On the ranch in Nebraska. Dad and his brothers all worked for neighboring ranches. Summers when in high school. He broke horses and ran cattle. Castrated calves. All the fun things. Our widowed grandmother worked as a camp cook for awhile. After high school Dad went to business college in Boise, Idaho. He had an uncle that ran the school. Dad worked in a cafe, cooking while he went to school. He traveled by jumping trains. He was a champion typist. Like his older brother and sister before him. They would break each other's records. Dad's typing record lasted quite awhile. He also took shorthand. World War II got him out of the boonies. His typing skills kept him out of combat. Which he hated. He spent most of the war in Hawaii, in Oahu working for the Navy organization who were famous for breaking the code that won the battle of Midway. Making it in a good government job in Washington DC was quite an accomplishment for a poor boy from the ranch. Although he always reminisced about his ranch days. Would have loved to gone back to cattle ranching when he retired. But he married Mae, a city girl. Mom thought the wide open spaces of the west were a waste of land. So in the city he stayed.
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