I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow-being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. William Penn

Who am I?  I have already been who I wanted to be. That however does not mean that I stop learning or not make every attempt to help my fellow-being along the path to success. That is my goal during this learning endeavor.

Chapter I (Birth through age 10)

I was born in Omaha, Nebraska on 10 July 1932 at 1030. The first 5 years were reasonably uneventful.

Going to school was a challenge. We lived in North Omaha, up at the top of a very steep hill. One winter day, I stood at the top of the hill covered with ice and wondered how I was going to get to the bottom. My lunch pail gave me the answer. As I set down it slid all the way to the bottom. So I sat down and I slid to the bottom. Stood up, brushed off the ice and snow and continued my journey. Getting back to the top of the hill following school had not yet entered my mind. The sun solved my problem. The ice had melted.

My father was an Omaha Policeman during the depression. About 1935 or so, he started a trucking business that hauled Kraft Cheese from Omaha to Chicago. When WWII broke out on 7 December 1941, it was impossible to hire truck drivers and the government had frozen trucking rates. Thus he sold the trucking business and moved the family to a Dairy Farm in Bennington, Nebraska.  At age 10 I began a new life. That of a farm girl that included milking 100 cows each day before and after school. I was learning what hard work was all about as in addition to being a milk maiden which included knowing what and how much to feed each cow according to the amount of milk she produced and cleaning the barn to maintain a spotless enviornment, as we sold Grade A milk to the Army Air Base in Lincoln, NE.  I also learned how to bail hay, walk the cornfields to look for and pull cockleburs, and any other job my father could dream up to keep us busy. At this tender age, I learned how to sit with the mother pig while she gave birth to the tiny piglets. It was my job to rub them clean with straw, place them in a basket and take them to our house to get them warm so they could begin their new lives.

To end chapter I, I will comment that Great oportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us daily.

Hope you stay tuned for Chapter II.