As one of the final projects of the year, 7th graders at Erie Middle School were challenged to pick an ancestor, or someone else that they could research and learn more about, in order to write a story telling about their life. Students conducted interviews with family members, and some were able to gather additional resources and pictures to help tell their story. While there were many great stories written, not all will be published.
This project was a collaborative effort between students’ history classes, with Mrs. Kruthoff and Mr. Armstrong, English class, with Mrs. Wolf, and their families. It was inspired by the original project that long-time English teacher, Mrs. Wiersema, made a tradition in her 8th grade class.
Students enjoyed getting to know more about their families, and many were surprised to learn how interesting their families were. We hope you all will enjoy their stories, too!
Gregory James Thies
- Wyatt Oszfolk
- Ms. Shabani
- 4th hour
- 5/1/2024
Imagine having some of life’s challenges stay with you for the rest of your life. Well, Gregory James Thies does. He has an interesting life. My surprisingly happy friend spent his childhood hunting. He was a man of service. My mellow friend is enjoying retirement in his cabin relaxing. Gregory is self-sufficient because he taught himself how to hunt, joined the Navy in his twenties, still stays in shape and makes sure to himself that he has a healthy body, and he has done things to help and serve his country well.
First, his full name is Gregory James Thies. He goes by the short name Greg. He was born on December 22, 1962. His birth place is Clintonville, Wisconsin. His parents’ names are Mary and John Thies. Gregory had no siblings and grew up as an only child. His favorite memory as a child was hunting. While he was hunting, he had a run in with a deer charging at him, but he moved out of the way in time. My wild friend grew up hunting, trapping and fishing. A sample of extra information was that he was good in the school system grade wise. Moreover, he got into some fights in school.
Gregory has caught many small animals while hunting. My lively friend used to ride his bike all around town until the streetlights came on and always tried to find something different while doing it. His buddies and him had this small secret fishing spot that they always came to. Sometimes they could catch some big fish like bass.
Next, in his adult life, he got married to Audrey in the middle of his thirties. He was out of service at this point. His marriage to Audrey was his only marriage for twenty-four years. They enjoyed many things together and made many memories as they explored many places together in those twenty-four years. Although, he had no children in the entire time of his marriage but still made it in a way so that he could still be happy.
The job that he had for most of his life was working in a machine shop indoors with no air conditioning, while being careful not to cut or scrape himself with the equipment that they had. My war scarred friend’s military branch was the Navy. While he was in the Navy, he was able to go on the USS Forrestal – after it was repaired, he was able to work on gunships, mine tenders, and worked on the phalanx CIWS.
Additionally, his favorite things are lobster tacos and Samoyed dogs. An interesting fact is he killed a 350 black bear with a ravin crossbow. My business man friend also owned multiple companies that earned him a lot of money throughout his life. Although his house did burn down, he does not know what happened that made it burn. Finally, he earned many medals from his time in the Navy while serving and protecting the country.
His later life years were also interesting. I do not know where or if he moved away from his birthplace. My worthy friend’s achievements were that he was able to do many things and even survive a major injury from being in the Navy. He had no long life friends, they either died or are not in touch anymore. In his retirement, he mainly just watches tv and tries to relax after his long life. Even more, his advice for the future generations is “If you wanna do something you better do it right.”
Some extra things that he has told me is that he has a lot of bows and bear traps at his home that he tinkers with. He is always trying to relax to the maximum he can, while making good fries. He often sees deer outside in his backyard everywhere at any time. He still stays in shape by working out by doing cardio, like taking walks often and sometimes weights from fifteen pounds to sometimes twenty and twenty-five pounds. My strong willed friend is self-employed from his home and trying to start his own mini business. Gregory is a Renaissance man meaning he has learned how to do many things during his life and is still putting those skills to good use in his life right now.
My work was to let the people know and also let people know more about him and I have even learned that Gregory had a hard life and difficult experience. I also see that Gregory knows things that I might never know in my life and been places that I will never be able to go to. I feel closer because knowing all these things let me know how he was during his life and his experiences that he went through. The life lesson that I have learned from this is that if you put enough effort into your life you can relax later in it.
I feel like this was a bit too personal for people to know about your family’s or family friends’ life. If you take the time to learn about someone, you will learn a lot of stories about the equipment they used along with their personal little tales about what they went through, or what they had to experience. The many things that one person can do in their lifetime could change the people around them on a greater scale or on a small scale, but he still made things better for the Navy and the world in some parts of it. I think that Gregory must have a lot of P.T.S.D. from being in the Navy and having to possibly kill someone during his time in that branch of the military and muscle memory from his training during that time.
Gregory is self-sufficient because he taught himself how to hunt, joined the navy in his twenties, and he still stays fit and has done many great things. Gregory was a function in the navy that worked on one of the best anti air units like the phalanx CIWS, while being at sea. My hard working friend was a child that was a hunting fanatic and always loved going out and hunting whenever he could and could run around wild like a wild jumping spider.
In conclusion, even in his old age he still exercises to keep his body in peak health, and also being careful not to pressure his body too much. I never expected that he had done all this in his life, or what he worked on in the navy or any of the accommodations that he had gotten while in the navy. I want to be able to interview more people like this and learn about their life stories and each part of it.
