ND, UW Stevens Point has a good program for Conservation Officers. At one time Wisconsin and Minnesota had a reciprocity program and your son would pay the same tuition as a Wisconsin resident. Not sure if this is still in place though.
Thank you Bill, I wish he were my son. I'm very proud of him & I love him like he were one of my sons, I love his 2 sisters as if they were my daughters too.
But the credit for what a fine young man this boy is today goes to his mother who now puts up with all the shenanigans that I lure the boy into & his father whom we lost over a year ago.
There father was a great man, my best friend & the kind of father that most of us parents could only inspire to be.
I'm just lucky enough to be his dad's cousin. And lucky enough to be able to spend time with the boy as frequently as I can.
He turns 18 very soon.
I remember the day that his father told me that there was a baby on the way. We might not have thought so at the time but we were just kids ourself. I remember that day like it were yesterday. I grew up a little that day, I grew up a lot that day. I shared my cousins nervous butterflies & the range of emotion that came with the idea that we are the "big people" now. We were both 20 years old.
I was home on leave after completing Marine Corps boot camp. It was late in the month of July 1990. Sunny beautiful day, we were riding in his car on the way home from the lake. Just him & me, he was driving. I had a broken foot from a knee boarding incodent earlier in the day. We were both about half full of beer & having a great time & kind of joking about my foot as we drove along.
Suddenly he let off the gas & let the car coast to a stop along side the road. He had something very important to tell me, something he hadn't told anyone yet. But he didn't have to say it. I knew, it's like I read his mind. out of the blue, totally off subject, but I knew exactly what he was going to say. We sat there along side that county road on that hot summer day & we talked about it for quite some time.
That was over 18 1/2 years ago.
It was good news, exciting news, but it was scary too.
There was no way to know back then what a wonderful gift this new baby would be. We knew it was great, a baby yeah that's great. But speaking for myself, I didn't know just how great.
There was no way for me to know of how involved I would eventually become with that baby, this fine young man that we have here today.
For this I am very fortunate and as I said, yes I do love him like he were my own son & like to think of him this way.
