The Life of Big Tim: His Life Story

By Donald L. Timmerman

This is a story of a man who still stands
very tall at 610 at the age of 96 by setting goals, achieving
some of them and striving for others. It is a story of a man
who has worked hard at home, at school, at work and who
has experienced some unexpected changes along the way. It
is a book about a champion on the basketball court, at the
machine shop, and in the life of the sunshine of his life.
It is about one of the oldest living NCAA Basketball Champions,
who wants to leave a story of his life for his children and his
grandchildren so that they will know him more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479750221

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Donald L. Timmerman.

ISBN:               Softcover                 978-1-4797-5021-4

                       Ebook                         978-1-4797-5022-1

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in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Memoirs Of Donald Leon Timmerman

Meeting My Wife

Life During World War II

My Work At Gisholt Machine Company

My Retirement

My Personality Changes During My Life

What Did I Learn At The University?

My Religious Background

Life’s Lessons

INTRODUCTION

I chose to write my memoirs because I know so little about my mother and father’s childhoods. I want my children and grandchildren to know what my life has been like. I do know that my Dad was born in a small town just on the edge of Madison, Wisconsin (Cottage Grove). Dad was raised on the family farm and went to Business College in Iowa. How he met mother I do not know.

My mother was born in Oklahoma. Mother’s mother died when my mother was in eighth grade. Mother never finished high school, as she was the oldest of the three children; she had to leave school to take care of her younger sister, Jane and brother Lamar, after their mother died.

At the time mother was taking care of her family, her father had a newspaper in El Reno, Oklahoma, and was editor of the paper. I believe this is why she was so well educated. It must have been from reading her father’s newspaper and their discussions.

MEMOIRS OF DONALD LEON TIMMERMAN

Time period 1916 to 1927

I was brought into this world July 1, 1916, and christened as Donald Leon. I was born at home, which was over Dad’s garage in downtown Sheldon, Iowa.

Before my time, my dad had been in various businesses, such as banking and pool halls. He was in the tire business when I was born.

My mother was very religious and saw that we attended a Sunday school at church. I always liked to be with her while she prepared our dinner as this gave me a time to talk with her. While Mother and I would be talking, I would always be asked to do something. She would ask me to peel potatoes, mash the potatoes, sift the flour, or peel the tomatoes. I would peel tomatoes by quickly dropping the tomatoes into hot water, which would loosen the tomato skins.

After Dad woke me in the morning, I would jump out of bed and run to the bathroom to dress. Our gas water heater was in the bathroom, which was an on-demand type heater and it made the bathroom the warmest room in the house. I had to make my own bed every day after I dressed.

Breakfast was generally oatmeal and a glass of milk. We would put on our warm jackets, mittens and earmuffs and walk to school, which was a mile or more. Snow could be as deep as three feet and would be hard crusted on the roads; there were very few sidewalks, so we had to walk on the roads. School started at 8 o’clock and ran until 4 o’clock.

We lived in two other homes in Sheldon, leaving Sheldon when I was about 10 years old and moving to Vermillion, SD. While living in Sheldon, I had Bright’s Disease one summer and was kept in bed most of the summer. Twice a day mother and family would fill quart fruit jars with boiling hot water which were placed about 5 on each side of me in bed and I was covered with blankets and made to sweat for what seemed to be ages. As I remember, my diet was vanilla ice cream afterward.

Tim’s Tire Shop was apparently a very successful business for my dad. As I remember the old tires that had blown out were fixed by attaching what he called a boot. It was less expensive to do this than buying a new tire.

I remember that for Christmas we must have received a small car that we could pedal by foot and which was for both my brother Harold and me. One Christmas Harold and I received bicycles and a big sled.

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We lived in a big house on the edge of town. This house was a