The May 5th, 2021, edition of the Brookings Register had a picture recognizing the winners of the VFW Auxiliary sponsored Young American Creative Patriotic Art Scholarship. The first place winner was Kaeley Dixon. One of our classmates has a rather intimate connection with her. It was quite obvious to me that upon opening the paper, the picture she had so beautifully drawn was Harvey Schroeder, father of Nanette of our class. Mr. Schroeder was a true patriot. A number of years ago, the courthouse made arrangements for a multitude of flags to line their sidewalks for special patriotic holidays such as Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, etc. Mr. Schroeder was out there early in the morning making sure those flags would be displayed for the public and that the town could recognize the sacrifices that our servicemen and women made for their country.
As the caption states, Harvey Schroeder was Kaeley's great-grandfather. Thus Kaeley is Nanette's granddaughter. Nanette is obviously proud of her granddaughter, and deservedly so.
Kaeley's last name of Dixon intrigued me. One of her other great-grandfathers was Duane Dixon. Some of his children were about our age, while some of his grandchildren would have been students of mine when they were in middle school. Oddly, there are still other connections with our class.
In the winter of 1968, perhaps sometime in January, my father informed me that the post office was looking for some part-time help on Saturday mornings. He encouraged me to apply, so I went down to see the postmaster, Tom Lyons, father of Kris of our class. Fortunately, I was hired, and began working every Saturday morning at 5:30 am. After a while, they asked me work on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, also. I did not work directly under Mr. Lyons, but under Mr. Dixon. After going to work on some of those days, it became difficult later in the day to concentrate in class, as sleep seemed to be taking hold of me. In fact, while taking the PSAT, I did fall asleep. Whether or not that affected my score, I have no idea, but my score was rather shameful. Since chemistry class came at the end of the day, I would be thankful if Mr. Karnes planned to show a film then.
After basketball season ended, my hours were changed to 4 to 6 after school. Those hours continued throughout the summer, with occasional stints from 6 to 8 in the morning as needed, such as the influx of catalogs from Montgomery Ward's, JC Penney's, or Sears and Roebuck. When school started in the fall, though, I had to resign, as I wanted to continue with my athletic activities after school and also get enough sleep to have a productive senior year.
A number of our parents were also employed at the post office. Nanette's father worked there, as did the fathers of Teresa Steen and Stew Linn. I also believe the father of Bob Ishmael was employed there. Bill Rice, the husband of Bernadette Rice, one of our teachers, also worked there. Overall, it was a good job with great pay and great co-workers.
Just about a year ago, on June 8, 2020, another of our parents passed away. While his passing was mentioned briefly in previous post (http://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2020/08/after-long-absence.html), I neglected to include his funeral notice:
Clayton Sloat (https://www.eidsnessfuneralhome.com/obituary/clayton-sloat) was familiar to just about everyone in Brookings. He was the father of eight wonderful children, including Donna of our class. He has been featured on our blog before: https://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2015/01/1941-yearbook.html; https://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2014/01/; https://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2013/11/. After we graduated, he, his wife, and Ed and LaVonne Fuller were regular attendees at Bobcat athletic events. At basketball games, they enjoyed sitting a few rows behind the scorer’s table and politely reminding the officials that they may have been mistaken in their judgments.) I think it was because I had misplaced them.
While cleaning out my vehicle the other day, I found them, and have posted them below:
A couple of items stood out for me: 12 great-great-grandchildren and the name of Jim Petrik, one of Mr. Sloat's pallbearers. Not too many people live long enough to see 12 great-great-grandchildren. The name of Jim Petrik rang a bell, but I was mistaking it for Jim Peterik (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Peterik), a musician who is about our age and is the author of some popular songs.
While writing this post, more evidence of the excellence and gratitude of our class was exhibited, as five members (Jean McCone Forsyth, Georgia Wright, Diane Sturdevant Rolof, Martha Larson, and David Hajek) replied to the email that we sent out about Kaeley's award. Thanks to all of you and anyone else who responds with similar acknowledgments.
