Garth Clark Dawson

Here's Fifty: "The First Hundred Years Are the Hardest." Edmund T. Mazur Garth Clark Dawson

Children often wish they knew more about their parents, and the author gives his kids a picture of what it was like, growing up in the 1940,s as an only child, on a farm, attending a one room school. He explains the responsibilities farm children accept, the chores they do, the farm tasks they carry out. He tells of a unique relationship with animals, as working tools, as pets and as products. He talks about the war years and how it affected farm families and communities. He tells of his college experience and of migrating to Chicago, looking for adventure. He tells about meeting their mother in the big city and the challenge for each of them adjusting to the totally different upbringing and lifestyle of the other. He discusses jobs as a taxi driver and a mechanic before starting a career in law enforcement with the Chicago Police Department, and tells of experiences as a city patrolman, a detective, and later as Police Chief in small Nebraska Communities. He reminisces about the family during these years, his wife and four children, the places they lived, people they knew and pets they owned and the fun times they had.