Norven served in the US Army from 1952 to 1954.
Norven D. Mayer
I was drafted into service February 4, 1952 and sworn into the Army at Sioux Falls, SD., then sent to Fort Sheridan, Illinois for clothes and shots. After a few weeks we were bused to Fort Knox, Kentucky, 3rd Armored Division. After 16 weeks of basic training I was assigned as a tank operator/driver. After a ten day furlough to home, I was flown to New York and bused to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey (near Newark). Once there we shipped out middle of August 1952. I was assigned to the 351st Battalion in Trieste, Italy during the Korean War. When we arrived in Trieste, I was put on riot patrol because of the unrest in the Mediterranean. While stationed here I trained on parachute jumping from C-119 airplanes. The troops were being readied to go to Korea. The war ended in the summer of 1953 at the 38th parallel and it is that way today dividing North from South Korea. I finished my service time in the Honor Guard. I was released at Fort Sheridan, Illinois with a Honorable Discharge as Cpl. Norven D. Mayer.
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My New Lunch Box
One of my earliest memories of Dad was when we were living in the country outside of Naper and Dad would come out and play catch with us and he usually had on a white t-shirt and we would have so much fun.
One day he came home and told Bernita & I to come over to the car and he had brand new lunch boxes for us and we were beyond excited!!! It was our dream to go to school (who would've thought! ha ha), we even played pretend school while at home. And, after finally getting to go to school (a one room building with an outhouse for a bathroom!!!) after a couple of weeks the teacher decided we already knew everything we needed to know for kindergarten so she sent us home (true story). We had to wait until we moved into Naper before we could go to school again.
Wednesday nights were town night for us country kids so we'd load up the station wagon and head into town. Us kids would sing "Ding Dong Town, Ding Dong Town!!!" Dad would give us each a quarter and we'd go buy an orange soda that came in a bottle and we would run around town playing with other kids. It was the best!!!