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4.
After Volume One

The other day (August 5, 1986) I read an old issue of the Mullan High School Microphone printed in the spring of 1936 to see what was predicted for the members of the senior class. As we closed our high school years, we had selected the motto, "Not the Finish but the End of Volume One." A few weeks ago the student body president of the Mullan High School Class of 1936, had asked class members he could reach to write about our years after Volume One in order to commemorate our fiftieth anniversary. This prompted me to look for information and I found a stack of Microphones Al Haugen, a school classmate had given me. In the issue dedicated to the Class of 1936 I found the prediction that I would be an ambassador to Finland.

Mullan High wasn't the end of my education. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Idaho. From school I followed a recruiter to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to become a test engineer. After fifteen years testing machinery ranging from drinking fountains to main propulsion equipment on about 150 ships, I moved to the Naval Torpedo Station to become a research engineer. In this last position I traveled to naval facilities, and was able to visit once or twice with out Senior Class President, Don Roberts, in Washington, D.C. In 1979, I retired from civil service with 34 years to my credit--I've been busy ever since! During my working years and retirement days I did many things, more than I can remember. I have been writing articles on many of my activites through the years --I will try to recall others as I write AFTER VOLUME ONE in responce to Don Roberts' request.

In December of 1951 a friend, Ralph McCotter asked me and another friend to attend his Ski Club square dance to help defray expenses. When we arrived, two navy nurses and a girl skier agreed to be our partners and I enjoyed dancing with Betty whose last name I couldn't remember. However my friends could remember names and I got in touch with Ensign Betty Landis. Less than a year later, my navy nurse dance partner and I were married, and in 1986, our youngest daughter and her husband presented us with a grandson. A few weeks later our oldest son and his wife did the same. All four of our children have graduated from universities, and all have been organists for churches. At this writing, our two girls are teachers, the oldest boy is a computer analyst for a security systems firm and the youngest boy has worked with a construction publishing company, television company and with a friend started a desk top publishing company.

My wife Betty and I toured the Scandinavian countries a few years ago and spent several days in Finland with a cousin and her son and family. None of them spoke English, but they understood my Finnish, and I understood theirs. My wife doesn't understand the language, so I was an interpreter during our visit. I didn't quite become an ambassador to Finland as predicted in the High School Microphone but did become an interpreter for a week or so. In Norway, Sweden and Denmark, we were able to understand the natives for they spoke English very well. We also visited England on a two weeks tour, followed by a week in London but we had some problems communicating, especially in Wales. They seemed to have an odd accent.

We have been to Hawaii twice, visiting in Oahu and Maui. One motor trip took us to California, Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, New York (city), Washington, D.C., Ohio, Montana and Idaho. We visited friends, children, relatives and historical sites during our nearly 8,000 miles of riding. We've enjoyed our travels and relive those days, looking at pictures and slides that we snapped (and bought).

Retirement is a time for travels, but there are other things to keep us busy too, since the home, the cars, the furniture, and the appliances are getting older and need repair, as do we after fifty years away from Mullan High School. I often wonder how we were able to take care of things around home besides working on a job. Maybe it was because we were younger, could work faster, and found that problems were easier to solve. Or maybe age has something to do with it.

As I said before, I have been writing about stuff and things so I'll close on "After Volume One" and continue working on other volumes --after taking care of some more chores around the house of course.