I was born in 1929 at home on a farm in a small town called Hudson in the state of Iowa.  My parents were emigrants from the county of Denmark.  I went to grammar and Jr. Hight school in Waterloo, Iowa.  One of my first jobs was at the Des Moines Register, where I delivered papers for about 3 years.  Around 1941,  after those years of delivering papers, I was able to buy a motor for a Wizard bicycle.  I also worked at a gasoline station after school.

World War II had begun and gas was being rationed.  I had a ration book for my Wizard.  Everyone received a ration book for various types of food and Red Tokens to buy meat.  While working at the gas station I learned the act of vulcanizing old tires that had breaks in the casing and became a lubrications expert as well.  As the war went on, I worked in a defense plant making bombs in an old converted washing machine factory.  I got out of school at 2:00P.M. and went to work from 3:00P.M. to 11:00P.M.  When the war ended, I had the opportunity to go to California.  My brother was living there and working in the construction business.  I went to be with him and his family and in 1946 I joined the Roofers Union.

In high school I attended excelsior High School for two years.  While in high school, I met my wife, Gerry and after 3 years of courtship we were married in January 1950.  Prior to our marriage, I was able to buy a residential lot and started building our first home in Bellflower.  Our first son, Mark was born in August 1951, our daughter, Toni was born in August of 1953 and our third child, Mike was born in January of 1956.  We lived in our first home for 38 years (I tell everyone that Gerry wanted a dinning room and by that time I needed a bigger garage).  Gerry always said she only wanted to make one more move between here and Heaven.  We purchased a vacant lot around the corner from our home, so Ken could store a lot of his old Model T’s, boat and motorcycle in an old barn that was still on the lot.  Because of Kens farming background, he raised cows, pigs and chickens on this vacant lot.  It became known as the K & G Ranch (or to the family – “ The Cow Yard”).  It was one block from our home and I spent a lot of time there.