Daniel Amsden:  

August 22, 2012 The last thing I ever wanted to do is write about my life, but with encouragement of a good friend I have decided to put a few words that would bring my friends and Classmates up to date. I'm not sure how or why but I have the most amazing memory, I can remember almost my entire life, some things come to me on command others just come from key words. Like a search engine I have been told. Many things I can remember word for word, said by all parties and in color. LOL! Isn't that just cool? But really most things come in "Black and White" As I get older I really get to thinking about the good old days, sliding down Capitol Hill in Des Moines, Iowa on my sled, visiting with my Grandpa and Grandma Amsden. My grandpa and I use to go to Hartney's store to get our Pepsi and Red Skin Peanuts whenever I visited, then we would work in his wood shop. My Grandma Amsden taught me the alphabet backwards, something the kids to this day ask me to say. I guess it was only funny to kids because my teachers didn't appreciate it at all. Grandma was my best friend to the day she passed. I remember going fishing on the Des Moines River at the tender age of one. My dad use to tie a rope around my waist, the other end to a five-gallon pail of water to prevent me from getting into the river. It didn't take long for me to figure out that pushing the bucket over, would give me freedom. My brother Lane Joe taught me how to box, he sent me to the hospital more than once. Then we moved to northern Minnesota in 1957. And that's where life really started to rev up. Riding the school bus 17 miles one way in below zero temps. We lived on Horseshoe Lake, went fishing almost every day of the year. Hunting most of the year and then by the time I was nine years old I was on my way. I did my version of living the life of my hero's Davy Crocket, Daniel Boone and Jim Bowie, Huckleberry Finn all into one. I went fishing, hunting, trapping on a regular basis. Sleeping in my hammock in below zero temps twenty feet off the ground. I built my first Igloo at the age of nine. I was shooting a bow by the age of eight, carrying a replica Jim Bowie knife for personal protection. Even though I shot my first deer at the age of ten with a rifle, I never shot another animal again with a gun. The bow and arrow was my choice of weapon, giving the animal a fair chance, I would tell my dad. I was shooting rabbits on the move with a bow, shot several fish with a bow, a few geese and I once shot a grouse sitting 40' up in a tree. Over the years, I became a proficient swimmer, scuba diver, skier (water or snow) hunter, fisherman, tracker, guide, archer and many other survival skills. My great Grandma Berry Amsden inspired the use of her last name, so I use to tell everyone I was Danny Berry. But it wouldn't be until later years that the name meant so much to me. My great Grandpa Amsden taught me to stand up for myself. Not sure my parents appreciated that. I was with him the day he passed away. That has stuck with me to this very day. Grandpa Amsden taught me how to catch fish when no one else was. My dad taught me manners and how to be quiet, in the house to out in the woods. He taught me how to drive, forward's and backwards. My mom taught me to be truthful and most of all have respect for everyone, but women always came first. How I remember opening the door for my mother. Thank you mom! I also thank my Aunt Carol Maier for inspiring me to write and most of all to keep what I did write. My grandpa Plummer taught me not to be scared of the dark and most of all to never give up. If you believe in something then keep believing! I thank my parents and all of my grandparents for the upbringing they shared with me. I love and missed them all and one day we will meet again. I loved watching the Rifleman, Bonanza, Gun smoke, Maverick, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry, Sky King and The Lone Ranger, The Lawrence Welk Show, Perry Mason and American Band Stand. Life has been good, I didn't choose the traditional course of life, work for 40 years then at 66 take retirement and spend the next 10 years trying to have fun. I wanted to have fun for 40 years then worry about my retirement. I have been married to Sandy for 45 years. Sandy and I have three wonderful boys, and eight wonderful grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Over the last 66 years I had 4 dogs, the last one being Rocky. He passed away October 30, 2008. I don't think I can do another dog. You get to attach to them, and very hard to deal with when they expire. Fish is one of favorite foods; I could live off fish alone, with a little water of course. We spend a lot of time in Florida with my step mom and my youngest sister. We do have a 40 foot RV that we bought after selling our home. We then bought a lot on Granbury Lake 35 miles SW of Ft. Worth, TX we like going to Florida the best. But for a quiet place, TX is the best place for that. I love to slip on the roller blades and hit the trails, the Orlando Sentential did an article on Sandy and me, enjoying the beautiful Florida trails on our roller blades and dodging the alligators. My passion and hobby is writing, I have written 12 full length novels about my adventures, mostly a figment of my imagination. I have also written a Romance novel along with a children's book. I'm currently working on a futuristic Western novel. (Exciting isn't it?) My first novel A Kidnapping Gone Wrong was published in June of 2014. The Air Of Deception was published April 20, 2015. If I could tell any young person...Expand for more