Brandon High School Basketball B - Team 1952

 

 

 

Floyd & Franny (Wagner) Foslien

 

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.  I tried many roads before I figured out where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do.  College wasn’t for me, I figured I was probably too lazy to be a farmer, and I disliked working in factories.  Eventually, I went to drafting school and then drifted (or stumbled) into product design and development.  I found that I liked it, I had some talent for it, and people were willing to pay me to do it.  So, for the next 30 years or so, I designed and invented products of various kinds, a lot of which were medical and surgical devices.  It was very satisfying and enjoyable for me and it was also the easiest way I knew to make a living.  I retired at age 58 and have become very good at retirement.



Franny and I have lived in Hudson, WI for the last 30 years and enjoy our lives here very much.  Our two daughters and one grandson bought houses in our neighborhood so we see one another nearly every day.  That is a good thing for us and, they assure us, for them as well.  We have 5 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.  Our two little great-grandsons live in Rochester and we see them often too.

We do less traveling now than we used to but in years past we enjoyed visiting many places around the world and the U.S. I was in Scotland this February while our older daughter was working there.  

Franny did not come along with me this time and I was without adult supervision for a couple of weeks so I used my time constructively, searching for and sampling single malt.
 

Each summer I, along with a grandson or two, work on Habitat for Humanity for a week.  I demonstrate the psalmodikon musical instrument for a couple of days each July at Nordic Fest in Decorah, IA and often attend the Experimental Aircraft Association convention in Oshkosh.  I enjoy bowhunting and pheasant hunting.  I have not flown or ridden motorcycle for awhile but my oldest grandson is trying to convince me to buy a Harley so he and I can go riding.  Good luck sneaking that one past Franny, huh?

As you all remember, we in the Brandon Classes of 1956 and 1957 graduated before the new school building with its improved facilities was opened.  Some of us actually started our education in one-room country schools.  We were all “disadvantaged” in that respect yet we survived and succeeded despite having to endure these primitive conditions.  Amazing, isn’t it?  We did well!  Congratulations to us all!

Floyd Foslien

Sophomore Class 1955

Ursula (Thoennes) & Dick DeBilzan

 

 

Greetings!  We got marrried in January, 1958 and raised 5 children.  We now have 17 grandchildren...and...11 great grandchildren.

We moved to Vadnais Heights, Minnesota and still live in the same house.  I was a stay-at-home mom almost all those years with a few part-time jobs along the way.

We have done some traveling since Dick retired in 1998.  And, for the past 15 years we have spent 3 or 4 winter months in the Rio-Grande Valley in Mission, Texas and hope to do that for many more years.

This picture was taken October 2012 in Montana while visiting our daughter, Linda and son-in-law who live in Billings, Montana.  Beautiful country!

Junior Class 1955

Charles & Jean (Lund) Esala Family

      Charles, Jean, Charles Francis & Kim Esala-Francis

Charlie giving a lesson and tour of his elk farm to Father LeRoy from Saint Ann's Parish and the visitors from their sister parish in Venezuela. 

 

 

The antlers in the velvet stage are used for nutritional supplements. Mature bulls with the trophy antlers are sold to hunting preserves in Colorado and Missouri.

Dennis Korkowski clowning around with Benigno
from Venezuela.       

 

 

 

Charlie of Doraisamy Elk Farm was featured on the Minnesota Cooks calendar.

Brandon HS football game in Millerville 1956

Brandon High School football game in Millerville 1956,

 because of the construction of a new  high school in Brandon.