My Life Planned and Unplanned

My Life Planned and Unplanned is the book title, but it is the unplanned part of my life that I could not have imagined during my youth in Galesburg, Illinois. As the son of Swedish immigrants and from a large family, I couldnt envisage much of a future. They were the Depression years. Those families that had positions with the CB&Q or the Santa Fe railroads seemed not to be affected. Those in construction, especially of houses, were, and drastically! Construction had come to an abrupt halt. Home builders, like my father, had to be content with the occasional small repair jobs. The help of my older brother Lewis and my sisters Ellyn, Dodney, and Carole were a great aid to my parents. I sold magazines door-to-door and later had newspaper routes, along with my brother Carl. After finishing high school, together with a friend, I earned my tuition for a year of business college doing maintenance work of that school. After a year of working experience, I joined my two brothers in the military service in World War II. We had been attacked as a nation, and everyone seemed to accept the war and sacrifices to bring it to a successful conclusion.