The Last One Writes the Book

1

Majestic Hills Golf Club

This is a story about a group of old timers; all coming from different walks of life, all settling in the town of Denison, Iowa. They became good friends and found they had a number of things in common, none the least of which was golf. Not so much different from other similar groups, this story tells of the tragedies they endured together and the lighter moments they all enjoyed together. The kind of moments that are so critical to bonding and forming new and deep friendships. Some, a few were Denison Iowa natives while a number came from Chicago, Omaha, New York, Florida, Virginia and other places throughout the Country.

In the second half of the book, it examines the life of one of these men; the author who’s life was a shambles but through the grace of God Almighty, a courageous woman and 5 loving children; he went on to lead a positive, productive life and became one of these men.

One thing this book shows us is; that no matter where someone comes from or how different their background, when one is friendly enough and unafraid of reaching out to others, great friendships can be formed. The tragedy of this group was that it came too late in life for many of them but the good news is that it happened at all.

It seems strange to be writing about golf when I look outdoors at the snow and ice. The temperature is up to 27 degrees today and this is one of the warmest days we have had this month of February 2018. It has been a really cold winter and although Shary and I have usually gone to Arizona or Florida for part of the winter, we decided to stay close to home here in Iowa this year except for about a week in January when we went to visit our son Butch and his wife Bev who live at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.

At least the temperature was a lot more tolerable down there and Butch and Bev are such great hosts, we always have a great time when visiting them. We have all come to love Bev and have enjoyed every minute since Butch brought her into our lives. Plus we always get in plenty of games of hand and foot which is a card game much like canasta which I used to play as a child with my cousins. Shary and Butch love the game so much that they usually have at least one full game completed; which usually takes about 1 hour to play, before I am even out of bed in the morning. The truth is though, I have become a lot better at sleeping in later since I retired.

Chapter 2

The Duffers

For several years now, we came together as a golfing group of guys playing on Men’s day which was on Wednesday of each week. There were about nine regulars and a couple of additional guys who showed up occasionally at about 10 AM each week to play. We would have to break into two groups many times because of our large numbers. In addition, for a couple of years Don Anderson, my local chiropractor friend and I teamed up and played in Men’s League on Wednesday evenings.

This was fun because you played everyone else in the club including the club’s best golfers. Fortunately they used a handicap system so I didn’t embarrass myself too much. My friend Don was a better golfer than I was but he played so seldom that it hurt his game some and so he was kind enough to partner with me. The only bad thing was Men’s League came later in the day on Men’s day and this was my regular Wednesday golf day so I was usually pretty tired when League play started later in the day. Plus it got in the way of my euchre games with the rest of the guys. On the other hand, it was perfect for Don since he was still a working man and couldn’t get out to play with us earlier in the day.

We had the good fortune to play at Majestic Hills Golf Club which for years was the best kept secret in Western Iowa but for the last couple of years, golfers from Des Moines, Omaha and even Kansas City had discovered our course. Majestic Hills is a beautiful, challenging 18 hole course with fast greens and beautiful, lengthy fairways. Fortunately we had somehow been able to hire Tim Kinsey as our grounds and greens keeper, and Tim; along with his crew, were the very best at taking care of the course.

Our Golf Course was voted 2nd best semi-private course in the State of Iowa in Golfers Digest several years ago before they added the back nine holes. The addition of the 2nd nine allowed them to add a lot of length to the course and a lot of variety as well. It truly is a beautiful and challenging course.

My Men’s League Golf Partner Dr. Don Anderson

Chapter 3

Discourse On The Course

In addition to our regular Wednesday golf; on Mondays, a foursome from our group would play with the Seniors League. This included our regular foursome of golfers which included Ronnie Henningsen, Chuck Pollak, Jerry Behrens and me, Ken Livingston. If one of us had a conflict and couldn’t make it for some reason, then we would get Wally Brummer and Wally was a good fill-in because he shot about the same as the rest of us which was nothing too great.

Wally was a close neighbor of Jerry Behrens and sometimes joined our regular group on Wednesdays as well. Anyway, we would travel to golf courses all over Western Iowa on Mondays which was Seniors day. We all paid a few dollars for membership cards in the Senior League which allowed us to golf for a fairly low green fee and enjoy a reasonable dinner at the various courses. Virgil Johnson played with a regular group of his good friends from nearby Schleswig Iowa and Kenny Houston also had a separate group of other friends that he played with in the Senior League as well on their own separate teams.

Our Wednesday group included Ronnie Henningsen, Chuck Pollak, Jerry Behrens, Virgil Johnson, Gordie Wiebers, Wally Brummer and Kenny Houston who sometimes brought his nephew Joe and yours truly. Occasionally, Virgil Johnson would twist Phil Didiers arm a little and would get Phil to join us.  On a couple of very rare occasions, even Craig Kuehl our local pharmacist friend would join us when he didn’t have to work. For the most part, our scores ranged from mid to upper 80’s through the lower to mid 90’s in the beginning and then started getting higher for most of us as we got older. Kenny Houston and Virgil Johnson would score in the lower 80’s quite often.

Kenny Houston and his Nephew Joe were better golfers than most of us but all in all, we were all pretty close. Kenny’s nephew Joe had age on us as he was barely over half our ages. Kenny owned a home down on the Atlantic Coast above Jacksonville, Florida and Virgil Johnson and his wife Marvel travelled to the Gulf Coast to Destin, Florida in the winter also so both Kenny and Virgil had an edge on the rest of us because they were able to play during winter months as well.

For years we had enjoyed good, competitive golf and we were for the most part, pretty well matched, shooting about the same. It always seemed that we would each have a particularly good day and beat the others by a stroke or two but it seemed like we all took our turn periodically at this. Then again, we might have a particularly rough day and have a little difficulty hitting the ball straight. Over the long haul it always seemed to work our pretty even for most of us. As you who also know golf, you are normally competing against yourself although we would challenge another cart of golfers in our group to a bet once in a while for the first round of drinks in the club house when we finished golf for the day. 

Early on in our golf days, we had another golfer who joined us. Our conversations would occasionally get around to politics and this one particular golfer did not care for the conversations which usually took on a pretty conservative flavor. I remember one time when I, not realizing at the time that this fellow had such strong liberal beliefs, caused him to become very upset with me on the 2nd tee box.

To the best of my recollection, I don’t remember him coming out again to play with us after that. His name has been excluded here for obvious reasons and is not included in the list of names above. Innocently enough I had commented that I had been raised a democrat until I saw the light. Actually it was when the Democratic Party adopted the abortion plank that I changed my party affiliation to republican. This really upset him a great deal when I said this.

Although I am registered as a republican currently, I was at that time and still am more of a conservative than most and as such, I don’t cling to any particular political party. I did change my party affiliation to Republican because the Republicans are far more conservative than the Democrats on a number of issues that I embrace. While I consider myself to be more independent, I have never found an independent candidate that I could support. Since I am a pretty devout Catholic, I don’t understand to this day how anyone who is anti abortion can vote democrat. Anyway, my friend did not particularly like my comment and he let me know it. We had to call a truce to continue our golf and when we were done, he never came back again to join our group after that.

In fact, our coffee group which usually met on the mornings when we didn’t golf, was very anti liberal and very conservative. This same man was originally part of that group. After the golfing incident, I was very careful what I said but the group was still conservative in nature and they were very critical especially when Obama was President. Our friend quickly departed our coffee group for a group at another restaurant and never came back.

This was truly the only experience I can recall that could be considered negative that occurred in all of our years as a golf group. In fairness though, he has some pretty serious health problems that make it impossible for him to golf today. He really is a pretty nice guy though. I still see him occasionally and fortunately, we are on pretty good speaking terms today and quite friendly. We obviously don’t bring up the subject of politics when we meet.

Majestic Hills Golf Score Card

Chapter 4

Father Ed Murray

It seemed that one thing we all had in common was that as the years passed, our golf scores all began to climb somewhat. One thing that told me that my main problem was in my short game was the fact that when I moved from the white tee’s up to the Senior tee’s, my score never improved much if any.

Of all of us golfers except for Gordie Wiebers; I was the oldest at 78 at the time of this writing. Gordie had lower back surgery which slowed him down and affected his game somewhat. Chuck Pollak was only 4 days younger than me and the rest of them were from 1 to 10 years younger. Still, I felt I could hold my own when playing with them. Plus the fact that it was such a fun group to play with, also mattered.

Chuck once said that his goal was to be able to golf until he was 80 years old. That sounded like a pretty

sensable goal to me and so I have kind of adopted that same attitude. My doctor is always talking to me about doing more walking so I usually tell him that I am parking my golf cart a little farther away from my ball. He is not usually amused by that comment.

Occasionally I get the chance to play golf with my son Butch and my son-in-laws Jim Seaton, Jimmy Latta or Rich McCall. Or I might get a chance to play occasionally with two of my 4 daughters, Kim Seaton or Jackie Roberts, and occasionally some of my grandchildren. My daughters Pam and Michelle don’t play golf very much since they are both busy working and taking care of their kids. The rest are all such long ball hitters that even the senior tee’s that I play from do not help me get my drives out as far as theirs. I am so glad that they all enjoy playing golf because it has given me so many years of pleasure. My wife Shary has played some golf with me and it’s a great sport for a couple as they grow older together.

My former pastor Father Ed Murray was a formidable golfer and frequently asked me when I was going to start playing with him.  I jokingly told him just as soon as I start yelling Aw shucks" when I hit a bad shot. Actually though, I began playing with his group and then he got transferred to another parish quite a few years ago. He was not gone too long and he became ill and passed away. He was a good man of God and I might add, an excellent golfer too.

My oldest grandson Drew and my second oldest Zach, now put me to shame on the golf course although unintentionally of course. They’ve come a long ways since they were small. I remember when I went to Walmart and bought the smallest golf bags I could find. Then I took my older set of clubs and I cut them down so that they were about the right size, and put some new grips on them. I had to put false bottoms in the golf bags so that the clubs would stick out over the top.

As the boys grew older and needed larger clubs, the original clubs became hand me downs as the other grand kids got older. Then finally they graduated to the Junior sets you can buy when they were ready for them and eventually they got their own full sized clubs. By then, they were outhitting Grandpa. The good news is that just about all of my grandkids are into golf now including some of the girls. One of my Granddaughter’s; Nicole, played on her High School team and was usually the scoring leader along with one other girl. What a great family sport.

Chapter 5

Who’s Turn Is It?

Our golf group had a great set up; golf in the late mornings and early afternoon and then we played Euchre in the Majestic Grill in the Club house. The Club as we all call it; as a golf course restaurant, had great food and a staff that had been together for quite a few years. From Gary the main chef and Vickie the food service manager to Pam who was the head bartender, they all came to know us very well and once in a while would do something special for us. Vickie the kitchen manager would bake something special like apple turnovers and bring us all one to sample occasionally.

Although I am a non drinker, I appreciated Pam who would occasionally extend the Cocktail hour a little bit extra which would help hold the bar tab down as a result. When we played cards, the winners put their winnings towards the tab and then anything left over, we would each ante up to make up the difference and the tip. The staff all did a great job and so we played cards on Wednesday’s following golf until almost suppertime at which time we would call our wives and they would all come out and join us for dinner and we all had a great time.

Euchre is a popular card game played a lot here in Western Iowa. I learned it from my wife’s family shortly after I was first married. Shary was one of a family of 11 children including 7 boys and 4 girls. The family played a lot of cards together and her Mom and Dad were wonderful people. We always had a great time.

Her Dad and I used to joke a lot and occasionally I would push him a little too hard. I remember one time we were playing cards and Shary’s Dad Ray had a few drinks and got a little bit upset at one of my smart ass remarks. I remember he said to me, I think I’ll just have my boys take care of you! I quickly told him, I don’t think it’s going to take all 7 of them Ray, and that seemed to diffuse the situation. I loved both of Shary’s parents who are both gone now. I never felt like an outsider or anyone but another family member. There was always room at the table for one more, crowded as it was.

At the golf club after golf, the only trouble we had playing Euchre was remembering who’s deal it was. I remember one time Ronnie Henningsen took his golf hat and turned it around on his head with the bill pointing at the person who was the next one who was supposed to deal. Although Ronnie looked a little goofy, it worked. That’s another thing I liked about this group. It didn’t matter how goofy it was, it always brought out the laughter. There was always something crazy like that happening. I don’t know why we couldn’t remember who’s turn it was. I knew we were not that senile yet.

There was one time I remember when Jerry and I beat Ronnie and Chuck pretty bad. I think we took something like $30 bucks apiece off them. This was highly unusual and I’m sure it happened to us a time or two as well but usually it would end up about even or maybe a few bucks would be the difference. Chuck quit playing cards with us for a couple of weeks and joined the poker group that played in the pro shop at that same time. We got Kenny Houston to play a few times but mostly Virgil Johnson sat in until Chuck came back. Poker can be a lot more costly than 25 cent Euchre as Chuck quickly learned. Later on, Virgil Johnson took over permanently as things began to change which I will get to shortly.

We always played for money but unlike our golf scores which seemed to increase as we got older, the bets decreased until we were down to a bet of a quarter for each game, each set you took and each time you turned up a jack when dealing. Chuck used to joke about us supplementing his retirement income playing Euchre.

In the winter time we would get together occasionally on Wednesdays for cards and dinner but we seemed to be slowing down some as we got older. In the winter time especially in Iowa, sometimes it just seemed a lot easier staying in our warm homes rather than go out in the cold.

In retrospect, in thinking about our group, we were a mixture of Lutherans, Methodists and Catholics but religion was never a subject of discourse. First and foremost, this group was a bunch of good Christian men and aside from an occasional shady joke, I don’t remember anything crude or out of line in all the years we were together.

Chapter 6

Oh Ronnie

Ronnie Henningsen’s wife Lana was the tour director for Crawford County Bank here in Denison. If you had a checking account and had at least $5,000 in savings, you were included in their travel club. The travel club included a free movie at the local theater one day per month and you were eligible to go on chartered, periodic trips that they took to various other countries as well as various States in the U.S.

Shary and I had been all over Western Europe, the Hawaiian Islands, the Caribbean and all 50 States and had never been on a tour. We had always made our own reservations but mostly just flew by the seat of our pants. We travelled all over Europe that way with no complications. Part of it was due to the fact that I was a courier in the service when I was stationed in Germany when I was a youngster. It made me comfortable finding my way around and I had learned a little German when I was over there for almost two years and that helped a lot as well.

A few years ago, we decided to try a 10 day tour with Lana’s bank travel club to Alaska. The tour included a land tour followed by a beautiful cruise down through 3 islands, back to Canada and then a flight back home. We had a wonderful time, met some great new friends and had a good chance to become better acquainted with some old friends who were also on the trip. Alaska is a beautiful state and I would encourage you to get it on your bucket list if you have not already travelled there.

We saw animals in the wild. We saw a number of bear and moose among others. It was fabulous scenery and an all around wonderful place to visit. Because we had such a good time, we decided to sign up for the bank’s trip to Branson, Missouri for the Branson Winter Show. This show included a lot of Christmas specials and promised to be a nice trip.

While on the trip, it was necessary for Lana to have the bus driver locate a pharmacy so that she could buy some medicine for Ronnie who was having terrible headaches. Ronnie always took care of helping Lana with snacks, bottled water