Clarence F. Dralle served in the U.S. Army from July 1918 to July 1919. Stationed in Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium, he participated in the deadly Meuse-Argonne Offensive, in which American soldiers drove back the Germans shortly before the armistice ending World War I.

After the war, Dralle, my father, married Hulda Johnson in South Dakota. They had 14 children. Times were tough, so in 1947 they pulled up stakes and followed an older daughter to Bellingham.

My father had bought a 1946 Chevrolet and loaded it down with five of the older kids still at home and headed west. We stayed with my older sister, Marjorie Haines and all went to work in the berry fields in Whatcom County. My dad drove back to South Dakota, had a big farm sale and moved the remaining three children and my mother to Bellingham.

Dad went to work for Ted Flotre driving the berry bus, and my parents bought a house just south of Fairhaven Park. The following year, Dad got a job working for Charlie Larrabee doing maintenance and whatever needed to be done. Dad always said Charlie was a good man to work for. Dad passed away in 1975.

Amy Duffield lives in Colville.