Friday, March 29, 2024
Photo by Wayne Hendrickson Dale Jensen has lived in Dodge Center most of his life where he has been active in the community including serving on the Triton School Board.

Dale Jensen enjoys small-town living in Dodge Center

Dale Jensen grew up in Dodge Center with four brothers and five sisters and attended the Dodge Center school. He participated in football, wrestling, and baseball while in school and graduated in 1981. Even though he was more successful wrestling at the 119 lb. weight class as a senior, he still enjoyed playing football being on the B squad teams and a varsity reserve despite his light weight.

A highlight for Dale at age 12, was when he showed a pony, owned by Roger Johnson, (who lived north of Dodge Center), at area horse shows and showing in the halter class. He would work for local farmers baling hay and picking rocks so that was his exposure to farm life activities. Each fall Dale would go deer hunting with his dad and uncles.

After graduation from high school, Dale joined a pipeline crew, working in the Williston, N.D. area. After being there for about a year he decided to return back home as he felt doing this type of work and being gone so much that he would be giving up too much time to raise a family. Dale said it is really important to be there for your children from birth to five years old and from age 12 to 16 years in their life.

In 1984 he married Tammy (Brossard), a Kasson-Mantorville grad. She came from a family of 13 and Dale always thought he would have a family of six children, and they exceeded expectations as they have eight!

Tammy worked at local nursing homes and other area businesses, and for the past several years is now working at Mayo in the surgery area.

In 1982, Dale started at Greene Doors in Dodge Center, working in the shop welding frames, and also making deliveries to job construction sites. The work hours fit well for their family as his wife worked a lot of the opposite shifts so they did not need to hire day care for their large family. For several years, Dale also painted many barns in the Dodge Center area with his sons. Dale continued to work at Greene Doors, and about 10 years ago the company was sold to Johnson Hardware Company from Omaha. He has been in the same shop for almost 40 years building steel door frames, working with steel doors and other projects for contractors for new and remodeled construction.

When their children enrolled in school, Dale started working with the youth wrestling program, and later was one of the volunteer assistant wrestling coaches for the Triton team for about 10 years. He later was hired by the booster club and then the school district as one of the assistant Triton coaches.

He would go along to the matches throughout the season. He really enjoyed being part of the wrestling program, but finally after over 20 years the program changed direction and he was replaced. He does miss being part of the program and working with kids, but other priorities are also important.

Many youth attend sports camps and join teams throughout the summer, but Dale feels sometimes parents push their children into activities too often. We only have so many summers to enjoy our kids growing up so unless they really like spending their time in a gym, why not do other things the family would also enjoy.

When Dale attended a Triton school committee meeting, he did not like some of the activities and discussion that evening, and decided to put his name in for the upcoming school board election. He has now served on the Triton school board for the past 20 years and was just recently elected for another four-year term. Dale said he does not spend any time or money campaigning for the board position which was again true in 2022.

He used to get more phone calls from area residents, and many times it was about extra-curricular issues at the school. He prefers to talk to people face to face on school issues, and even though they may not agree, they do find out each other’s positions on the problem during their discussion. Dale would like to see the school lunch program expanded with no cost to the students since Triton has a larger percentage compared to many schools that qualify for the program. Dale said when he was a student, eating the school lunch was many times the only meal he might get that day and feels there are many students that also are in that same position as he was. He would also like to see how student cell phones could be handled better during the school day.

Each October, the Jensen’s travel to South Dakota to take part in the Crazy Horse Marathon race in the Black Hills area. Several family members also come along to stay in area cabins, and some have taken part in the race, and they have seen many of the tourist sites in this area. They have taken a couple of road trips to Florida and family members have also come along. They didn’t start doing this for years as it was hard to do with their large family. On one Florida trip he went out deep sea fishing, and he caught a Tiger Shark so that was a highlight on this adventure.

Dale hunted deer again this fall with his oldest son and 2two grandsons. His grandson Jaxon got a buck while Garet bagged a doe and Dale was also able to get a doe.

Several years ago he remodeled an old steel grain wagon to use as a deer stand in a field and he uses that at times. Dale used to do some pheasant hunting, but the numbers seem to be getting so low that he doesn’t do this anymore. This year his family is planning on getting a pontoon boat to use on a local lake which family members could also enjoy.

Dale started watching some of the Vikings games on TV again this fall and since one of his grandsons plays hockey, he has attended a couple of Wild games in person and has started following the sport. He has been spending time remodeling the house they moved onto their property south of Dodge Center several years ago.

His kids have said, “why didn’t you do more of this when we were still living there,” but he will tell them “I didn’t have the time or the money at that time.”

He has made some steel framed screen doors for businesses, and also developed a punch tool for steel frames for contractors of which he has sold a few, but may do more marketing exposure with the help of his more computer savvy children.

The Jensen’s have 12 grandchildren and Dale said they soon will add more to that number. He enjoys spending time with his grandchildren as many of them also live nearby. Dale has lived in the Dodge Center area for almost all of his life and he really enjoys being in a small-town setting as it gives him a chance to get to know his neighbors and he feels it is a safe place to raise kids. He wants to make sure to live each day to the fullest for family and others as there is no guarantee there will be a tomorrow for any of us!

 

 

Dodge County Independent

Dodge County Independent
Dodge County ADvantage
301 S. Mantorville Ave.
Plaza 57 • Suite 200
Kasson, MN 55944

Dodge County Printing
301 S. Mantorville Ave.
Plaza 57 • Suite 200
Kasson, MN 55944

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