Father to the rescue
During a hot summer evening of 1951, my brother Dale and I learned something new about our dad.
We found out he could be both brave and tough.
With our 1942 International ton-and-half truck, we had taken a M Farmall tractor to Fort Dodge for repairs on the hydraulic system. It was left at the repair shop for an anticipated several days to a week.
On our way home through downtown Fort Dodge in a rather rundown residential area, we noticed a fistfight between some good-sized teenagers.
Three boys were beating a smaller kid who had an arm in a sling.
When Dad noticed the fight, he immediately stopped the truck in the middle of the street — causing traffic from behind to pile up — and entered the fight.
Right away, the three young boys doing the punching fled and, to our surprise, Dad took after them. After running a block or so, Dad gave up on the chase and went back to help the kid lying on the sidewalk.
At that time, Dad stood about 6 feet 2 inches and weighed around 240 pounds.
Years earlier, he had experienced fighting with drunks when he was a streetcar ticket taker in Minneapolis following his Navy discharge from World War I in 1918.
Lyle Spencer grew up near Churdan and graduated from Lohrville High School in 1949.
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