DAN ROGERS INTRODUCTION

Dan was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, moving after the war to Lambert, Mt in about 1948. There his father obtained his first teaching job. From thence his father taught in Libby, Mt (1949-57) and Spokane, Wa (1957-75). Dan graduated from Central Valley High School, Veradale, Wa.

In 1961 he began studies for a B.S. degree in Chemistry at Washington State University at Pullman, Wa., graduating in 1965. Then he began studies for a Ph. D. in chemistry at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mt., graduating in 1973.

He is currently retired from his government job at the U.S. Bureau of Mines. After retirement in 1996 he began teaching English in Pusan, South Korea, finishing in 2009.

His hobbies include genealogy, chess, duplicate bridge, birdwatching, sports, toastmasters, and foreign language study (French, German, Russian, and Korean).

REMINISCENCES ON LIFE IN LAMBERT, MONTANA

My earliest memories come from a little town in Eastern Montana. I lived there with my parents and sister Lois. When living in our first house there on the side of a hill, I had my first sledding thrill riding down on the back of my father. At Christmas time I got an electric train from my grandmother Markle, but my parents said I was too young to play with an electric train. So I took the train and crawled with it to hide in back of the sofa. One time my grandma Rogers came to visit and she got out of the car. I wanted to go with her and so I reached to get out of the backseat of the car. Unfortunately, the door slammed on my hand and took off my fingernails.

On the top of that same hill lived my friend Georgie Dotson. One day Georgie found an ant and showed it to me. It thought it to be very interesting, but Georgie's older brother said, "It's nothing. It's just an ant."

Then when living at the second house, I used to go in front of the town bar and gather bottle caps off the ground. Once when collecting them, a man came out and said, "Come here!" I was trapped, caught "stealing bottle caps", but the man just wanted to give me a silver dollar.

In the open fields around my home there were rattlesnakes. One day an older boy had pinned one of them down to the ground and I told him, "Don't do that, it won't hurt you." I said that because my father knew about snakes and was not particularly afraid of them. My father had actually brought one into the house, carrying it in a glass jar. My mother was afraid that it might escape.

Apparently I had eaten some crayons when I was young and my parents decided to take me to the hospital in Sidney. I was afraid to go but had no choice. At the hospital I remember having fun putting together some simple puzzles they had there.

My father was a teacher and later principal at the Lambert High School nearby. On the side of the high school was a big long slide to be used as a fire escape. We had fun sliding down it -- but the slide was so long that I didn't dare go up very far for fear of hurting myself on reaching the bottom.

I also recall my mother taking me to Sunday school. I didn't want to stay there away from my mother.