TERRY
As I write it is almost 6:30 AM and I hope Terry is sleeping. My guess is she is not. She was awake when I got up at 5:40 and perhaps she is still awake. Not much to write about in terms of Terry. I do think she is getting somewhat better each day so as I often say it is one day at a time. The big test in terms of getting back to where she was will be water therapy Monday.
I am going to post some pictures today. No real reason that I picked the ones I did. I was going through my slides that I have on the computer and just picked some out.
For a Christmas present a few years ago Terry got a fly fishing lesson. The guy was very good and we were on the water well over an hour. We caught some fish but not many. It mainly was a time to try the sport and by the looks of the picture Terry may have done better than I!
Mom was always great at having birthday cakes. Here it looks like I was 4. I think I must have birthday pictures of most of my birthdays up to about 10 or so. Not sure why Dad stopped then. Maybe he felt I was out of the stage where the picture was cute.
I see where this picture is a bit out of focus. JetBlue is the spring training baseball park for the Boston Red Socks. Each year they have an open house before spring training opens up. It was fun to see the park. They kind of made it like their famous Fenway Park back in Boston with the HIGH wall in left field.
I do not know when this was taken. I see Dad in the background but I can not place where it was. That darn John always has looked younger than his age. Even today he does not look like he is 65!!! It must have been some kind of holiday or celebration as I would guess it was not often that we got to have Becky, Bob and Esther together.
June of 1965
High school was behind me now and I was getting excited to leave home. Don't get me wrong, I loved Mom and Dad and I thought they were great BUT it was time to move on. I knew that our farm was really an antique waiting to fall apart so to speak. Dad could pretty much do anything. He could take professional pictures. He could shoot better than most guys way younger than he. He could overhaul an engine (did it several times). On the dance floor he almost had no equal. BUT all of those things were more important than farming in terms of being modern! So I was excited to leave and see and experience the world. Come to think about it I probably was just like any other young man. I was not all that excited to go to college but there was a war going on and it was school or be drafted. So on this Saturday, June 19th Dad and I headed to Fargo as I was to take an entrance test for NDSU. I was told the test consisted of writing something and then parts on science and math. Dad dropped me off on campus and said that he would return in a couple of hours to the same place. As I walked up the sidewalk to the student union I questioned IF I really wanted to be here. I knew I wanted off the farm at that point but HERE! In high school I had OK grades but I never really applied myself much. It probably was OK that my name was left off the B honor roll list of names at graduation even though I had a B+ average. AND it was mentioned at the ceremony that my name should have been on the list! Anyway I was not all that excited to be taking tests in June. Later in the summer I received a letter saying that I scored well on both science and math and I would start college with 10 free credits! As I struggled in chemistry and advanced algebra during the fall quarter I did say several bad words about those tests!!! But I did save money with 10 free credits.
I should add that Ronalds death still hung over our farm like a dark cloud. That was another reason I wanted "out" of the farm. Still, after 8 long months, I would notice tears in Mom's eyes from time to time and Dad, well he was a different story as there never was a word said about Ronald's death but he was a changed person in some ways.
So the summer went on and as college came closer to being a reality I became nervous and antsy. Also I received my financial package and as I looked at it I knew more money had to come from some place. As it turned out Dad gave me $300 and I signed up for "Work/Study" right away. In the end I was able to cover ALL the $1200 that my first year cost! I guess the $$ amount tells one how long ago that was. My grades that year were less than great. Those darn math and science classes almost did me in but I did get through and was never put on probation. As I come to grips with who I was and what I wanted to do my grades took a dramatic turn for the better!
So my college years begin with kind of a bump but as the years went by they became fairly smooth. As I look back at NDSU, Minot State, Devils Lake Junior College, UND and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln I would say my grades improved and my attitude did as well!!!
No it is time to read the sports in the paper as it finally arrived on the driveway. The Naples paper has about 75% on local sports which I have no interest in so it may take me 15 minutes to read it. That is about the time that I will finish my FP.
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