Extracurricular Activities

I did not participate in any of the athletic programs carried on in high school (principally basketball). Because of the chores I was responsible for at home and the inconvenience of getting transportation to and from the practices (typically after school hours) I never seriously considered it. Not that I would have had much success. I do not have the physical capability nor the quickness of mind required.

During the time I was in high school there was no instrumental music program — whether I would have participated in this I don’t know had it been available. I did start in the Glee club but singing never appealed to me and I dropped out of that activity fairly soon. By the time Vincent and Verner were in high school a band program had been started and they were in it and I believe Marold also participated.

Vivian was interested in piano but this was a private activity with my aunt Ruth as teacher. Clarice and I also started music lessons with aunt Ruth while we were still living in the little brown house but it was only Vivian that persevered after the move to the farm. Aunt Ruth was the organist at the Lutheran church we attended and had had training in both piano and organ, I think at Gustavus Adolphus college in St. Peter, Minnesota. She lived her life in her parental environment except for the relatively brief time she was away at school. She died while I was away at school at the University of Iowa from some obscure tropical ailment — I came home for the funeral at the urging of my mother although I had never felt particularly close to her. In a way I think her life was stunted by the rather psychologically and subtly repressive atmosphere that existed in my maternal grandparents’ home.

During my senior year in high school there was in one of my classes some information provided on various vocational pursuits and I think it was from this that I first developed the idea of entering the engineering profession. Where I became interested in chemistry I don’t recall but the superintendent at Gowrie did give me a sample high school chemistry text that I read through at least in part. Chemistry was not in the Gowrie high school curriculum at the time. The physics class suffered from an almost entire lack of experimental laboratory sessions and this was somewhat of a drawback when I went later to junior college.