I was looking for an investment.  One of the salesmen where Alice [his wife] worked was buying a farm  in Wisconsin.  He recommended buying a farm in Wisconsin

Alice and I drove up to Wisconsin to see his broker.  He took us to about five places.  He showed one on the Bad Axe river that had 200 acres.  The buildings were good  and the land could be rented.  He had another one near Avalanche that had been standing idle for a while.  I called him during the week and said that I would take the one with good buildings.  He said it had been sold.  He recommended I take another look at the one near Avalanche.  We drove up again.  The buildings were real bad.  I thought the best thing to do with them was a fire.  I loved the setting and the scenery and it was only $6,000.  I was always glad I did not buy  McDonalds stock.

[...]

It was the last of November 1947.  It was 240 miles to Chicago where we lived.  It was expressway and Hwy 14 except for the last ten miles.  We could see that we would make it up very much for a few months.  We got someone to clean it up and get the heat and pump.  It was not long before we could bring guests.  We brought up some of our old furniture and our friends contributed some of theirs.

[...]
I could write a dozen pages on every body who pitched in and helped us. they were a good bunch of mixed nationals.  Vernon County had a lot of personalities.  Near the Mississippi there was DeSoto and Genoa who were mostly Italians.  Further east was the Norwegians in Coon Valley and Westby.  Viroqua was a mixed bunch.  The Kickapoogens in Avalanche and LaFarge and Readstown were also a mixed bunch.  The east end of the county there were a lot of Bohemians.  North end of the county mostly German.  That is where some of the best polka bands in  the state came from.  My favorite music.