The Golden Years
|
H.G. Turner The Golden Years |
|
||
|
|
|||
|
What's New! Genealogy Harlie's Family Lineage Keck Family Lineage Joyce Family Lineage Photo Gallery Ancestry Biography Obituraries Resource Documents Fais Island Adventure Early Beginnings Who is Harlie Turner The Bootlegging Era Too Close for Comfort Depression Brings Tragedy Civilian Conservation Corp World War II Uncle Sam Wants You Piccadilly Commando D-Day for Little Rollo Mission over Munich Little Rollo Photo Gallery 707th Bomb Squadron Post World War II Uncle Sam -- I'm Back Hogan's Goat Ditched at Sea The Cold War Years Post Military The Golden Years News Articles Military & Family News Dave's Journal 1941 Willys Pickup Links & Favorite Sites CCC, WWII, Genealogy Contact E-mail Grandson |
After retiring from military life on September 30, 1970, Colleen and I decided to travel back to Dubuque, IA, and settle down close to our families. In February, 1971, my brother-in-law helped me get a job as his night foreman in the order-filling department at the Dubuque Packing Plant. My employment lasted at the Dubuque Packing Plant until December, 1981. The plant was going to close down, so at age 57, I decided it was time to call it quits.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Colleen and I had a great time traveling, camping, fishing, boating, family picnics, fish frys, and parties. Our children, Sue and Dennis, both lived in Dubuque with their families. This gave Colleen and I plenty of opportunities to see them and our five grandsons.
During these golden years, all has not been so wonderful. I've lost some of my loved ones including my brother Donald, my mother Bena, and my good friend and brother-in-law Chuck. In July of 2004, I lost the love of my life, my wife Colleen, to Alzheimer disease. However, although my first love was taken by Alzheimer disease, one could say that this same horrible disease introduced me to my second love in life. While coping with the lose of my wife Colleen, I met a wonderful woman who had the misfortune of also losing her husband to the same devastating disease. Her name is Opal Laugesen. We found we enjoyed each others company immensely and fell in love. On May 28, 2008 we married one another in Las Vegas, Nevada and are happily living in Dubuque today.
I was for a while very active with hunting and fishing. However, in 2003, I decided it was time to call it quits. My oldest grandson still tries to coax me to go turkey hunting each season. As of the 2017 Labor Day weekend, I'm still going strong. I have my beautiful wife Opal to share my remaining years with and we treasure each day we have together. |
|
|
||
 Home |
Top |
|
The 1990s brought gambling to Iowa. In 1992, my brother-in-law and I decided to become investors in the gambling boat that was coming to Dubuque. We both enjoyed gambling and thought it would be a wonderful investment opportunity. This venture was very shaky for awhile. It wasn't until 1994 that the boat we invested in finally arrived to the Dubuque Ice Harbor. It was a small boat, but we were now in business! We named the boat the "Diamond Jo." We operated this boat for approximately two years before selling it to other investors. At that time we decided to go deeper into debt and purchased a much larger gambling boat which we also named "Diamond Jo." The new floating casino was a great addition to the Dubuque community and turned out to be a fantastic investment.
