Brief History of ME
Where do I start when I tell you about myself? I think that the reason I am here is because my parents had sex. I'm not sure, but I think they had sex more than one time because I have a brother and four sisters. I was born a pretty long time ago in a small town in Iowa (Maurice - population about 275) in 1948. I started life as the oldest of six children. I was also always the most intelligent, unassuming and well behaved of all my siblings. Other than people remarking, "what a cute little baby the Ruisch boy is", I don't remember too much of my early life.When I was 11 years old my parents moved to the big city of Sanborn, Iowa. Sanborn is a typical small Iowa town with a population of about 1400 friendly people and one old grump. If I would have stayed there, in 2020 I would have had to start taking my turn at being the town grump. I spent my formative years in Sanborn. The thing I most remember about living there was all of the people remarking, "What an intelligent fellow that Ruisch kid is."
In 1966, I graduated from the Sanborn High School and went off to seek my fame and fortune in the world. Not knowing much about either fame or fortune, I enlisted in the U. S. Navy. After making it through boot camp without dying, I volunteered for submarine duty. I was stationed on board the USS George C. Marshall for about three months when I realized that the cooks all had their own bunk and got to take a shower almost every day. Realizing that I smelled pretty bad, I went to see Chief McCullough and told him I wanted to be a cook. Since I already had experience at opening cans, he signed me on immediately.
Not knowing there was another life, I kept re-enlisting and serving on several more submarines: Cincinnati, Drum, Finback, and the Patrick Henry. I was also on a lot of other subs for short periods of temporary duty. Later on I had some medical problems. Instead of being smart and taking a disability retirement, I transferred to surface craft and was temporarily stationed at the Norfolk Naval Station. After a year or so, the doctors finally determined that they would never be able to find a mental cure for me. I was transferred to the USS Sylvania. I also spent some time on shore duty at Pearl lHarbor, NAF Sigonella, Sicily and NAS Albany, Georgia. Because I liked the deep ocean (I'm not making any Airedale comments here), I left both of the last two tours early.
Along the way, I met and married my wife. We had a daughter (I still ain't figured out how that happens) and a whole bunch of assorted dogs and cats. I finished my Navy career by doing a whole tour of shore duty at NSGA Edzell Scotland. Isn't it funny how a family changes your perspective on the deep ocean?
To make a long story short, I got out of the Navy after almost 24 years and came back to live in Sanborn, Iowa. About the only change around there was that people often remarked, "what an intelligent older fellow" that Ruisch is.
In 2005, my wife and I decided to move to Southwest Louisiana so that we would be closer to the grandchildren. Now, I spend a lot of my time going to Texas during a hurricane evacuation. It sure is nice to be able to spend a large portion of them "cold Iowa winters" sitting on my porch in Bermuda shorts. Mrs. Tiny and I also spend quite a lot of time on cruise ships. I have also noticed that a lot of the people around here say, "What an intelligent fellow that Yankee from Iowa is."
My story won't be complete until I mention the best gal in the world, MRS. TinyJWR. Can you imagine spending years and years (almost 50 the last time I checked) married to a guy like me?
I don't plan on telling you which jails I have been in or how much whiskey I really drink.
