Growing Up in North Dakota

Mom also told me about her wedding suit; it was white wool with the butterfly sequined pockets – you can see it in the wedding photo. Anyway, she’d decided that she really should extend the use of the suit and, to make it more appropriate for a number of occasions, she thought she’d dye it black. Well, the suit shrank when she did so, and she was never able to wear it again – nor could she even save it as a memento after that.

My mom and dad met in Bottineau when Mom was still in high school and Dad was a student at the Forestry, a two-year college in town. Dad finished one year of college there before he joined the Navy.

After the war, my dad used the GI bill to finish college at the University of North Dakota (U. of N.D.) with the goal of becoming a medical doctor. My mom was the Director of the YWCA in Grand Forks. They lived in a small mobile home and Mom used to tell a story about them meeting at home for lunch and serving tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches.