Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The late Bill Seal's life before '65

William Charles Seal, 59, Minneapolis, formerly of Alexandria, died suddenly on Tuesday, September 2, 2008, the obituary read. We posted it here and hoped classmates might fill us in with more.
Bill was a proud father of four, veteran of the Vietnam War – 101st Airborne Unit, accomplished writer, and religiously devoted, the obituary continues.
He was preceded in death by his daughter, Margaret; and his father, Glendon.
Survivors include his children, Elizabeth, Glendon (Amy) and William Jr.; former wife of 34 years, Carol; and his mother, Phyllis.
A memorial service was held Sept. 9 at Cremation Society of Minnesota, 7110 France Avenue South, Edina; (952) 924-4100. Interment was at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
That's all we had on Bill's life, until today, when Cub Reporter Tom Obert sat down to complete an assignment. Here it is:

On a recent perusal of the blog, I realized I had not yet written in about Bill "Julio" Seal.
We called him Julio in Victoria Heights because, for whatever reason (a shared left-handed zaniness?), his favorite ball player at the time was Julio Becquer, an obscure utility infielder for the Minnesota Twins.
I wanted to write about Bill because, for at least a couple years in my youth, he was my best friend. Bill was two years younger than me, but he was one of two kids in the neighborhood who had skipped a grade (George Henry Johnston IV was the other).
We spent many a day in the Seal household playing the wonderful board games of the time - "Easy Money," and "Money, Money, Money" are two that come to mind. And we spent many a day playing baseball on the field where homeplate was kitty-corner from Bill's house. I mentioned Bill was a leftie, and as such he had a first baseman's mitt - I believe it was a legal requirement at the time that lefties could only play first base. But Bill loved to pitch in our pick-up games, and he always threw too hard. We couldn't call him on that, however, because of the macho factor - so every time you made contact with a fast, weird-southpaw-movement-Julio pitch, it stung like crazy.
One of my most vivid fishing memories is of Bill's dad, Glen, on the Lake Victoria landing, about a half block from their house. It was at night, the lake was like glass, and there was a full moon - in other words, a beautiful Minnesota summer evening. Glen began casting from shore with a huge bassarino - for walleyes, he said. Now I was enough of a fisherman, I thought, to know that you still fished walleye in deep water - and that we kids often cast fished from shoreline, but for bass.
Well, it wasn't long before all hell broke loose - a big walleye had broken the dead calm of the lake like a tarpon! After Glen reeled in that beauty, I learned there was more than one way to catch a walleye. Then I guess we all got too old to play anymore. I have no memories of Bill through high school - and I never saw him again after I graduated. A search of the copious Obert family photo files revealed no pictures of Bill - and my visual memory of him has clouded over time.
So, I was wondering if anyone has any photos of Bill and/or could fill me in about his life after Victoria Heights?