In 1978 Lynn and Kevin were living on the Long Beach Naval Base with Kevin in the Navy. At some point he needed to get his Pontiac GTO from Green Bay, so Kevin, Bruce Smeester and I hoped in the car and started the journey across the USA. Bruce was doing the drive and then shortly heading back, where I was staying for the summer.
The drive became interesting about the San Bernadino Mountain area when the fuel pump went out on the car. So while Bruce was driving, Kevin was laying in the engine compartment, pouring gasoline into the carberator to keep the engine running. When we finally made it to a gas station, for some reason a fire started on the engine, and to burn fuel instead of the car, Kevin threw gasoline on the engine and by that time fire extinguishers made it and put the fire out. A new fuel pump was put on and finished the drive.
Starting out on the trip to Long Beach, CA
The rest of that summer I was able to go to Disneyland (where they tricked me onto The Matterhorn rollercoaster), Busch Gardens, Marineland, Hollywood, and the Queen Mary. I remember Mom would send me spending money by Western Union. There was also the ice cream truck that drove through base housing and it had actually ice cream treats like sundaes and banana splits.
A picture Kevin took at Disneyland/Bruce Smeester at Air museum/Hollywood sign
The Queen Mary Ocean Liner/My 16th Birthday
One of the jobs that I did was cut the grass, as Kevin was on the ship and Lynn was pregnant. I do remember that I had to go the housing office and get the lawn mower, which was the old push-reel type. Usually the grass was so long, I would get a running start and the mower would go a couple feet, I would then back up and do it again.
A Push-Reel Mower
1978
Scars
Besides the obvious 1984 surgery scars, I have others for various reasons. One day I was riding my bike from Center Street house to the Brown County Library and going down Broadway. As I made it closer to downtown I went across some railroad tracks that crossed the road at an angle. As I was trying to be cool, of course I was not holding on the handle bars and also carrying my books. Well, the front tire caught the tracks and I went flying off the bike. No broken bones, but a got a huge gash on the left side of my stomach. I do believe I finished trip to library to return the books, but when I made it home dad took me the doctor in the Bellin Building and I remember him using a huge swab with some purple liquid and just grinding it in the wound. Hurt, oh hell, it hurt. At that time, I'm sure there were things like bicycle helmets, but I didn't have one, so I was lucky to have cracked my melon.
One day we were visiting Uncle Jerry's house and as we were walking up the sidewalk, there dog bite me and took a chunk out of my left upper thigh. That was it, no doctor and no words with Jerry about what their dog did.
Cormier School
We lived right across the street from Cormier School for a lot of my childhood. It was a great place to hang out and many of the neighborhood children did. It had a great area on the corner of Center St. and Cormier Road to play football. Unfortunately, the sidelines and end zones were sidewalks (which many a player went sliding across). On the other side of the school was a large wall with no windows and I remember spending hours hitting a tennis ball against it.
2274 Center Street House and Cormier School
Another nice thing about having the school across the street from your house, they would actually allow me to just go home if I was sick (or acted). Something they would never allow these days.
Camping
Growing up our family spent a lot of time at campgrounds are NE Wisconsin. Some of my earliest memories are at Peninsula State Park outside Fish Creek, WI. Many times Grandpa and Grandma would take us up mid-week and then mom and dad would come for the weekend. We started with a pop-up camper where the center part that raised up was canvas. Wew were told to not touch the canvas, especially if it was raining, which of course we did and water dripped through. I think it was me that spilt the entire kettle of basgetti (how I said spaghetti). I also remember times that it stormed on Sunday and dad would swear and tear down the camped and head home.
First Camper
Other parks we would camp at were Potaatomi State Park near Sturgeon Bay, Pine Grove west of Shawano. Then finishing up at Quietwoods Campground again near Sturgeon Bay. The story is dad and mom were driving seperately north in Door COunty and dad got a horrible headache and pulled off highway and ended up at Quietwoods, stopped and could go no further. After camping the owner of the campgorund (Larry Neville) asked dad if he wanted a spot in a new area he was creating and dad agreed. After that, the camper just stayed up there all year round and we would even head up in the winter to clear the snow off the top. After a while all of mom and dad's friends all ended up at Quietwoods and all in the same area. The Hermsen's were across the street, then the McKeever's, the Brown's, with the Biemerts and Cliff behind. All us kids played together and a fair amount of old fashions were downed amongst the grown ups.
Most of my memories come from Quietwoods, it was the last area and we spent a lot there. Dad converted a snowmobile trailer into a camper and it was ungodly hot. It was the 70's so I remember always at the community center, playing pinball and listening to Elton John. Mike was always gone, but I was (like at home) usually hanging around the family.
Old Time Comedy Shows
The one thing I enjoyed with my dad, watching old-time comedies. We would watch Abbott & Costello, Laurel & Hardy, and The Three Stooges. Mom would always enjoy talking about how she would watch dad and I watching these shows and just laughing. Other shows I enjoyed, Carol Burnett (especially with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway), Red Skelton, and Laugh-In.
I Died
When I was 3 months and at 9 months I developed bad pneumonia and mom said that during the 3 month episode I actually died for a few moments and had to be brought back to life. I will always remember my mom talking about how I took so much medicine for this that my teeth turned black.
