A Life

When I proposed to my wife, she said that if I would turn out half as nice as my father, she would marry me. She settled for somewhat less. But in my defense, I have never met anyone as nice as my father, so even the half-height bar is daunting. 


Actually, "kind", rather than nice, is a better term for his character. We often hear the call to reintroduce civility to our interactions and practice "random acts of kindness". My father saw needs and acted upon them in both small and large ways, without fanfare. A new Sunday School space, the new sewage treatment facilities, the fire department's equipment, the school's tennis court, a relative needing plumbing or electrical help, a ballpark's groundskeeping, a skating rink's lighting, a church's call committee, a friend or family needed advice. 

Typical. Sunday afternoon plugged 
sewer at wedding reception

He was a bit of a renaissance man, smart, curious but also mechanically talented, able to fix most anything at a time when our current throw-away society was unfathomable. He volunteered to assist friends and family with their construction projects even though this was his livelihood. One terrible winter storm period, he slept at the hardware store for several days, answering calls for people with furnace, water, electrical problems. There was no possibility of a service call so he would talk them through how to fix their issue themselves, although in one case a furnace outage for a young mother and child whose husband was stranded in Fargo, caused him to tie a rope to the stop sign on Hwy 55 to guide him back and trudged through the whiteout to the home "across the tracks" to get the heat back on. And I recall countless phone calls at dinner or the middle of the night from people desperate for help. Doctors had nothing on Dad. This list could go on and on and I'm sure I don't know the half of it. There were few people in the Lowry area who were not beneficiaries. 

He served as the volunteer fire chief for many years, organizing volunteer firemen training through the state of Minnesota and procuring a 3rd truck to fight grass fires. He organized "practice fires" using buildings people wanted to be rid of. One memorable occasion was the torching of the Molander Implement/Apartment building. Great reality show.

My father was born in 1920 in the small village of Lowry, MN, the 3rd of 7 children. He attended Lowry School through grade 8 and then to the big high school in Glenwood where he graduated in 1938. 






During the depression years, Lowry was the beneficiary of a WPA project to install city water and sewer. My father, a teen, wrangled a job with the Starbuck contractor for $1/day, hauling soil pipe, digging ditches and general gopher. He was also called upon to fire up the lead pots at 5 AM every day, so the lead would be melted for the 7 AM work start leading the soil pipe joints. He was supposed to get an extra 25¢ a day for this but that somehow got overlooked. Indeed, locals resented the fact that such a young whippersnapper should get such outrageous pay.


The depression years were difficult. The family most certainly would have lost their home but for the generosity of a couple bachelor farmers who held the lien on the 1929 house and tolerated many missed payments. The mortgage was not fully paid until after WWII. I am told that on occasion lunches consisted of lard sandwiches. But the hobos knew that this home would not begrudge them a meal. See Depression Years post.

He attended St. Cloud Teachers College for one year and transferred and graduated from Augsburg College in 1942. While at Augsburg he stayed at the Albinson Funeral Chapel as a place to sleep and to answer night calls. He washed dishes at Opals Café on Chicago Ave for 3 hours / day which provided a 25 cent allowance for breakfast and 35 cent allowance for dinner and supper. Tuition at Augsburg was $40 / semester. 























He joined the US Navy in July 1942 and after training at Moorhead State College, KY and Con Edison in New York City, mustered in the inaugural crew on the battleship New Jersey as an electrician's mate.

As with most veterans, the war years were rarely spoken of, but he did write about it. This for a future post.  

A few notes his own words:

• Every Saturday, breakfast consisted of a scoop of baked beans and cornbread quickly consumed followed by a quick dismissal to prepare for inspection.
• Sailors slept in hammocks tiered 4 high - so close together that lying on your side was problematic.
• The only time the New Jersey suffered shell fire, it was friendly fire - killing several sailors as a shell went through multiple decks. Note: at the end of the war, the battleships were essentially anti-aircraft platforms trying to protect the fleet from kamikaze attacks.
• The local newspaper article about ferrying him to his brother's ship in mid-ocean was made up to make the home folks happy. It never happened.
• The worst loss of shipping for Task Force 34 was due to a typhoon in 1945.
• The New Jersey served as Admiral "Bull" Halsey's flag ship - until the Missouri showed up.
• There was a bit of competition between the sister ships - BB 61 Iowa, BB62 New Jersey, BB63 Missouri, BB64 Wisconsin, . The Japanese surrender signing to Douglas MacArthur in Tokyo Bay was on the USS Missouri because Harry Truman, from MO, was President.

He married an Iowa girl, a nurse, on June 4, 1945. They built a home in Lowry in 1952. It took two years to acquire a loan of $8500, being refused by 3 financial institutions, including the Lowry State Bank. It was deemed the mortgage amount and the income were incompatible. Finally a direct government loan @ 3% from the Veterans Administration was negotiated, with payments of $38/month. Previous to this, the family lived in a small apartment above the “Dahl House” restaurant for 6 years. 

There followed 60 years of service to family & community. My father died in 2012 and not a day has passed since without a silent conversation with him.

with 80 year old mother

Copyright © 2019 Dave Hoplin