Joe Nelson:
CLASS OF 1973
Merrill High SchoolClass of 1973
Merrill, WI
Joe's Story
Went away to UWSP for a degree in Wildlife Managment so I could work in the outdoors. To round out credits for one semester took an elective that was interesting. This one class changed my direction, completed a minor in the discipline, changed major to something boring in my sr. year (needless to say I have a bunch of undergraduate credits) (however it proved to be fascinating) ended up working inside and wearing a suit (obviously before business casual). This new course of study also introduced me to my very best friend Sue, (we married shortly after graduation). We have two marvelous daughters Rebecca (22) and Jessica (16).
Sue and I shared 31 wonderous years. We have worked closely all through our professional lives working for the same companies for all but a few months. In fact it was because of a new job for Sue that we move to our current city in 1980. We mentored each other through many challenging and interesting professional situations.
We also had several personal adventures as a couple and as a family. One of which was many years ago when faced with the need for a primative cabin (or in northern wisconsin this building genre is usually referred to as a "hunting shack") Sue's answer was well we have trees and a chain saw so lets build a log cabin (this at a time when there was very little in the literature on building techniques). So we built a log cabin. There is something to be said about using a really big hammer and very large nai...Expand for more
ls. For 25 years afterwards Sue was always quick (a little too quick in my mind) to tell the story of how I was never allowed to do shingling ever again. She blamed me for the crooked shingle rows (after 7 courses she banned me from the roof and corrected the run and completed the rest of the shingling). We never have bothered much with details and prefer to focus on results so the building is a little out of square. Years later we did take a hands on log building class.
Another very fond memory is of the boundary water wilderness trips that we had been taking in the past several years. Sue was the driver behind the family undertaking these adventures. One of the most vivid memories is one evening we were miles away from camp on unfamiliar water as it was getting dark. The water was smooth as glass and the beavers were starting to be active. Several times the silence was shattered by slap of a beaver's tail. This day which was a lay over day, we decided to day trip through some new territory (turned out to be a lot more distance than we expected). We were going into the innermost part of the BWCA and this is seldom used. On this day we did not see any people, some of the portages are so seldom used that they are hard to find. The only footprints we saw on some of these portages were animal. The last leg back to the camp was done by the faint outlines of trees against the near dark skyline. Within the family we refer to this day as the Odyssey.
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