" Your Dad would tell a story about when he came home for summer break from the seminary, he would have to do some volunteer work for the church. On his way home one day, he gave a girl a ride home on his bike. He would say, after smelling her perfume and having her hair flowing in his face, he knew the seminary was not his calling. "

In 1954 he joined the U.S. Military.

" He and his brother Bill would be lugging that damn organ around, he had to take it with him when he played just like a flute player :) "

Karen also remembers a few tales about dad trying to fit in with mom's side of the family, mostly told by our Maternal Grandpa:

" They were from "different sides of the track" BIG TIME! Dad didn't even fish before he married mom and I doubt he'd ever seen a deer much less eat one. Mentioning the basement reminded me of the chickens. He learned how to catch them and chop off heads at Uncle CH's, then brought some home to defeather and cook. Man, we found chicken feathers in the basement for the next year. The deer he promised to try came from uncle CH too. Keep in mind, this is a man whose parents would have heart palpitations at the mere thought of eating any meat that didn't come wrapped in butcher paper. Dad didn't even learn to clean a fish at first. It was a big step to get him to catch them with poppers. Next step - touching a....a.....a.... WORM LOL! Took another year to get him to clean what he caught. "

I remember dad trying fly-fishing and grandpa digging the hook out of his ear with a razor blade.

My dad had N-scale trains and built a layout in our basement that I was not allowed to touch. The background photos were taken by dad at Crooked Lake and he developed them in his own darkroom. As I got older dad created a table on wheels where I could have an HO-scale train set beneath his to which we would both contribute to but it would be mine. We would have another HO layout together after we moved to CA.