Aggie Casavant wrote a real nice letter about my parents. I appreciate
it. There are a few things I can remember about her family that are of
equal esteem. I remember her mother, Marie ( I believe that’s her name
but we always called her Mrs. Casavant), always was smiling and friendly
as we picked up our noon lunches at school. If I remember correctly, she
didn’t drive and for quite a while she rode to work on the school bus.
That is dedication. One thing I remember about Rene, Gerald and Joe
(twins), and Aime was when they saved up their money and bought a really
nice little black ’47 Chevy coupe. It was like a ‘little old ladies
car’, in that it was immaculate. They drove it to school for a while and
then on one fateful trip home they crested a hill and hit someone’s cow
that was on the road. The beautiful little car was totaled. I remember
how disgusted we all felt about the boys wrecking their car. They just
smiled and said, “Oh well.” One time in choir practice, Joe was holding
his music with both hands and suddenly sneezed. Gerald said, in his slow
‘Frenchy’ brogue, “Mister Johnson, I think you’ll have to keep that
music for Joe, for next year!” The entire choir roared with
laughter—including the Casavant boys! They were a fun bunch to be
around! Tim Hill and I made a ‘road trip’ to Wahpeton in 1970, to visit
John Bogus and the other guys from home. John lived in a basement
apartment with some other local guys. Gerald or Joe (sorry but I don’t
remember which) was living with them. He had just returned from a tour
in Viet Nam, where because of his small size was assigned the duties of
a ‘tunnel rat’. After all that, he still was the same fun guy he was in
high school. To me this was amazing, as many of the vets at Bottineau
School of Forestry were carrying visible emotional scars from their
experiences. The entire Casavant family is one of the nicest bunch of
folks you could ever hope to meet! Thanks Gary!

Attached is a picture of a car very similar to the one the Casavant boys
had. It’s not the same one, just one from my wheeling and dealing, that
may bring back some memories of their car.

Dick