Paul Marshall:  

Having been a military brat we moved allot. We moved to Larimore the summer of 1978. There I ran around with Michele Powers, I was very attracted to her back then. I ended up being the white geek that had a crazy do. While going to school in Larimore, our class was the first year for years that did our sixth grade right in Larimore. That too was the first year my sister Belinda and I started going by our step-father's last name of Leedom, which is the last name most of you would remeber us by. After summer was over and School started I met Shelane and my heart had been lost to her, unfortunately it was one of those cases where I could have been or should have been the invisible man. For a short time I went out with the elementary school's librarian's daughter only to loose her affection to John Koplin, that name will come up again in my history. Homeroom was in Mrs. Johnson's class. In sports our top jocks were Troy Liffrieg and Mitch Tupa. According to the one and only yearbook that I have in my possession I had it listed as Shelane Williamson, Lenaye Anderson, and Mary Fugelberg as the hottest girls in our class. Knowing that I'd never have a chance with any of them I started directing my attentions toward Vicki Peitron, who undoubtedly had no interest in me at all and even made so apparent when she stabbed me in the back with her pencil and I picked up my desk and threw it. So sixth, seventh, eighth grades were all spent in Larimore. Finally in ninth grade the kids from Emerado got bussed in. We had played some of these guys in basketball prior to this. My parents were talking about us moving out west to Tioga, ND, so I really didn't talk to a whole lot of people, I didn't want to meet or become friends with any of these new students, knowing that I would only be moving soon. In Art class one of these new students attempted to befriend me, she had even asked me to the Sadie Hawkins dance, I had to decline because that was the weekend we were to move. I don't recall her name because we hadn't gotten the year books for that year yet. At times I wonder what would have come from that, had we stayed. Anyhow we then moved in October to Tioga. Now when we got to Tioga I believe that President Ronald Reagan was President and he had just gotten Iran to release the prisoners from the high-jacked plane. Being the new kid there didn't start off too badly until my nerdiness started to come out. I started having to take books home to study, which I had never had to do in the past, and that was to just barely get by. Belinda who had been on the A Honor Role every time, now only made it I think twice within the year and a half years she attended school in Tioga. I started really getting into BMX riding and free-style riding on bicycles. I went to work at the Nordlig Inn and started to hang out with what was known then as the "stoners." We were the outcasts of the school, so this time I wasn't alone. I had barely made it through the 10th grade and while in the 11th I was busting my butt even harder just to attempt to pass, which I was failing miserably at. It was while we were in Tioga that my step-dad had pulled a gun on my mom and all hell broke loose at home. You see not only was I being tormented at school but I was also being tormented at home as well. The major arguments that my mom and step-dad had were because of me.That was one of those situations where had it been today I probably would have been one of the shooters at school. I then Moved out to Virginia to live with my biological dad. He had gotten my transcripts from Tioga and was concerned that I wouldn't pass. I once again became just a number in a grade book rather than an individual, therefore I was graded on what I actually turned in not what the teachers thought I should be able to do. Had I stayed in Virgina my graduating class would have equaled the entire population of Tioga at that time. So the school in Virgina was so much larger than the schools had been in both Larimore or Tioga. I started to feel like a stranger in my own dad's house, after all by this time I was 16 and I hadn't heard from him since I was 5 years old. So I decided to go back to Tioga and when I got back I decided that I was going to strive to get the same grades I had been getting while I was out in Virgina and re-take my 11th grade over. That was one of many of my plans to fail. The grades went right back down to where they had been, I started to develop an attitude especially toward some of the teachers I had. I even got it so bad that one of the teachers went to take a swing at me after he had taken me out into the hall. I stopped his hand just as the principle walked up. The principle had me return to the class-room while he spoke with the teacher out in the hall. I never did return to school much after that so I finally dropped out. I joined the Army National Guard out of Williston, only to move to the Fargo/Moorhead area, So I transferred to the unit here in Fargo. I went to Basic and AIT only to return back to Fargo. While in Fargo I went to a party, one weekend after having a knife pulled on me while at work the week before, with those that had pulled the knife on me. At that party I met my now ex-wife. It was love at first sight, on my part anyhow. While talking with her I found out that she had moved up to North Dakota from the same area of North Carolina I had lived. It was so strange because we had lived so close to each other down there and now that we had moved to North Dakota we finally met. that m...Expand for more