User:Dlvonfeldt

Daniel VonFeldt: or Daniel Von Feldt

Born in Hibbing Minnesota in January of 1949. The 6th and last child of the couple, John and Rose VonFeldt. Parents divorced sometime when Dan was very young. No memories of a dad being around the house. Hibbing was a very cold spot as remembered by Dan. Snow at levels well above my head and cold going to -20 to 30 degrees below zero F. I remember walking to school about a mile in this very cold weather. Life for Dan was pretty good. Dan was a paper boy and won many trips to Minneapolis and one to Chicago in contests to get new customers for the paper. Dan had very little supervision but having brothers and a special sister was always fun. I was 4 years younger than my sister. I was pretty much left alone to find friends and activities. They did help me learn to ride a bike, slide down the dumps in the winter. I also did a lot of exploring the town and hinderlands of Hibbing. This included the alleys of downtown Hibbing. Many cops and robbers games in those alleys. I had friends but not many.

In 1961 my family moved to Minneapolis Mn. and that became my home town. I went to De La Salle H.S. and had problems with latin and math. I did manage to graduate in 1967 and I also joined the Navy Reserves in 1966. Thats right, I did boot camp at NAS Twin Cities with 100 other juniors and seniors from the twin city area. This was 1966 and Vietnam was a fact of life. Spent my 18th birthday away from school and Minnesota for two week annual training. Went to Yuma with my reserve squadron for two weeks of training. Had a great time most of the time excemp when I did a day of KP in the kitchen scrubbing pots and pans. Learned a little about Marines. They appeared to be ass holes. Yelling from the barracks every time we walked down the streets of the camp. Did learn to love Naval oranges that where fresh off the trees. Spent some time in Mexico to learn what being a sailor was all about. A few good stories about crossing back from Mexico.

One story was I was looking at folding knifes that street vendors where selling. It appears that the more you bought, the cheeper they became. I think I ended up with about 10. Not sure why. When coming back across the border, I was asked if I bought anything. I showed the knifes thinking that I did nothing wrong. Turns out, many of the knifes where switch blades and they would not let me take them. They did let me go back to try to get my money back. When in Mexico, I went to the police who looked at the knifes, they could not understand english. You can guess what happened. They took me to jail. I remember sitting at the station and watching a woman come in who might have been raped. She looked at me and I thought this might not be good. Nothing happeded but they took my knifes and drove me to the boarder. This might have been two AM in the morning. I needed a ride back to the base and somehow got one. What a dumb thing to do.

I went to A school in the navy to become an aviation electrician. Huge amount of pressure to pass weekly tests. If you failed, you went back a week and had to leave your classmates and move to new barracks. If you failed twice, you where out and going to sea. This school was in Jacksonville Fl. and was warmer than being at home. I do remember doing some watches in February when the cold and humidity went through my bones. Took forever to warm up. In March and April, spent weekends going to Daytona beach. I did see the 68 Daytona 500 from the infield. Really fun times. Loved the beach. Graduated in April. Went back to Minneapolis and my job at Univac.