Life Story of Rickard Earl Ward

Chapter 1 - My Name is not Richard!

  • The name Rickard is the Scandinavian variant form of Richard.

Chapter 2 - I Was Born in a Ski Lodge

  • It sounds like Grandpa Norris ended up in Sun Valley, Idaho just by taking jobs as they came until he was offered work at the lodge there.
    • “I won a few bets. There were people in Sun Valley that believed that I wouldn’t go through with the marriage.” - Norris Earl Ward on his marriage

Chapter 3 - Hall’s Cabins - My First Home (1955-56)

  • I didn’t know Norris’s parents died when he was young
  • They lived and worked at a ski lodge but didn’t ski

Chapter 4 - My First House (1957-1961)

  • Sue was born in 1957 so it was time for a bigger place
  • They moved out of the cabin and into a little house on 4th Street East and Walnut Avenue
  • Grandpa loved baseball an he pitched for the Sun Valley fast-pitch softball team for many years
    • Every summer they drove or took the train to Richfield, Utah to visit Grandma Jeri’s parents
    • Grandma and Grandpa worked for Sun Valley which was owned by UP Railroad so they got cheap tickets
    • Dad attended kindergarten in a Quonset hut in Sun Valley behind the Challenger Inn

Chapter 5 - First Through Eighth Grade Years (1961-1968)

  • Ketchum Grade School
  • In 1st grade Dad accidentally stepped on the foot of the new girl Conchita Gonzales so she slapped him in the face
  • “One day I was outside the school at recess and we were playing a game where you would link arms shoulder to shoulder in threes. You would then say ‘hay, hay, get out of my way, I just got back from the USA’ and then run into other threesomes. We ran into each other and I fell to the ground and heard my lower right leg break. I yelled “I broke my leg”. The teachers came running and sure enough my leg was broken.” - Dad in 2nd grade
    • His mom was the operator who took the call for the ambulance but had no idea it was for her sun until she got home from work
    • That’s why his right shoulder is a bit lower! His right leg is slightly shorter than his left
  • In 3rd grade his teacher wasn’t afraid of using the paddle or whacking kids on the knuckles with a ruler
  • Grandma would take Dad and his siblings to church but Grandpa wouldn’t attend
    • He did help build the church though
  • Dad was baptized in the Sun Valley branch on August 3, 1963
    • I was baptized in the same place about 34 years later
  • They used to get so much snow he’d jump off the roof into it
  • Dad and his friends would have fun hooky-bobbing
    • One time Dad and his friend Rob were hanging onto a Jeep and Rob accidentally took out the trailer hitch lights when he fell off
    • The drive found them and punched Rob in the face
  • In 5th grade they moved to a bigger house at the base of Knob Hill in Ketchum
  • In 1964 when Dad was around 9 UP Railroad sold the Sun Valley resort to the Janss Corporation who proceeded to lay most people off and bring in their own people from California
    • Grandma and Grandpa both lost their jobs
  • Their dogs had free roam of the town during the day
    • Pepper didn’t come home one day and they think a sheepherder shot her
    • Scruffy was attacked by a big dog and died a few days later
  • Dad started wearing 1st and 5th grade
  • The city of Ketchum started off as a mining town called Leadville
  • Dad went to the Sun Valley Opera House to see “The Alamo” with John Wayne
    • He met John Wayne at the lodge when he was a boy and had to stand on a crate to shake his hand
  • Dad was waiting in the car and touched his Dad’s fishing pole that had an automatic reel
    • He got a fish hook through his little finger and had to go to the emergency room
  • One of the kids in his 8th grade class was Margot Hemingway the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway
    • Hemingway stayed in the Sun Valley Lodge in 1939 to finish his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls and eventually committed suicide in Ketchum in 1961
  • Also in 8th grade he ran against some of the 9th graders from the nearby high school and beat them all with a 5 minute mile

Chapter 6 - High School Years (1969-1973)

The Eye of the World - Book One of ‘The Wheel of Time’ book

Title
The Eye of the World
Subtitle
Book One of ‘The Wheel of Time’
Authors
Robert Jordan
Publisher
Macmillan
Published Date
1990-01-15
Pages
670
Language
en
Categories
Fiction
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9780312850098
Isbn10
0312850093
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Relates a tale of the bestial Trollocs, the witch Moiraine, and three boys, one of whom is fated to become the Dragon–the World’s only hope and the sure means of its destruction

Catch-22 - A Novel book

Title
Catch-22
Subtitle
A Novel
Authors
Joseph Heller
Publisher
Simon and Schuster
Published Date
1999-10-05
Pages
415
Language
en
Categories
Fiction
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9780684865133
Isbn10
0684865130
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Presents the contemporary classic depicting the struggles of a U.S. airman attempting to survive the lunacy and depravity of a World War II base. I think it might be a good example of absurdism, but I’m not sure.

The Descent - a novel book

Title
The Descent
Subtitle
a novel
Authors
Jeff Long
Publisher
Crown Publishers
Published Date
1999
Pages
450
Categories
Devil, Scientific expeditions, Linguists, Voyages to the otherworld
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9780609602935
Isbn10
0609602934
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For the Love of Men - From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity book

Title
For the Love of Men
Subtitle
From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity
Authors
Liz Plank
Publisher
St. Martin’s Griffin
Published Date
Feb 02, 2021
Pages
336
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9781250757203
Isbn10
1250757207
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I don’t like to analyze myself, because I might not like what I see. — Donald Trump

The most effective tool to bring about gender equality is addressing toxic masculinity.

Testosterone increases status raising behavior. That typically involves competitive behavior but competition does not automatically culminate in violence.

When I refer to society or culture I’m talking about the United States and similar cultures unless specifically stated otherwise.

Our society expects, encourages, and rewards violent or aggressive behavior in men and so when men try and raise their status they will turn to physical intimidation, dominance, and violence.

What if we didn’t reward that behavior but instead rewarded and expected kindness, vulnerability, and empathy? If that behavior raised your status then testosterone would lead to those behaviors.

The book also mentions how higher levels of testosterone doesn’t lead to higher proclivity towards violence. It’s the opposite. Violent confrontation, or non-violent but competitive confrontation, will increase a man’s level of testosterone.

The Faith of Beasts book

Title
The Faith of Beasts
Authors
James S. A. Corey
Publisher
Orbit
Published Date
Apr 14, 2026
Pages
448
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9780316525671
Isbn10
0316525677
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Leviathan Wakes book

Title
Leviathan Wakes
Authors
James S. A. Corey
Publisher
Orbit Books
Published Date
2011-15-06
Pages
577
Categories
Space warfare, Fiction, Interplanetary voyages, Conspiracies
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9780316129084
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Why
You list Corey as a favorite — this is the first Expanse novel, a propulsive space-opera mystery that scratches the same big-canvas sci-fi itch as ‘The Faith of Beasts.’

Slaughterhouse-Five book

Title
Slaughterhouse-Five
Authors
Kurt Vonnegut
Publisher
Delta Trade Paperbacks
Published Date
1999-01
Pages
288
Categories
American science fiction, bombing of Dresden, Open Library staff picks, military fiction
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9780385333849
Isbn10
0385333846
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Why
Since you rated ‘Catch-22’ 5/5, this is the other great absurdist war satire — same dark, anti-war humor with a speculative time-slipping twist.

The Fisherman book

Title
The Fisherman
Authors
John Langan
Publisher
Word Horde
Published Date
2016-06-30
Pages
282
Categories
Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Lovecraftian
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9781939905215
Isbn10
1939905214
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Our Share of Night - A Novel book

Title
Our Share of Night
Subtitle
A Novel
Authors
Mariana Enríquez
Publisher
Crown/Archetype
Published Date
2023
Categories
Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9780451495150
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Embassytown - A Novel book

Title
Embassytown
Subtitle
A Novel
Authors
China Miéville, China Miville
Publisher
Del Rey
Published Date
Jan 31, 2012
Pages
368
Categories
Fiction, Space warfare, Human-alien encounters, Loyalty
Print Type
BOOK
Isbn13
9780345524508
Isbn10
0345524500
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