My father-in-law was an amazing man. He was the eldest of two children raised on a North Dakota Farm. His mother was a school teacher and they walked together to the one room school house located near their farmhouse. He learned to drive a car when he was 11 years old and because he wanted to drive the car and his uncle didn’t want to go to church he assumed the role of driving his grandmother to church on Sundays. Perhaps it was that experience that led him to a lifetime of participation and volunteer leadership in the church. Coming into his teenage years during the Great Depression, times were tough. The family survived in part by hosting dances in a barn and selling sandwiches and other refreshments to those who came to the dances. When his father suffered a heart attack and was advised by a doctor to retire and move to someplace warm, he ran the family farm while his parents spent a winter in Arizona. They raised turkeys which could be shipped live on the train to Chicago for thanksgiving dinners. He lived on potatoes stored in the root cellar. Sorting through the potatoes that had been kept all winter long to find some that could be cooked for meals taught him an appreciation for new potatoes in early summer, a passion that he kept for the rest of his life.

He graduated from a two year vocational college and trained as an electrician. He helped bring electricity to rural North Dakota and with his father stared an appliance and home electricity repair business. He met his wife in his home town where she had come to earn a living after the death of her father. He used to say, “We were poor during the depression. Everyone was. But she was really poor.” The depression had been over for quite a while when they met, but they learned to live frugally. Soon there was a daughter and two more daughters followed.

I met the whole family at church camp and initially didn’t think much of them. They were church people like my family and we all enjoyed summer camp. A few years later, having continued to get to know their daughter at youth rallies and other church events, I was lucky to have her accept my invitation to attend the junior prom at my high school. I was also lucky that she had accepting parents who allowed their daughter to go on a date with a relatively unknown young man who lived 80 miles from their home. She took the bus to my town to attend the dance.

Susan was the oldest of the three daughters and ours was the first wedding in their family. We didn’t want things to be too formal or fancy, but knew we would marry in the church of her family. We were church camp kids and we were friends with a lot of ministers and in addition to the minister of their church, who had been my camp counselor the first year I attended camp by myself without my family, and another minister friend officiated. We joked that the wedding was ours, but the reception was Susan’s mother’s. She helped us plan a celebration that was fun and matched our style. We wanted to serve our guests home made ice cream. Susan’s father made all of that ice cream to serve our guests.

Keith was an electrician by trade but he was a teacher at heart. Perhaps it came from growing up as the teacher’s kid. He taught for many years in the apprenticeship program for electricians and was recognized for his service by his local union and his name is on a plaque at the United States Department of Labor recognizing his years of teaching young electricians. My father died when I was a young adult and I had the benefit of having my father-in-law as a mentor and teacher for many years.

He taught me to make homemade ice cream. It makes sense that when we and our children were planning our 50th wedding anniversary celebration to be held in a week that we wanted to serve home made ice cream. I’m going to be making a lot of ice cream this week. Fortunately I will have the support and help of family members, including my son-in-law who arrives with their family on Tuesday. Having him help me make ice cream is something I am anticipating greatly. We have two ice cream makers. One is electric and automatic. The other needs to be cranked by hand. I’m pretty sure the process will fascinate our grandchildren. They’ll be eager to lick the dasher when a batch is completed. I’m also pretty sure that they don’t have the stamina to turn the crank for multiple batches of ice cream.

I made a test batch a couple of days ago using the electric machine and the family recipe. It turned out like I remembered the ice cream my father-in-law used to make. I had a very good and patient teacher.

I suppose that every anniversary has elements of nostalgia. This week will be filled with a lot of good memories for us. We’ve been sorting through old photographs. We will be telling a lot of stories. After all we have 50 years of taking photos and gathering stories. Fortunately for us, we had our parents as part of those early years. Fortunately for me, I was as fortunate in the choice of in-laws as I was in the choice of my wife. A lot of what I have learned about how to be a husband, a father, and a grandfather came from lessons I learned from my father-in-law. He also taught me a lot of what it means to be a teacher. Teaching requires a lot more than knowledge. It requires a lot more than competence in your field. Teaching requires a genuine concern for your learners. I know because I had a lot of years with one of the world’s greatest teachers. He also was a really good electrician, a skill that saved me a lot in my years as a homeowner.

Besides, he taught me to make ice cream and we’re going to have a lot of ice cream this week. It not only gives me a week that my grandchildren will remember. It gives me an opportunity to teach them with the grace and skill with which I have been taught.