My siblings, Randy, Jodi ,(me) and Rick. In the front Mom (left) and Helen.

A little history.... When my dad was a teenager, he worked for Harley at a gas station in Mabel MN, from there the friendship began.......

Harley and Helen moved to Rochester and eventually moved "Up North"

When we were kids we took many trips to Lake Shamineau near Motley MN to stay at Harley and Helens house. In the early days they just had a little beach house with 2 bedrooms a bathroom and a kitchen. Somehow we all squished into it. Later we all had a part in helping Harley build a new house across the road and right on the shore of the lake. Many Many memories were made there.

At one time they owned the resort right next to their house and on the weekend bands would come in to play and us kids ran around like we owned the place. I remember one night when I was 4 I got to go up with the band and sing "I've been workin on the railroad" The lead singer let me hold the mic...man was i feeling like hot stuff about then.

When I got a little older mom and dad would let us kids take turns staying an extra week or two alone with Harley and Helen. When i got to be about 12 - 13 I started hanging out with other kids down the road at another resort. I met lots of fun kids, including some really cute boys.

Harley taught me how to fish, and bait own hook with live frogs (that we caught the night before). He also showed my how to chop the turtle's head off after they stole our bait off the hooks. Yep, those were the good ole' days.

We would even make trips up in the winter, Harley had a fish house out in the bay, we would jump on the snowmoblie and head out to the house on the ice, many times we would spear fish... I never did get a fish that way, drats. Harley was a gentle old soul and was alway teasing us kids, he use to have us pull his ear and his teeth would pop out, we were pretty little then and didnt have a clue how he could do that. Ha

My favorite memory is laying on the living room floor late at night listening to the adults laugh and play card till all hours of the night. The living room clock would tick loudly, but it had a soothing sound that eventually put me to sleep.

Sadly, Harley Died many years ago. Helen lives in Texas and we don't see her nearly enough. She has recently came to MN for a visit and is staying at Mom and dad's house, so on Saturday all 4 of us kids made time to come and see Helen. She will soon be 80 so we really wanted to see her again, it's been a long time since we've all been together.

Mom showing Helen how to make those famous Poppy dolls.