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Mark Larson
Hi everyone,
Karen (Erickson) Mullen and I are testing methods on this reunion site on posting my photos from our 45th reunion site -- see my effort under my Classmate Profile (didn't expect to have time before going to Alaska but luckily I found the time). You may be able to "right click" with your computer mouse to download these avg-size JPEGs to your computer desktop to print out...or maybe not. Karen is going to try to post them to a "Gallery" site here as well, after she gets my CD in the mail, testing which method works better for all users of the site. Enjoy the photos! (Contact me by email if you want a higher-rez image file or two... at sydmark@sbcglobal.net )
And on the airplane ride home, I had a chance to reflect on what it means to have an oldest brother -- stimulated by my brother David being an Academy Alumni honoree at his 50th class reunion. See my thoughts below.
Mark Larson
A Brother David Larson tribute:
The Augustana Academy reunion this last week provided memorable recognition of my brother David, as he was chosen to be one of the two recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. It also was his graduating class’ 50th anniversary.
For many years my brother David has also had many positive influences on my life. And being raised in the classic Norwegian-American family tradition, I almost told him once how much he’s meant to me…
So this is my chance to make up for that. Anyone who has grown up with an oldest sibling, however, can understand my initial difficulty in trying to find words of tribute or anything nice to say about my oldest brother, David. I can remember quite a list of negatives about having an oldest sibling. For example:
a) you grow up having a closet full of used pants, shirts and shoes in outdated styles that – at least according to Mom at the time – still had “lots of good wear in them, now that they fit you…”
b) multiple times at various early ages, you experience being encouraged by your oldest sibling/brother to “just try things…” For example, on a bitter cold winter morning, I remember being urged to “try touching your tongue to the metal car door handle…”
c) many times growing up on the farm, similar to Tom Sawyer’s victims, I was convinced I should take over a variety of farm chores that had been assigned to David because “this will be fun…” As a result, I learned at a very early age to drive the tractor and run the manure spreader…
d) and in many “let’s pretend” moments, such as playing war games using corn cobs and clods of dirt for projectiles, I often ended up a little bruised and scraped…
But, in fact, I’d like to tell you all – and David -- about a few of his positive influences on my life. For example:
a) tagging along with my oldest brother David on a few unapproved adventures during his teen-age years, I’m thankful I learned from him a very helpful bit of advice: “Don’t tell Dad!”
b) brother David was and remains a voracious reader and that must have served as an early role model for me to begin reading at an early age. I’m thankful that in his efforts to distract me from bugging him he introduced me to the genre of science fiction.
c) I’m thankful for the most important influence of all, in that brother David did not go to our local high school in Mount Vernon. Instead he began a family tradition by attending Augustana Academy in the fall of 1956. From my 5th grade on, I spent an inordinate amount of time perusing the Academy yearbooks he’d bring home and counting the days until it would be my turn to attend. By my 8th grade, his senior year, I felt as though I already knew many of his classmates, and at that age I was highly impressed by their “maturity.” It was easy to see at their 50th class reunion that they had at last finally actually made it to the “mature” stage.
d) during my freshmen year at the Academy in 1961, David went off to Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota where again I was strongly influenced at the time by what seemed to me the worldliness of his college experience. I want to thank David for expanding my world of music at that time by letting me listen to his new LP records of classical music, the Kingston Trio, early Bill Cosby comedy and the funny singing math professor Tom Lehrer.
e) during his college summer vacations, he also introduced me to the joys of scientific research, particularly the use of a bug trap out in our alfalfa field to collect an incredible array of insects. Who knew so many types of bugs existed in such a familiar place? Later, he impressed me again with his dissertation research on dust mites. Who knew that dust mites could be found in such familiar places such as our eyelashes and eyebrows?
f) I was also impressed by David after he graduated from college by his marriage to a beautiful, intelligent classmate named Lois Larson – though given her Swedish family background, it was considered by some as practically an interracial marriage.
g) after graduating from college, David was again a great role model for me as he spent several years in graduate school. His experiences there taught me another important lesson: grad school is a great way to extend your adolescence…
Lastly, David was also a great role model for me given his love of teaching as a career. After receiving his Ph.D., he returned to Augustana Academy where he taught biology classes until the Academy closed down in 1971. I remember helping David and Lois move to Camrose, Alberta to teach at Camrose Lutheran College and later I joined him on a couple of wilderness canoeing and backpacking adventures. He was a mentor to me when I began my own college teaching career. I just retired after 34 years.
So thank you, David, for being my oldest brother. Your recognition at the Augustana Academy reunion was well deserved!
From a younger brother,
Mark
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