Marysville Veterans Memorial

Comments for Fred and NIck here.

A short story by Mike Lohre

As I've read a considerable amount of your writing, I thought some of you may be interested in reading some of mine.  I published this short story in The Atlantic magazine a few years ago, and it's still available online.  You can read it here.  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/bullheads/3824/

I wrote it out of respect for the older people I grew up with in southern Minnesota, and my father, who I saw growing old and struggling with his health in profound ways.  I wanted to capture some of that old hope.

My new hope is always that our writing and conversation strikes a chord that will resonate and deepen our experience in this mysterious life.

It's been my honor to be your teacher this quarter.  Hold on to your dreams, my friends.

With respect,

Mike Lohre

Interview

Ross McDonald is an young and ambitious man striving to reach his great potential in local politics. He puts a great emphasis on his family and values honesty and integrity in the people he surrounds himself with. His work with the Board of Elections in Delaware is promising to further his career. My favorite direct quote from the interview was when he talked about an important life lesson. "You have to work for what you get. Nothing in this life is easy and nothing is going to be easy. When something doesn't work out you cannot be crushed by that fact. When something doesn't go as planned you have to keep a calm collected mind about yourself when you are trying to work through it because if you ready negatively over every small thing that happens to you, life may get the best of you instead of you getting the best of life."

Interview

Jonathan Friedley has been my doctor since I was born. He helped take care of all five of us children. He was my oldest brothers doctor clear down to my youngest brothers doctor. I interviewed Jonathan Friedley due to the fact that he is in the same profession that I am interested in. Dr. Friedley is a pediatrician at Smith Clinic. While interviewing Dr. Friedley, I found out just how important religion is to him and how he grew up in a religious house hold. His father was preacher and his mother was a typical preachers wife. Jonathan told me "I love Marion, but I think that the city itself is lacking a true faith. I mean if you believe in God, you have a sense of right and wrong. If you believe, you will do right and if you love your neighbor as yourself you would never do anything to hurt him. Religion has played a big factor in my life. I grew up with the concrete beliefs and values in the Bible, and is till continue to live by them today". Dr. Friedley has inspired me to continue to striving after my dream of becoming a doctor!

Brad Plotner

(I never took the picture in color)

I interview a small town hardware store owner father of three girls Brad Plotner. I interviewed him because he opened this business when the economy was down and is doing a great job so far with it. One of my favorite thing i learned about brad is his work schedule which is this: My normal work day goes like this I start at Honda at 10:30 pm work there till 7:30 am come here at 8:00 am work till 5:30 pm then go back home. I usually sleep a couple hours in the morning in my bed (pointing to a recliner in his office) then about 3 hours at night. I drink diet mountain dew to keep me awake on the days that I’m really tired. I’ve probably done this for about 15 years now there are times depending on what I am doing that I get more sleep or a lot less sleep than that. There are times I go on a half hour of sleep day to day.

Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Ohio

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Malabar Farm, Ohio

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