln and we had reservations there for the 6 weeks.  On the way we went kind of round about so that we could visit sister Helen who was working (I think!) at the Air Force Academy.  The 6 weeks were full of adventure for all.  When we arrived at our camp grounds it was pretty clear that sleeping 4 bodies in the tiny box like camper was not going to work but we were lucky as at the last minute we had taken our tent.  So the camper came off the pickup and became our kitchen and our bedroom was our tent.  Among the adventures were:

• two trips to the ER as twice we woke up with one of the boys sleeping in a bit of rain water.
• Gail took the boys to swim lessons at the Y for a couple of weeks.
• We had visitors from my school out for dinner a few times.
• Gail's cousin came for dinner once
• AND THE GYPSIES WHO INVADED THE CAMP GROUND THE LAST WEEK OF OUR STAY.  THEY HAD CAGES WITH SNAKES, THEY TOOK OVER THE LAUNDRY ROOM AND FLOODED THE BATHROOMS.  AFTER A FEW DAYS THEY WERE KICKED OUT OF THE GROUNDS AND MOVED WEST OF TOWN.  TWO DAYS LATER THERE WAS A NOTE IN THE PAPER THAT SOMEONE HAD BEEN ARRESTED AS A MAN GOT HIS EAR CUT OFF!!!

On our way home after my summer school we stopped to visit Allen Saunders and then my friend Larry F.  I should add that we rented out house in Devils Lake to get a little money that we so badly needed.  We never met the lady who rented.  Not sure what we were thinking BUT it turned out OK.  I now had several credits towards my masters and it was time to get serious.  In the summer of 1973 I did a Title 1 project at school which paid a bit more than my cement truck driving!  Lila and I duplicated about 4000 pages of puzzles and work and then put them in packets in the teachers lounge.  They lined 4 shelves which ran the length of the room.  These would be available to all teachers but mostly they were for grades 3-8.  It was a summer long project.  I had submitted an idea for my master thesis.  I wanted to do a dorm study project of a control group and then compare their national test scores with students who were not in the program.  I was able to pay Susan, who worked at the school, for doing the evening dorm educational project.  At the end of the 1974 school year the program was finished and I spent the next many months comparing the national test scores of the control group with the students who did not do the program.  The results were clear: a dorm project was "for sure' a benefit as the control group scored much higher than the non participating group.  I spent much time over the next many months writing up my thesis.  As time flew by I spent the summers of 74, 75 and 76 going to school at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND.  The first summer I lived with Gail's aunt and uncle who lived in Grand Forks.  Gail loaded a cooler with mostly food from the garden early Monday morning and I ate out of the cooler in the trunk of the car most of the time.  There were a few times I ate where I stayed.  The summer of 75 I stayed with community members in Grand Forks.  Again the cooler was my cafe.  That was the beginning of our Christian commitment to a community who loved the Lord and wanted to be Christ to others.  I was looking to finish all my classes during the summer of 76.  I had gotten the OK for my final thesis during the winter.  I rented an apartment in Grand Forks and the plan was for Gail and the boys to spend the week days with me and then we would drive back to Devils Lake on the weekends.  We had this basement apartment and it was spartan but kind of OK.  The boys were 6, 4 and 2.  Aaron was having some difficulty with his speech and the first week we were in Grand Forks he just could not adjust and the only way he would communicate was to whisper in his Mothers ear.  It was a no brainier, this was not gong to work so I was with family for a week and then the rest of the summer it was family in Devils Lake and I in Grand Forks.  The end of July came and I was home free.  My thesis had been accepted and all my classes were finished.  I was set to graduate with a major in special education and a minor in administration.  My interest was in administration as I had accepted the job of DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION at the school and I was ALL set to embark on a new adventure in my professional life.  I want to add that Mom and Dad came to my graduation in Grand Forks.  It was perhaps the very first time that I felt Dad acknowledged me as a successful son.  I am not sure that was true but that is what I felt.
So the journey of my masters came to an end.  I was happy that I was able to finish before John started first grade as that had been my goal.  It was a journey of ups and downs, successes and some set backs, and perhaps most of all a journey that gave me the confidence that I could be what I set out to be.  It also, in my mind, kind of showed me that I could prove to my Dad that I was capable of doing something that he may be proud of.