Growing Up in North Dakota

naked (or barely clothed) in the heat, pouring water over stones to produce steam, for a time. Then you would go outside and roll in the snow. Sounds really fun, huh?!

I started school in Max, North Dakota at the age of five. Dad was superintendent/ principal/ teacher/ basketball coach there. We lived in a little two-bedroom house which you could see from the school. I remember the water was filled with iron, making it reddish, so it couldn’t be used for drinking and cooking. We had huge water barrels and my folks went every week or so to a well just outside of town to get water.

Jon wasn’t in school yet and made best friends with the adult next door neighbors, the McElwains. Their older son played basketball for my dad. My brother had a gun and holster set when we lived here and had the nickname “Two Gun Pete with the Rubber Seat” (he was still wearing diapers and rubber pants, I guess). My mom sometimes called him “Pete” even as an adult!

Kindergarten wasn’t offered in N. Dak., so I started school in the 1st grade. I was the youngest (the cutoff for starting school was a birthday before December 20th) and the smallest in my class always. Both 1st and 2nd grade were in the same classroom and my