Kendall Lee Shorkey and his Middle Class Origins

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I was born In Tawas City, Michigan in 1952. Our family lived straight across the highway U.S. 23 from my dad’s father who owned a lot on Lake Huron. This was nice as we got to go in the lake all the time.

I had a wonderful loving mother (Kendall maiden name) that was from a family of 16 siblings. I didn’t know at the time that a lot went to war (WWII) and all came back.  My uncle Bib was a tail gunner on a B-17 shot down and had to bail out over the Channel and spent 3 days floating toward the Atlantic till he was finally spotted.

I remember we lived there till I hit the 6th grade and I took piano lessons from a Miss Kukendorfer for at least 3 years of that, at a cost of $2.00 per lesson. (My mother loved Liberochi ) My dad never had a high school education because he was forced to load my grandfather’s dump trucks with sand with a scoop shovel. My father was a hard worker and was very strong, and strong minded. He was anything from a barber to mechanic or strong labor. I remember stories he told of unloading full boxcars (train) full of Mahogany for Anderson Coach Company.

About half the way thru 6th grade we moved to Bay City, Michigan. When we got there I remember asking my dad where we were allowed to play. He said straight across the street in the church parking lot, this lot was fully paved, so I asked what about if we fall. His reply was just don’t fall. All I could think about was how bad the ball would look if it got scuffed enough till it got ruined! We looked all around and there was no grass of any significance to play on, this was not going to be any fun! My mother wanted me to continue Piano lessons, but we couldn’t find a teacher that fit our budget, so that ended that.

Grades 6 thru 8 were taken at Washington grade school. We all had to take physical education, which I really liked because all the city kids seemed to be really weak! We had a setups contest in gym class and George Knob and I had a faceoff, we both could do over 200 setups each till Mr. Grant stopped us.  At this time I hated swimming because we all had to do it naked, and I was afraid of the deep end along with most kids that didn’t know how to swim. For 3 years I walked 6 blocks down and 1 block to the left to the school every morning, and every night back to our house. Today, that would be impossible as I was told by my youngest sister that walked to the High school got followed and harassed all the time till my parents sold the house and moved out to the country on Midland road.

Grades 9 thru 12 I had to walk 12 blocks at a diagonal one right one left till I got there, the same in reverse going home.  At that time my older brother wanted to do sports, and begged my parents to let him play sports. They finally gave in but said no contact sports, as they didn’t want any injuries to happen.  So, he was allowed to join the High school swim team, well I just started swimming and was not about to let him be the only one with freedom, so I was allowed to join also. I lettered as a freshman as the team backstroker. The next year, Mr. Manwell the coach changed me to the Butter flyer and as the years flew by I became a major competitor with many offers to go to College. My brain was so trained that work was the only way forward, I was not planning on taking any scholarship.

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That was my attitude and expectation in life; this was changed by my woodshop teacher Mr. Kanicki. He stood me up in front of the class my senior year and proceeded to tell the class that I was a total badass swimmer.  To say the least I was as embarrassed as hell, red faced and totally freaked he asked me what school I had chosen to go too. I told him I might go to a job at the truss company on river road we had visited in class, well that totally astounded him.  He proceeded to ask me to please reconsider and proposed that I at least try 1 semester and if I didn’t like it I could always quit and go to work.

I took Mr. Kanicki’s thought and ran with it. I was hooked, as I loved the freedom I had never had before. I thought at first I would die, as everything increased double. 100 yards was now 200 yards and sometimes turned out to be 400 yards. (Welcome to reality) I earned 4 All-Americans my freshman year and was off and running! (My record is listed below)

Freshman year 200 Individual medley 6th place, 400 Medley Relay 4thplace, 400 Individual Medley 5th place, 100 Butterfly 11thplace.

Sophomore year 400 Individual Medley 8th place, 400 Medley relay 11th place, 200 Individual Medley 4th place, 200 Butterfly 3rd place.

Junior year 200 Individual Medley 12th place, 100 Butterfly 11th place

Senior year 400 Individual Medley 8th place, 200 Butterfly 6th place, 800 freestyle relay 12th place

Total of 13 All Americans. I was rated #2 in the top finals in the 100 Butterfly in my senior year, and in swimming the worst you can do in the top final is 6th place. If you just fall in and swim and finish. I was disqualified for 2 false starts, I did what is called a flat heel start the second time which pretty much guarantees you being the last off the block! However in 8 years of swimming, I had never been disqualified for anything. The starter fired the gun once for each start, and called everyone back with 2 repeat shots yet they said I did it. (Not a word from my coach!)

I originally signed up for a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technology and after 2 years began to think I wanted something else so signed up for an Associate’s degree in X-Ray Technology but after finishing the bookwork in the next 2 years, the school dropped the internship and forced me to go back into Industrial Technology and that is how it finished. And I finished in 6 years rather than 4 with a 3.2 GPA.

I married my college girlfriend December of 1975 and lived in Married housing till I graduated end of summer classes of 1976. Had a hard time finding a job and in 1980 moved to Houston, Texas and started building residential Homes under my name being strictly a subcontractor to many builders. Pulte homes ended up being my favorite but it needed to be refined, so I went to Houston Community College in night classes to earn my Associates degree in Computer Aided Drafting. I would spend time every night drawing up every home I built to make building faster and more accurate. My wife thought I was wasting my education so I eventually moved out of building houses and got a job drafting for Compaq Computer Corporation. That lasted for 3 years and my wife was so upset at the cut in pay to be able to use my education that in 1990 she divorced me.

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In 1993 Compaq laid me off and so I moved to San Antonio to start up building Houses again with the guy that took over my framing business. It turned out that that was when I was the happiest and started enjoying life again. I was so distraught about my wife leaving that I didn’t date or do anything but build for 9 years without a mate. I really loved my 1st wife and learned the hard way that it’s not what you want that counts, because I was praying all the time for god to make her see that I loved her more than she knew, but that was not what god wanted. (Light finally comes on)

In 1999 I decided that Cher was not coming back, and I was not going to live alone any more. With the advent of the internet getting bigger I decided to try a dating service, $1400.00 later I was dating with a guarantee I would find someone. That was slow and difficult! The major discovery I found was that women that were divorced were total wrecks, not physically but mentally, and couldn’t realize they were rebounding and not taking their time and slowing down and looking carefully. And another thing I saw was that police officers were lying cheating bastards, almost all I dated were ex-cop wives!

In the 9 years I was waiting, I built my own house late in the evening and on the weekends until it was finally done, it only took me 4 years! But it was mine all the way until I made the mistake of taking out a mortgage to finish the kitchen. Back in 1996 this kitchen with just the cabinets was $10,000.00 but it was finally done, that’s with me doing all the work except the counters. I swore after letting my last house go in the divorce and bankruptcy after paying on it for 10 years I was never going to be involved with a bank again, but it happened.

The Bankruptcy was a result of a mistake the IRS said that I made and after sitting on it for 4 years they added penalties and fines on it totaling over $56,000.00 dollars and my X says that’s OK we can pay that? The error was me doing the taxes, from then on it was done by an accountant; the bankruptcy was from the 1986 mistake, it only took the IRS 4 years to find it. (My experience with the IRS) My wife at the time was an unemployed nurse had our 2nd baby in November of 1985 and was at home caring for the baby.

Second wife Kathy was Jewish and even though I was Christian we married in 1999 late. She was married once before also, had two children one boy, one girl. Everything was fantastic until 2005 when I was building a house and had to stop and sit down because I was dizzy. This turned out to be diagnosed as Atrial fibrillation that succeeded in stripping me of everything. Went to drafting jobs for $14.00 per hour and kept me employed for 1 year 359days and laid off because the boss didn’t want to pay my 2 weeks of paid vacation that 2 years would have gave me. The next job was Walker Engineering as an As Built drafter for the new Microsoft data center, and when that was done they transferred me to the new Marriot Convention center with attached Hotel, 3 golf courses, a Spa, and a waterpark. I had an offer to go to Oklahoma for another Data center but had to turn it down. The gaps between jobs turned to years and little by little we were going broke, which she didn’t like and then came the second divorce in 2008. This was about 6 months after her dad died, he had left both of us $365,000.00 equally split between us, and he must have known his daughter pretty well as she cleaned out the account and left.

 

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Well, what she didn’t know was that if it was split like that it was for the reason that neither got all the money,(Texas law) it had to be split. She went to paying off all her credit cards, using up about $60,000.00 of it. She pretty much left me penniless, and somewhere along the line she had managed to take my name off the house title. She in the meantime had landed a cushy job at the school test making center, retired from being a teacher and was the only one employed, making $70,000.00 per year salary. Once I got a lawyer and found all this out, I put in for ½ of her teacher retirement account, got ahold of the bank that had my mortgage and asked “how the hell does someone take a name off the title of the house I built?” and promptly said if this doesn’t get fixed, “I will own your Bank!” funny how that worked!

In the divorce settlement she was to get ½ of the house. So I said fine sell it! I explained to the judge that at the end of Obama’s era it might be worth $270,000.00 and taking away the realtors cut only $200,000.00 would be left to split, so I propose she gives my house back and I will let go her retirement! And that is how it ended, as she screamed down the hallway ”I thought you didn’t want the money”? I left quietly saying nothing back! She had to put back $150,000.00 keeping $155,000.00 for herself and the $60,000.00 she already had paying off her cards. Money is the root of all evil! This was the end of 2008.

Next mistake, this lasted to 2010 when I met Casey on another dating sight because nobody has this much bad luck with women! Great woman! To a fault, she loved her sons more than me because both had drug problems. That she conveniently forgot to tell me. I talked to her about Alaska but said your sons are not welcome there. She chose them! I had lost about $50,000.00 to her sons and had purchased a property close to Canyon Lake and knew I couldn’t keep it, so I gave it to her as a settlement. (It was worth $70,000.00 after I cleared it of all the scrub jack pines and left all the oaks.)

Late 2015 I sold the house I was supposed to retire into, and moved to Alaska with the help of my sister as I needed someone to drive the excursion with 3 dogs and I drove the truck with the RV. And she needed someone to watch her daughter as she finished her Mid-Wife training and apprenticeship. About half way thru 2016 I purchased 6 acres in Kasifof that had a 12 X 16 foot cabin on it, no water, no electric, and the lot turned out to be lower than what the Borough had indicated in their viewer, lots of water. I was planning to build 1 small last house. Then my youngest daughter showed up in Alaska to live with me. This changed things into a damn monster house for her and her daughter and me.

I am now stuck with this monster house as she decided to move closer to her job in Kenai and I rattle around inside this thing like a BB in a boxcar! Way too big but designed well with all I wanted, Solar, Water well, and Generator for power, and wood hot water heating, and domestic hot water heat.  The furnace outside heats the Domestic hot water.(doesn’t contaminate the domestic)When I lived with my sister and her family I finally got my disability I had to wait 4 years on this with a fibrillating heart that all knew was continuing to happen. Sad part is if I would have had the disability break for taxes on my house, I could have kept it!

 

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Now for the good news, in April of 2021 I had open heart surgery; Dr. Matthews replaced the mitral valve in my heart and installed my new pacemaker with the 14 year battery in it.( the old batteries only lasted 8 years.) Suddenly, my heart has no more fibrillation?? Miracle or Missed diagnosis? Now you know why I don’t like pharmacy companies or doctors! So you know that I will be a supporter of no Mandates! My plan if elected also will be term limits and make lobbying illegal!! Stop the kickbacks and lid the crime!

Another point, did any of you know that a heart operation now days is only $340,000.00 and that was just the Hospital, the doctor was another $52,000.00 which was worth every penny, just the doctor. As an additional expense Alaska heart for doing nothing got $500.00 for prescribing nasty meds that turned me into a zombie for at least 6 months until I requested they half them to make me feel human. Which they did, but now I halved them again with permission from my new doctor!

Live long and prosper!