It all started in 1989. Richard, Dick, Olson was newly retired. Frode had been retired for awhile as had Don Davies. Frode's son is married to Don's daughter. and we formed a golf foursome. In the first years we played a number of courses deciding each week where we'd go the next. Living in the NW part of the Twin Cities most of the courses we played were in that direction. It was high stakes golf, the weekly prize was free lunch at McDonalds. Frode keep our scores on his computer so he arrived to each outing with our fresh handicaps. Even though he was the oldest Frode typically had the lowest handicap. Thursday was golf day becasue senior rates applied. Many were the days we had to wait for the spring frost to melt from the greens before we could tee off. Many were the days that we had to search for balls under autumn leaves. Yes, we took playing golf seriously.
After about ten years Don's age caught up with him and he dropped out. Frode knew Elon Nash, a retired physician, and recruited him to replace Don. It was during El's tenure that we shifted playing to Lakeview, west of Lake Minnetonka, thus its name. It was well suited for aging golfers. It was a bit shorter than many courses, had no sand and little water. El played with us for about ten years until he needed to withdraw to care for his wife.
Needing a fourth I recruited my high school classmate, Lloyd Hope. Eventually Lakeview closed. We shifted our playing to Shamrock which had the same attributes for older golfers as Lakeview. There we played until 2017.Our group disbanded. Dick, in his 90s decided he was too old. Frode needed to take care of his wife who was suffering memory loss. Lloyd moved to South Dakota. Without the partners with whom I played, I lost interest in golf, so, I too quit. While I didn't miss golf I certainly missed our group.
Both Dick and Lloyd died a few years ago. Frode and I stayed in touch with weekly phone calls. He was a remarkable man who drove to church a few weeks ago. In subsequent blog postings I'll write more about Frode.
Talk for alt,
Al
Frode and I at St. James Lutheran the day they celebrated his 100th birthday.
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