We all have things in our lives that are important to “us only”. I wanted a college degree. Nobody in my family had every attained a four year college diploma. Later, I wanted a Masters degree in business because it established credibility in the business community. Again, no one in my family had every received a post-graduate degree. As I got closer to achieving my goals, I always adopted the pessimistic view (never expressed to anyone) that maybe I was going to be denied for some reason.
My biggest personal goal in life was owning my own home. Your Mom came from a family living in a huge four bedroom home. Remember, I lived above the City Club in downtown Plymouth. We had an apartment. It was small. It was dingy. I was embarrassed to bring my friends there, especially those that lived “normal lives” in homes around the community. The City Club environment provided many positive things. I learned to be independent at an early age and because of the tavern business, dealing with people was a priority. My life was different because our family didn’t have a house. I have no right to complain because in some ways we had a better “home” than other families.
After graduating from college, we moved to Milwaukee. We had an apartment and three kids. It seemed I was further away from a house than ever. After several years of work, we had $0 savings. I remember calculating how much money I needed to make a down payment on a “starter home”. In the mid-1960’s, $20,000 could buy you an old wood frame home that needed lots of work. I needed a 10% down payment. So I started squeezing my paycheck. $5 per week went into our savings account. As I got a few raises in salary, savings increased to $20-$30 per week. In 1967, our family moved to Sheboygan. We had $2,200 in the bank. By the spring of 1968 we had made an offer to buy our first home on St.Claire Avenue. We paid $17,000 and made a downpayment of $1,700. From the time our offer was accepted until we moved into the house, it seemed like forever. I remember thinking (many, many times), this is not going to happen. Something is going to screw it up. My “pity party” for myself was always “something” is going to happen to foul it up. Nothing bad happened and your Mom and I owned a house.
There have been many things in life that I have wanted from marriage to kids to cars to job positions to retirement goals. Nothing, and I mean nothing, dominated my “psychy” like wanting a house. It went back to my childhood. It was personal to me.
The lesson Grasshoppers is that dreams can come true. Sometimes it means working hard for what you want, taking a little risk and then reaching for your dream. Only you know “what has been missing” in your life and what is needed to fulfill it. Just do it!
Love,
Dad