Today's Featured Biography

 
Dan Christensen

My interests and activities in high school were in golf, tennis, cross-country, student council (in order to get away with missing classes), and the TV shows my friends and I put on at lunchtime. Once in a while I would help organize a student event, like the buffalo chip toss. I sang in the choir for the seniors' prom ("Feelin Groovy"). I did things with church groups that sometimes overlapped with high school. I would sit in the cafeteria at lunch until the ladies in the hairnets would yell at us to leave (that was fun). We'd give Clem snuggies. We'd pigpile on somebody to let him know to not get too full of himself. I and some friends took guitar classes and would practice together in the boy's bathroom across the hall from where we were supposed to be, with Cathy S. Remember, this was the 1970s, and we were being allowed to express ourselves without restrictions. I felt like I had about three study hours every day, during which I never studied. Sometimes went to Dairy Queen, sometimes to the Odd Fellows to look through the blinds at the old people, and sometimes to get more leaf bags for you know what. Some of my friends were Dan Russell, Joel Jacobs, John Roos, David Madison, David Harchanko, Cathy Schissel, and some kids from the other grades. I don't mean to leave anyone out, sorry. Many kids were nice to me. My significant memories revolve around my group of friends that welcomed me into their group and together we were free to be silly, to not feel the need to be in the right cliques, and to sit back as analysts and critics of our teachers, our parents, and any authorities we'd come across. Yet we managed to be rebels without going to jail. It was a nice way to go throught those awkward years. My friends and I were held together by our Christian faith and nighttime get togethers in somebody's living room or in a park, and this fed nicely into our counterculture atttitude. As for actually doing something positive in school, my best memory was doing the TV shows. They were a chance to be creative and make people laugh, and even a tiny bit to make people think. I think the long-haired psych teacher (Copperud) thought we were cutting edge. But he partly liked us 'cuz we had the guts to walk into his room and borrow his easy chair for an hour, and didn't really ask first. Chutzpah. I am married and have been since 1993, to a woman from Germany. We have one 13-year-old son, Max and a newborn, Adrian. (I married late.) My mother died a few years ago from cancer and my father is still alive and active, driving around the country to visit his kids and to take cruises. After high school I went off and on to many colleges, getting a BA in theology and lots of credits in different programs. I worked selling computers at Dayton's in St. Paul, working in fancy hotels in southern California, doing mortgage loan counseling for banks, and working for Microsoft answering phone calls from upset computer users. After I met my wife I decided to do something more fulfilling and stable and returned to college. I got another BA from Wisconsin (go Badgers), then an MA and Ph.D. out in California, in European history. I'm a professor of history in California called Biola University, and I also teach at Cal State Fullerton. I absolutely love what I do, which is teach college history courses and talk to students. As for hobbies, I like go to the beach, play with our beagle, volunteer as an English tutor, study the Bible, watch the English Premier League, and play video games with my son. I cannot come to the reunion but I want you all to know that you made my time as a kid in Wgtn. good. It was a good childhood. On the Central playground or playing Hotwheels with Dave and David. Climbing the watertower to set a toilet on top of it with Joel, Danny, General, and the boys. Tackle football in the summers. Tennis every day a few summers with Dave Harchanko, David Madison, and whatever girls we could convince to play with us. Riding our bikes out to the interstate underpass and imagining what the bums who lived there were like. Sitting on our porch and saying hi to whoever walked by on the way to the lake. Selling magazines and cub scout tickets at the houses by the lake. Swimming at the country club and flipping the girls upside down (they liked it, right?). T-ball with Uncle Milt (he was amused that I was a lefty). Goofing around on Main Street and in the allies behind it. Saying hi to the Minah bird at Woolworth's (Joe). Swimming with Bridget and Dave. Driving on the lake in the winter. Singing Elton John songs as we rode our bikes. Buying a 20 cent can of pop at Holiday. Walking Oxford Street in the winter to get snowmobile brochures 'cuz I was crazy about them. Camping out by Marshall with the gang, and staying awake all night to see how loopy we'd get. Going to Eric Shield's cabin up north. Going skiing in northwest Iowa, and keeping the lift tickets on the zipper (to attract the ladies). Fishing for bass but ending up with bullheads. Going to Okiboji with the boys Arnold's Park was our version of Springsteen's Atlantic City, small scale). Listening to Joel Jacobs tell us what God was doing in his life, over at Donna Weibel's house. Eating the combo pizza at Godfather's and feeling like it was so huge. The prom when Lynn Peterson dumped me for Eric Shield (they were in The Sound of Music together, and, well, one thing led to another). Playing fussball at the coffeehouse in the old Band Box Cleaners (and scoping out the fur coats in the basement). Stuffing newspapers in the basement of Ben Franklin's (why?). Working at Ben Franklin's, too (thanks to Joel Jacobs's recommendation). Working at the ice cream joint on Oxford, where everyone would go during halftimes at the football games. Singing Christmas carols with the Presbyterian Church (such a nice boy). Highjumping with Keith Wallin (who moved away) on Saturday mornings (they left the stuff out. Eating all the food we could out of Cathy Schissel's fridge just to bug her dad. Unplugging one Christmas tree light so the whole tree would go dark, especially to the rich folks around the lake. Carrying a Four More Years poster for Nixon in 1972 at Turkey Day (did they drug me?) Watching the fireworks under blankets by the lake. Poking at the deap crappies that would float up on the shore. Riding our bikes in the water when 7th Avenue would flood. Playing king of the hill on piles of snow in grade school on a snow day. (Blizzards meant you went outside no matter what.) Messing with the Olsen's rock and running away. Racing the shopping carts in the mall parking so the big guy with the squeaky woman's voice would yell at us in his squeaky voice. Oh man... Learning to sail with Dave Harchanko. Central playing the hated West in 5th grade basketball on Saturday mornings (but West had heat under the tiles in the locker room). Why did Mr. Kuiper yell at us so much (5th graders!)? Impersonating Al Swanson and reading the morning announcements when the principal was out of town (Al wasn't tickled). Ski trips with the class and seeing Saturday Night Live for the first time as a kid, in Redwing or somewhere. Following Cindy Black home from school once in 5th grade because I liked her (I never talked to her, however). 8th grade choir, as a class we'd see how mad we could get the teacher (Mrs. ?, her husband taught math in high school); she pound on the piano and just glare at us (to shame us into changing; didn't work). Cruising Main Street when we got cars, or driving around the lake (why did we do that?). Ah, that was a good way to grow up. Dan

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