Ted Ridder grew up in Quincy, IL a few miles upriver from Hannibal, MO. He loved both the river and Mark Twain's stories about it. After working his way through Quincy College and graduating with honors in 1966, he enrolled in a clinical psychology program at Western Mich. Univ. His graduate study was interrupted by military service in 1968. Ted completed Officer Training School and was commissioned a lieutenant in the US Air Force. Following advanced training in munitions maintenance, he had the good fortune to draw orders for a three-year assignment to Bitburg Air Base in Germany rather than a tour in Vietnam. He was honorably discharged as a captain in May 1972. By then he was married and returned with his wife Cindy to Kalamazoo, MI, to finish his graduate work. After attaining certification as a school psychologist, he accepted a position in Ionia County, MI, that continued for 30 years. During his tenure, he was elected president and chief negotiator for the local teachers' union and later president of the Michigan Association of School Psychologists. He authored a chapter in a desk reference guide published by the National Association of School Psychologists under the title Children's Needs: Psychological Perspectives. Ted and his wife Cindy, a science teacher, both retired in 2002 and still live in Ionia, MI. Ted's been a serious tennis player for 40 years but decided that the robust nature of the Covid virus might make 2020 a good year to pause that activity. With time on his hands, he wrote the first story in this book and found people enjoyed it. So, he wrote a few more. Cindy critiques and edits everything he writes and drew the cartoon on the front cover of the book. They both enjoy photography, bird-watching, mysteries, music, cats, and Rick Steves' European travel videos which bring back memories of their life in Europe.