Larry left home when he was about 16, probably sometime during the year 1959. He was living in the country shack a couple miles from our home. After leaving home he worked for local farmers in the area as a farm hand. Once he had enough money to buy a car, he started working at a window and door factory not far away.

Larry would stop by occasionally after he left home. Ma would invite him to join us for dinner when relatives were visiting or there was a special event. Since Larry didn’t have a telephone, the only way to communicate with him was to stop by his shack and leave a written note. Sometimes we would walk down to his shack with the hope of finding him home, but if he wasn’t there, we would write a note.

He was living his life in the way that he wanted. He smoked cigarettes, drank coffee and befriended like-minded neighbors. I don’t recall him hanging around our home much, and he wasn’t a part of the church-going crowd. 

He was very soft-spoken and quiet. When the house was full of relatives or neighbors he would sit and listen to the conversation but didn’t contribute much.

I’m not sure how we learned that Larry was missing. In June of 1965 Jane wrote in her diary that Larry had been missing for about three weeks and no one knew where he was. Pa thought perhaps Larry had travelled out of state to visit Herman, the relative he shared the cabin with for a period of time. That theory was debunked when the neighbor who lived near to Larry and shared a mailbox called to say that Larry had received two letters from Herman during the past couple weeks. Pa went to get the letters to read them and realized that Herman wasn’t expecting Larry to come for a visit.

Larry’s car was not at his shack, but his driver license was located in a drawer. Pa and Ma became more worried after they realized Larry wasn’t with Herman and they began reaching out to others in the neighborhood to find out if anyone knew. Pa called the bank, and Larry had not recently withdrawn any money.

Pa, Wayne and John along with a few neighbors searched all around his property to see if they could find any clues.

Pa went to Ladysmith to talk with the sheriff and explained the situation. That set off a whole chain of events. There was a small plane sent out to fly low over the county to see if they could find any trace of him. Each new day brought more neighbors stopping by with ongoing conversation about why he would have left, where would he have gone. It was a worrisome mystery.

A few days later, our neighbor Joe Pflughoeft notified us that his brother Mike had received a letter from his friend Bobby Prasnicki who was in the army boot camp. In Bobby’s letter he mentioned that Larry was serving in his same military battalion. Later we learned that Bobby mentioned that he was expecting Larry to be discharged soon as he had a bed wetting problem.

Once Bobby learned our family didn’t know Larry’s whereabouts and we were all worried, he talked to Larry and encouraged him to call home. Ma talked with Larry on the phone. He didn’t outline his specific plan, just simply said he hadn’t told anyone he was leaving because he was expecting to get discharged quickly and didn’t think he would be gone from home very long.

As it turned out, Larry’s car had been parked at his friend’s place in Ladysmith. Larry did not want to serve in the military, but his belief did not align with the religious exemption, so he had devised the bed wetting scheme for avoiding military service. Larry received an honorable medical discharge and returned home a few weeks later.

Pa was not one to verbalize his love, fear, concern, appreciation, thankfulness, or any emotion. I doubt he ever told Larry that he loved him and cared about him, or how worried he had been. It was evident in the way Pa whistled while he worked, Pa was relieved and thankful Larry was back home.