Pals is a story of my friendship with four boys and one girl from an impoverished area in Dubuque, Iowa known as the North End. That friendship has lasted more than fifty years. It begins in the late 1950's and ends in present day. It's a story about the respect, admiration and adventure seeking two grown men experience together. You'll find success from conflict, laughter from pranks and tears from loss. It's My Story.

As kids, we drank from water hoses, we were held back in school if we did not meet the standards and we rode bicycles without helmets. There was lead in our painted cribs and lead in our gasoline. We believed in our President and Congress. If we were spanked at school we were spanked at home. We could buy cigarettes for our parents at the neighborhood grocery store as long as we had a written note. Some of these stores delivered groceries to our houses. The doctor would come to our homes, as did the milkman and the iceman, who would deliver ice in blocks for the icebox.

We tried out for baseball and not everyone was chosen to play. Boys were taught not to cry. There was one bathtub for families as large as seventeen kids. Bras were worn on the outside of clothing during television commercials and armpits could not be exposed during deodorant commercials.

You'll learn how I changed the ways American businesses operate. Baby Boomers will be taken back to a more simple time and younger generations will read with disbelief. Kick back and enjoy the life and times of David Nelson Nelson! Yes, folks the name is not a misprint. My name at birth was David Nelson Salzmann. My parents divorced, Ma married my step-dad with the last name of Nelson. He adopted me and the rest is history.