We Had Fun…When All We Did Was Work with Edward Klamm Sr.

Pages: 158, Printing: Johnson Printing, Editing: Marjorie Toensing

Introduction

Elaine, my wife and business partner, passed away on June 25, 2018. We met through our jobs at a St. Paul candy company in 1943, married in 1946, had our first of eight children the following year, and founded our own business, Ed Klamm Plumbing, in 1951; it is still going strong today. Elaine did all the bookwork, handled the phone calls, raised our children, designed our home in Burnsville, where we moved in 1957, took care of my mother in her later years, and remained chairman of our company until her death. Elaine was a darling, just like her mother. All we did was work—that’s what our generation did—but boy, did we have fun. I am ninety-one, and I miss Elaine so much. Since her passing, I’ve taken time to think back on our lives together, and the idea for this book came to me. I’ve led an interesting life. Much of it has been good; more than I wish hasn’t been so good. I lost trust in my three sons, Ed Jr., Bob, and Joe. I contacted Michael Ransom to help write my stories the way things happened. That’s all I want to do. I told him not to sugarcoat anything, and he hasn’t. My purpose in writing this book is to prove that a person with only an eighth-grade education but an aptitude for “working with pipe” can start a business, include his family, and work with them to have it succeed. I’ve been honest and trusting (maybe too trusting) my whole life, so I’ve intentionally included stories in the book of things that have and haven’t worked out so well. You’ll see there are a few broken relationships in my family. I don’t expect this book to help mend any or all of them, but if it did, wouldn’t that be great?