The First Stop on a 66-Year Journey: Kingsley, Michigan

I'm picking up my dad’s story right after one of the happiest moments of his life: his wedding to my mom in 1952. This next chapter takes us into their first year of marriage, when they settled into a little house in Kingsley, Michigan, a rural town southeast of Traverse City. It was the first of many years my mother would spend as a coach's wife. This was the first year of what would be 66 years of love.

OUR FIRST MARRIED YEAR 1952-53

     Kingsley was a small town with a Class D school located 18 miles SE of Traverse City. We rented a small, one bedroom house in town.  We have many pleasant memories of our year there; among them sponsoring class parties at the roller rink in Traverse City.  Audrey was an accomplished skater and enjoyed these jaunts very much.  I had to spend most of the time making sure I didn't fall and bust my posterior, but nevertheless it was a lot of fun.  What wasn’t fun was coming home in the winter and finding the oil line to our stove had frozen and before we could get any heat in the house, we had to thaw the line.  The end of the month was shaky many times as we ended up eating soup, beans and whatever else we could come up with as we eagerly awaited payday.

     During the basketball season we usually would get together at our house or one of the teacher’s homes for a social hour following basketball games, usually consisting of beer and light refreshments.  One family we became close friends with was the Bosserdet family.  Bud was a 6^th grade teacher, a big, lovable, jolly, redhead who was a fan of athletics and his wife Betty and 4 kids (3 boys and a girl).  After we left Kingsley at the end of the year, we maintained contact with them for a couple of years and then lost contact.  Bud died at an early age we later found out and discovered Betty had moved to Florida.  After an e-mail or two we have not heard from her since.

        On the athletic front we had a successful year.  In Varsity basketball, we ended up 14-7 with a loss in the semi-finals of the district.  The JV team which I also coached ended up 12-6.  I don’t remember a lot about the baseball season which occurred in the fall, but we ended up somewhere around the .500 mark.  In the spring, I started the first track team Kingsley ever had.  We showed up well in the Central Michigan relays and were cheated out of a first place in the medley relay due to a timing gaffe.  I had one outstanding three sport star Jack Rodes who did very well in the half mile run qualifying for the State finals in that event. February of that year Audrey became pregnant and we both decided it was time to move on.  The Superintendent was a jerk and we just decided we didn’t want to spend the rest of our life in Kingsley.

     I started putting out letters and on a late Saturday, in May, following the school prom the night before; we set out for Deckerville, in the Thumb, for a job interview.  It was completely uncharted territory for both of us.  I checked out a Michigan map and found Deckerville was due east of Saginaw with a road that went across all the way.  Little did I realize it was mostly a gravel road, most of the way, and in spots was so narrow that you had to turn around and seek the nearest driveway so the oncoming traffic could pass. On top of that it was extremely hot coupled with Audrey’s pregnancy and the dust swirled up from the dirt road made it a memorable journey. We finally made it, however, and coming into the West End of Deckerville we were greeted with a less than encouraging view of a grain elevator, a couple of rundown buildings holding a grocery store, and farm machinery store.

     We proceeded to the school to meet with Ace Fleck, the Supt.  He was shocked we came across on what was the Deckerville Road.  Had we gone 6 miles further we could have come all the way across on M46, a two-lane paved highway.   After a brief interview in which he made it a point to say we were not to patronize either one of the two taverns in town as townspeople considered it improper for teachers.  Ace took us to the hospital to meet Doc Blanchard, the President of the school board, and to see Frank Merriman, a prominent farmer, who was treasurer of the Board.  Deckerville was like Kingsley with a slightly bigger school (Class C) and like Kingsley a rural farming area where most of the students were bussed in.  The job was like Kingsley.  I would be teaching Social Studies, Government, History, Civics, and Junior High health.  I would be Head Basketball, Head Track, and Asst. Football which would be my first such assignment.  We left Deckerville and were told they would decide at Monday night’s Board meeting and let me know one way or the other.

     That Monday night Frank Merriman called and offered me the job with a starting salary of $3600.  I told him I would accept and asked him for an extra $100 which would help with moving expenses.  He said that would be no problem and mailed me a $3700 contract. That summer Audrey and I, after saying goodbye to Kingsley, headed to Hazel Park to spend the summer with my mother.  Following an uneventful summer, we packed up our goods and headed for Deckerville in early August; little realizing we would spend 19 years of our married life there and another 9 years in Harbor Beach, 25 miles north of Deckerville.