Kay and Mary the first decade

1959-1969 (Dawn and Mike)
Dawn:
Kay and Mary met at a mixer for the Catholic Youth...it was love at first sight! They got married on October 24th, 1959. Shortly after their wedding, they moved to Fort Leonardwood Missouri where Kay was in the army.

Mike:
In the army Kay first worked in the motor pool and then was a marksman on the long range shooting team. The only action he ever saw was back home at devil elbow Missouri with Mary. This is where he learned to bow hunt! Dawn Marie was the firstborn child of Kay and Mary, and, we believe, was the only child born outside the state of Minnesota. They named her Dawn, as it was Kay’s favorite time of day- he spent many many years of quiet in the early morning “dawn” hours while bow hunting in the woods- and to this day, we are quite sure that dawn is still his favorite time of day.

Dawn:
.... Mom once told us a story about her and dad in Missouri. Dad invited his buddies and their wives over for supper. Mom decided to make spaghetti, but hadn't made spaghetti for a large group of people before, so, she decided that she probably needed two or three BOXES of spaghetti noodles to feed everyone! WEll, of course, it turned out to be WAY too many spaghetti noodles... Dad was irritated with mom and probably a bit embarrassed in front of his buddies…
later, he said to Mary... "What were you thinking???!!! This is WASTEFUL!!! You are going to make use of this spaghetti now that we have all of this leftover WASTE!... So, a bit hurt, Mom decided to make good use of the abundance of cooked spaghetti... What did she do??? She made dad a HUGE spaghetti noodle SANDWICH! She sent it in his lunch pail so he could eat it in front of all his buddies in the motor pool at lunch time! It’s safe to say that any man who would eat a spaghetti noodle sandwich in front of his friends, is a good man!
Dad didn't EVER mention the WASTE of spaghetti noodles again!!!! (Or at least not to Mary)


Mike:
After Ft. Leonardwood Misouri, they moved back to South Saint Paul, bought a house, and settled in on 14th Ave North.
Over the next 10 years they welcomed 7 children, Dawn, Michael, Matthew, Christopher, Patrick, Maureen and Frederick.
Kay worked at the Pine Bend Oil Refinery and part time at Nipps service station. Mary loved staying home with her kids- and a special friendship grew with a neighbor and fellow “mother of many” Margaret Peta. Stories of those two super moms are almost legendary! They used to claim that they’d lay out in the sun together all day while the kids all played in the plastic pool at their feet, and about a half hour before their husbands were to arrive home, they’d quickly spiff up their kitchens and act like they’d been doing housework all day!!