One + One =

One + One =

By

G. D. Homes

One + One =

G. D. Homes, Author

Morris Roger Wirth, Publisher

Copyright Morris Roger Wirth 2015

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-64008-057-7

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Preface

As he drove down the new US 94 freeway heading West to the Twin Cities, Garrett Donovan's thoughts were visualizing his going back to school as an adult. He hoped he was up for it. He felt an urgency to succeed in life. Going to school for two and a half more years before he could make a decent living, will require a lot of self-discipline to complete.

He passed a highway sign that read St. Paul, 29 miles. The traffic at two in the afternoon was slight, except for the trucks that were always on the move.

He pulled to the left lane to pass a truck when he noticed a vehicle stopped on a left lane turn around for Authorized vehicles only. There were flashing tail lights but no other colors so it didn’t look like a patrol car. He slowed and pulled in behind it off the driving lane. He saw two women on the outside of the Cadillac looking at the front of the vehicle.

Both women looked to be in their forties, about his mother’s age. They were wearing dresses and looked as if they had attended something special. Their dresses had a flare to them and the wind was whipping them up so they had to hold them down with their hands. He exited his car and walked toward them on the left side. Hello ladies, do you need any help? he asked. The tallest of the two said, My front tire is flat and neither one of us has ever changed one, I am going to need road service. Do you think you could find someone at the next town and have them come and change my tire?, the driver of the car asked him. By the way, my name is Janice Thorpe and this is Alice Thorpe. I’m Garrett Donovan, and I would be glad to change the tire for you if you have a good spare. That would be wonderful, there should be one in the trunk, Janice told him as she handed him the keys. He opened the trunk and lifted the cover to the spare, which also had the jack system alongside of it. He pressed hard on the spare tire. Looks like the air pressure is good, he told them. He lifted the tire out of the trunk and told the ladies, You should probably get in the car out of the wind. They had difficulty keeping their dresses down. He slipped the jack under the car behind the front wheel, removed the lug nuts and replaced the flat tire with the spare. With the hubcap on, he lowered the wheel to the ground and saw that the tire was properly inflated. He put the flat tire in the trunk. He tapped on the driver’s side window and the woman lowered it. I left the spare loose in the trunk, Ms. Thorpe. I don’t know if it is still good, but you should get it to a shop as soon you can. You are good to go.

Garrett, I can’t thank you enough. Are you from Wisconsin, I noticed you have Wisconsin plates.

Yes, I am moving to the twin cities, he said. She handed him a business card, which by glancing at it, he saw that she was an attorney. I want to pay you for changing my tire.

No, I wouldn’t hear of it, he smiled. Well then, the least I can offer is some legal advice if you ever need any, free of charge.

I hope I won’t need it, but thank you just the same, have a safe trip home.

And if you ever need a haircut, here is my card, the lady called Alice, told him. Thank you. Now that is something I am sure I will need soon, as you can see, pointing to his long sideburns mussed up hair from the wind. He waved goodbye to them and returned to his vehicle just as a patrol car was pulling up. Everything ok? the officer asked. Yes, I just changed a tire for the ladies in that car pulling away, Garrett told him. Glad you could help them, take care now and watch yourself on this side getting back into the traffic. Little did Garrett realize that changing a tire for a couple of ladies on the freeway, might affect his destiny.

CHAPTER I

Day of decision

Sunday, August fifteenth, 1965, Garrett Murphy Donovan, left his hometown of Brentwood, WI and headed to the Twin Cities to pursue getting an education in business at one of the many schools located there. He graduated from Brentwood High School in Wisconsin four and a half years previously, at eighteen years of age. With no particular plans for his life, his widowed mother worried that unless he went to college after high school, he might not be ready to be on his own. His father, a career Army Lt., Gerald Donovan, was killed in the Korean war, just before the Armistice in 1954. He and his mother were very close and could talk about anything. The bond they had, was probably the result of her being widowed when he was just twelve years old. She had to be both mother and father to him after his older sister Kathleen got married and moved away, she was four years older. Garrett became more attentive to his mother who no longer had a husband to share her life with and they both looked to each other for conversation and companionship.

Even though his mother received a widow’s pension for her son and herself, Clarrissa Donovan, worked part-time as a teller in the bank. When Garrett joined the Air Force, she began to work fulltime. In time, after taking night classes in banking offered by the local community college, she was promoted to be a loan officer.

When he graduated from high school, Garrett’s grade averages were A-, but he was reluctant to go to college. They did not have the money and Garrett did not want his mother to go in debt to provide it. They had discussed at some length his options of what he wanted to do with his life, one of which, was to consider enlisting in one of the Armed services. His recruiter informed him that the GI Bill was available to those honorably discharged to attend college.

His mother did not push him to go into the service, but she did encourage him to go talk to the recruiters. He really liked airplanes, so he joined the Air Force. Someday he hoped he could learn to fly one, albeit probably only a small one. At the time, he was not naïve, he realized that in order to fly the big planes in the Air Force, the least education required, would be a college degree in math, physical science, and related courses.

After four years in the Air Force and at twenty-three years of age, he was no closer to learning to fly than when he went in. The closest he got to flying was going from airport to airport, first as a signal man on several military airports, for planes landing and taking off, and later with promotions, he taught new recruits. Even though the planes he flew on were piloted by others, he felt his job with the Air Force was an important one, and he was promoted several times, reaching a rank of E-5. It gave him (NCO) Non-commissioned Officer privileges and better pay, over three times what he received when he enlisted.

His service took him to the far East, Tachikawa Japan included, and Ramstein Air Base in Southern Germany. His last duty was at Da Nang airbase in South Vietnam. He was prompted to re-enlist and go to OCS (Officers Candidate School), with the probability he would learn to fly a plane. As tempting as the thought of learning to fly was, he put in his four years and did not elect to re-enlist. He spent most of his spare time in the service completing Business courses by correspondence. The credits he earned were equal to the first year and a half of a course that would normally take four years.

The US President John F. Kennedy, elected just prior to his going into the service, had been assassinated on November 22, 1963. It was a scary time to be in the service. Most everyone thought the military, which had been put on high alert, was about to launch a war against whoever was responsible. In August, 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred, committing American troops to South Vietam. In January, 1965, the new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, re-instituted the draft that was prevalent during world war II.

The conflict was pulling America into a land war with North Vietnam. Garrett was glad he had made the decision to put in his four years and only was in the standby reserves for two years. He understood that to be, if the country was in a declared war, or was being attacked, he might be called up again. There also was a deferment if he was attending college and was a student in good standing, he could claim exemption, without being on active reserve status.

With money from the GI Bill to help with school, he was determined to learn what it took to be in the business world. He admired the banker in his home town. It seemed he always drove a nice car, lived in a very nice house with his family, and was respected by most everyone. He also thought that the local druggist, and the man who owned the biggest car dealership in town, and almost everyone in business, were quite prosperous. He also heard that they worked twelve to sixteen hours a day. That wouldn’t be so bad he thought, if it meant that someday life would be easier.

After he left the Air Force in June, 1965, almost four years to the day from when he had enlisted, he hung around home for about two months getting reacquainted with tcivilian life and spending some quality time with his mother. Not being a person who could sit around doing very little, he realized if he wanted the good life he had been admiring of others, he needed to set some goals for himself and try to achieve them. One of them was getting more education. He thought he might get into part time sales of some kind while attending business classes at one of the schools in the Twin Cities.

When he was a paperboy for six years, starting in grade school through the ninth grade, that job provided him with his own spending money. Using the principle of One Plus One =, if he wanted something in particular, he saved and used that simple principle to obtain it. It gave him a lot of confidence in himself.

He was an avid outdoors person, never missing a chance to go out in the country with his Uncle Jake, his mother’s brother. He learned to shoot a .22 rifle, hunted pheasants with a shotgun, and loved to go fishing, and became very adept at most everything he tried.

His mother made sure they attended church almost every Sunday. He had been baptized as a baby and then confirmed when he was thirteen. He loved to sing and sang in the church choir until he went into the service.

Not having any other source of income besides the GI Bill, he knew he would have to find part time work to make ends meet. One important thing he was taught by his parents, was to save a small amount of his pay every payday, even as a paperboy. He had signed up in the service to have 20% of his pay go directly into a savings account where his mother worked. When he got home from the service, he was able to pay cash for his car and had a balance in his account for spending money for a few months. His being frugal with money, probably contributed to his not dating, both in high school and the service.

He purchased a used black 1963 Ford Fairlane that had lots of chrome. The speedometer read about thirty thousand miles. It was the personal car of the local dealer. He used it to travel a lot, but it looked like new.

CHAPTER II

Good Samaritan

As he drove down the new US 94 freeway heading West to the Twin Cities, his thoughts were visualizing his going back to school as an adult. He felt an urgency to succeed in life. Going to school for two and a half more years before he could make a decent living, will require a lot of self-discipline to complete, he thought to himself.

He passed a highway sign that read St. Paul, 29 miles. The traffic at two in the afternoon was slight, except for the trucks that were always on the move.

He pulled to the left lane to pass a truck when he noticed a vehicle stopped on a left lane turn around for Authorized vehicles only. There were flashing tail lights but no other colors so it didn’t look like a patrol car. He slowed and pulled in behind it off the driving lane. He saw two women on the outside of the Cadillac looking at the front of the vehicle.

The women looked to be in their forties, about his mother’s age. They were wearing dresses and looked as if they had attended something special. Their dresses had a flare to them and the wind was whipping them up so they had to hold them down with their hands. He exited his car