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    The Road Ahead
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    The Road Ahead
    Unavailable
    The Road Ahead
    Ebook216 pages1 hour

    The Road Ahead

    By Mark O. Decker

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “The Road Ahead” comprises the poems Mark Decker wrote in the years 1982 & 1983. These began some of the happiest years of his life, after a tumultuous decade of the 70’s. The 70’s were a time of graduating from college, moving to Washington, working in the White House, trying to establish a career, law school, Watergate, learning how to manage/juggle career and family. In the early 80’s, we find him happily married to his bride Molly, with two children - Mark (7) and Susan (1.5). Included with the poetry, interspersed throughout the poems, are images - some old, some newer - that the author pulled from his pictures and other items that bring back happy memories and which he hopes you will like as well.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu Publishing Services
    Release dateApr 5, 2019
    ISBN9781483494241
    Unavailable
    The Road Ahead
    Author

    Mark O. Decker

    The years 1973–1975 are included in Volume 2. These years were full of wide-ranging emotion, and these were very busy times. Mark married the love of his life, Molly McEwan, was working in the White House for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald R. Ford, and was still reeling from the tragedy of the Kent State University shootings, where the Ohio National Guard shot thirteen students—four of them were killed. Mark was a junior at Kent State when the shootings took place, and one of the four students killed, Sandy Scheuer, was a friend. He lost his father, Miles Burris “Bud” Decker, in January 1975, to cancer, at the early age of sixty-three. His dad included Mark in many of his activities, such as hunting, fishing, golfing, and wildcatting (oil well drilling). Vietnam was raging and an open wound that created enormous disagreement, personal and family friction between parents of the “greatest generation” who fought and won World War II and children who were college-age being sent to Vietnam. The Watergate debacle was an experience every day for all Americans, especially those who lived in Washington, DC, and most especially for those who worked in the White House for President Nixon. Mark also started law school while working full-time during this period, graduating in 1977 with a JD from George Mason University School of Law. Molly and Mark were there together as Watergate all unfolded. That was quite an experience for two young people in love. Molly spent several years working in the Senate during this period. First for the presidential campaign staff of Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX) and then for Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) and then for the chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business. Mark noted, “It was a different Washington then. Much more collegial, much less adversarial. A happy town, and both the White House and Congress were respected much more than today.”

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