Mark Sperlik:  

Friends,...Hello everyone! When I was a teenager during the Summer of 1976 in High School, I can remember thinking for a very brief moment of being 50 years old and the years leading up to it, but I could not even hardly fathom the thought let alone try to preconceive as a teenager what it would be like to attain that age, but....ZOOM---here I am in my 50's! AHH---Mr. KRUSE (BEFORE I GO ANY FURTHER) If you (Mr. Kruse) happen to find yourself reading this, then if I may humbly request your leniency in hopes that you just might possibly overlook any spelling and punctuational errors I may have typed in this entourage or following of words (if you will) within this minor biography of my life----of which you had termed my spelling errors as "atrocious" in your merciless description before the entire class regarding my "Term Paper/Thesis Statement" (when I wrote about WWII as we fought against the Japanese) back while I was a student in your U.S. History class in 1976----I would greatly appreciate your forgiveness. ;) Anyway, So here it is about 35+ years after graduating from SJHS and Iiving in the west Michigan area with my own small pest management company----bug assassin extraordinare! Hey, from being in the U.S. Marines to making a living as an exterminator, I guess Mr. Bruno (knowing that I was going into USMC Bootcamp after I graudated from SJHS) thought it would be appropriate that I was voted as; "Person Most Likely To Take A Life Award" by the "Brunonian Awards" while taking one of Tony Bruno's mind classes in 1976-77......All while Mr. Bruno introduced us to the word or term "extrapolation" SOME FAMILY BUSINESS HISTORY. The exterminating business is very interesting work. My Dad was hired by Terminix back in1964 and they transfered him from Grand Rapids to the SW Michigan area in 1965. He was the first Terminix Rep to bring the name of Terminix into the SW Michigan area for Berrien, Cass and Van Buren Counties and eventually had a small office on Red Arrow Hwy in Stevensville in the early 1970's. Today, Terminix still has/uses the same local phone number that my Dad had gotten for it back then. We lived our first year or so in Berrien Springs and then moved to St. Joseph in the summer of 1967. In 1978 (while I was in the Marines) my Dad then bought the Terminix franchised territory in Grand Rapids which covers about 15 counties or so however, the franchised territory boundaries only went as far south as the tiny town of Glenn, Michigan (half way between Saugatuck and South Haven) and as far north as Traverse City. After working for the Berrien County Sherrif's Dept for over 6 years (a whole other story in itself), I went to work for my Dad as an exterminator in Grand Rapids in 1990 where I worked for him until I started my own exterminating business in 1999. Having my own business (KAAMA Systems, Inc.), I mainly do most of my business within the w/sw Michigan area...so, having recieved my Dad's blessings to let me go, I've concentrated my business mostly along the shoreline. Today, my brother Pat owns the Terminix franchise in Grand Rapids. So, I guess you could say I come from a family of extermimators. I never thought I would like the extermination business, but I started out as a service tech and it quickly became a fascination and challenge for me and I came to love the business and work. I have 2 full-time employees. We do Bat and Squirrel removal, most crawling insects, Mosquitoes, Ticks, rodents and Bed Bugs----Bed Bugs are becoming a nationwide epidemic and are/can be very difficult to erradicate. Ticks (Lyme Disease) are also becoming a state wide epidemic as well especially along Michigan's west shoreline and all the way up north to the top of the state. We also have Duct/Coil Cleaning equipment and do air quality kind of stuff. In my years of doing this business, I have seen all kinds of weird senarios and situations involving all kinds of vermin---it's truly interesting! God has truly blessed me with work and a business that I really enjoy. MICHIGAN---I should probably add that I think the w/sw Michigan area is a very beautiful area, especially along the sandy shoreline from the Michigan/Indiana border all the way up to the Mac Bridge. I really enjoy going up to the Grand Traverse Bay area, Torch Lake, Charleviox, Petosky, Cheboygan, Macinaw City, and Macinaw Island areas...it's truly God's country up there and seeing all the many beautiful little towns and surrounding areas with all the open fields and rolling hills of grape vinyards and fruit orchards, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and all the huge sand dunes, etc. Of course, all the counties along the entire western Michigan coast/shoreline have much of this already, beginning with Berrien County. I know all states within our country each have their own beautiful spots. I once lived in California for 4 years back in the late 70's during my hitch with the U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton. California is a very beautiful state as well and a great place to live geographicly with a dry, desert like climate with hills and mountains and no snow during the winter months, but I have also discovered many nice areas about Michigan in my years of living here. We are truely blessed to live in such a beautiful state. A LITTLE ABOUT MY OWN LIFE IN A NUTSHELL---I have experienced many failures and have fallen down several times in my life, and made many foolish mistakes, wrong decisions along the way...some were my own fault and some not. There are times when you just don't always know how things are going to turn out and it makes you wonder..."How did I miss that?" or "Why didn't I see that long ago?" or "Why did I do that?" and I have had to learn that life is no "cake walk" and learn many things about life. Some the hard way in many circumstances. Even with all of that, I still have NOT "arrived"---I'm still learning. I am still a student of life, but even so, the Lord has been very good to me and I am very thankful. I also understand that my life might seem like a "cake walk" compared to the lives of others, I am sure...so, I am truly very greatful for my life and everything I have that the Lord has entrusted me with. When we moved to St. Joe in 1967, a Christian woman shared the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ with my Mom and she became a "born again" or "saved" believer in Jesus Christ, and at the age of 10 or so, I accepted Jesus Christ into my life as well. Some of you may even remember in Miltion Jr. High, how I carried that little paper back Bible around. I was just a kid who loved God and wanted to tell others about Him. Ha...Pam Bailey and Doreen Felner remember me carrying that Bible around from 7th to 9th grade. Years later at one of our Class Reunions, Pam told me back in 7th grade, I would always tell her; "I'm praying for you, Pam!" and she and Doreen said that I would read the bible out loud in class at times. Anyway, I'm very thankful and blessed that I was born in the USA and I have many other things to be thankful to the Lord for. Honestly, I'm not truly sure where I would be today without trusting the Lord for my life. Even with Christ, life is no "cakewalk", but He is always there and I know He has helped me much in my life. Another thing I have had to learn is that the true sign of a winner, is when he falls down, he gets back up, brushes himself off and keeps on going---that's the difference between a winner and a loser or quitter---and it has almost taken me a life time to learn that very thing and I'm still learning...still in the fight. MY COUNTRY, MY BELIEFS AND THE U.S. MARINES, When I was a kid, I used to watch "World at War" on WGN Channel 9 quite often and how the men of our country, USA, would go to war and fight for our freedom so we could live a peaceful life here in America. I remember watching a combat footage scene of WWII during "D Day" as our war fighters stormed Omaha Beach, I specificly remember watching as one of our men fell to enemy gun fire. That scene would play over and over in my mind ever since I was a kid and has forever stuck itself in my memory to this day. When I would watch that Soldier or Marine or whoever he was, FALL in a heap from enemy fire in those documentaries, I would think to myself; "that brave man gave his life that I might live in freedom and peace" and that man (to me) was a representation of ALL our brave men who have fought and fallen in battle for this wonderful country and peaceful life that we live in here in America. He was probably just a kid---perhaps still only a teenager carrying a rifle and fighting in a foreign land so that as a kid, I would hardly have a care in the world growing up in a great community like St. Joe---healthy, clean water to drink and shower, clean clothes, food on the table, warm bed, a roof over my head, a school to go to and hardly had to look over my shoulder. For the most part, as a kid who did not realize how good I had it, not so in many communities around the world and I almost had no idea of how truly thankful I should have been until my years progressed. My own Dad fought on the front lines in Korea when he was only 21 years old. He found himself in several life threatening situations in combat, but thankfully he survived. One day I took my Dad to a local church in1993 and he finally surrended his life to the Lord and accepted the Lord into his life when he was 63 years old. The Lord really changed him from the inside out. My Dad went to be with the Lord on March 30, 2010. My Mom passed into eternity to be with the Lord in 1998, she was only 64 years old. Anyway, I remember that I wanted to serve my country so, as a teenager right out of High School, I voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. MARINES for a 4 year tour of duty. It was at a time when it was NOT "cool" to join because of the bad post war press the U.S. Military had gotten from Vietnam, but I wanted to serve my country and I wanted to know what it was...Expand for more