Chuck may not have been singing in a band, but he was ALWAYS singing in the living room. During our elementary years his main audience was a group of his daughters neighborhood friends. Even though this may not have been his ideal stage, he always had fun with it. When we would bring friends home after school we always knew he was home; we could hear the stereo from the bus stop! As you all know he loved kids. He enjoyed sharing music, as well as his kindness, with them.
His love of kids and love of sports melded together. During the summers he played softball for a number of leagues. Many of these leagues played at the fields at the Village Inn in White Bear Lake. It is now called The Stadium. A couple of them were: Cheap Charlie’s, Three Diamonds and there were numerous others. This was for his own competition. When I was old enough I got involved in softball as well, he had a blast helping coach my friends and me. During the winters he coached kids hockey for the White Bear Hockey Association. He coached all ages from the 4-5 year old Squirt team, teaching them to stay on their feet in skates, to the older pre-varsity teams. It didn’t matter to him what the skill level of each player was, as long as they were all having fun. For 15 years of our lives we had two seasons, Softball and Hockey. For one season when Leesa was about 12, he coached football for some of her school friends. That was a lot of fun for her to get to see her classmates at the games.
During the other parts of the year he also loved Football, Volleyball, Car racing and many other sports. He always told us he would have loved to race cars but with a family that wasn’t the safest hobby. Instead he made due with watching the races and going to EVERY car show that came to town.
In 1990 Chuck and Janet decided to part ways. He worked extra hard at his job of 17 years at S&T Office Products to make ends meet. Shortly after this he decided to leave S&T to pursue other paths. He was back on the path toward his musical dreams.
