Where Are They Now? Family called (Allmaras) Nybo home

Sometimes parents have absolutely resourceful notions to offer their adult children. When 92-year-old Ted Allmaras suggested that his daughter Alison and her husband Dennis Nybo move back to New Rockford to live with him after Dennis was offered a management position at the Creel Bay Golf Course in Devils Lake, Alison had not even considered this idea. The couple has since realized the importance of coming home, and the arrangement of "living with Dad" is working out just fine.

Alison's mother Naomi passed away in 2013. Knowing that Ted was tired of living alone and understanding that he did not want to end up in the nursing home, Alison and Dennis agreed that moving in with Dad would be optimal for everyone involved. Dennis is okay with driving to his job each day, and Alison loves the fact that she can make it to her job as the Administrative Assistant for Eddy County Social Services in literally two minutes!

As the sixth of 10 children in a busy household, Alison was raised on a farm 8 miles west of New Rockford. Ted farmed and drove school bus, while Naomi tended to everything else in the house and yard. With so many jobs to do out on the farm, Alison was happy to mow the lawn, paint and shingle outbuildings or drive the farm machinery. "I preferred to be outside rather than inside; thus, I did not inherit the culinary and handicraft genes that all of my sisters have!" she jokes. She attended both Westside School and Central School, graduating in a class of 50 in 1982. Fond memories of teachers and classmates came to mind when Alison supplied information for this article. "A few of my favorite teachers were Mrs. Olson in Problems of Democracy (POD), Mr. Pieterick in driver's ed, Mrs. Rue as our class advisor and Mr. Kemmer in typing. Originally, I had wanted to be a teacher when I grew up just because I thought it would be so cool to write on the chalkboard, but in high school Mr. Kemmer suggested that I think about a secretarial career because I could type well and didn't have to look at the keys."

Alison took this advice and attended North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton to obtain her Associate's Degree as a Legal Secretary. After working for different lawyers in Rapid City, S.D., she decided to go back to college, this time at the University of North Dakota (UND). She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Education with a minor in Health Ed/Coaching. The work ethic that Alison acquired from her parents and high school activities may have prompted her to continue this education. She was involved in band and choir, was a football and basketball cheerleader and played on the girls' basketball team. She enjoyed the fun times at practices and games as well as teaming up with her driver's ed partner Rita (Gisi) Lewton to worry Harry Pieterick a few times!

One of the most stellar aspects of high school, though, did not take place in the classroom, on the court or in a car on the road. It occurred through a part-time job at the Dairy Queen that Alison held during all of her high school years. She loved working with her co-workers Annette (Broin) Duda, Jeanette (Broin) Perleberg, Merritt (Greene) Engels, Janine (Gedrose) Anderson and Karen (Christianson) Omoth. Alison says, "One of the great perks of working there was that you got to take home all of the leftover ice milk at the end of the night. That is still the best stuff!"

When asked to list other memories of New Rockford, Alison remembered her frequent times at the swimming pool with her friend and neighbor Karen (Hitz) Thompson; stopping at Frank's gas station for snacks; working at area events in Poppa Wishinsky's "whooptie wagon" as Ted used to call it (cousin Caroline and Alison were flabbergasted when they served Barbara Mandrell at the Wells County Fair!); shopping for clothes, shoes and bikes at the popular stores of Skogmo's, Busy Bee, Johnson's and Coast to Coast; and the many years of playing softball. Alison has played the game for more than 30 years wherever she has lived, and she still keeps in touch with many of her former teammates.

Alison has worked at many different jobs, full- and part-time, throughout the years. She has been a legal secretary, substitute teacher, waitress and bartender, office assistant, golf course attendant and currently, an administrative assistant. Her most interesting job was office assistant for the City of Bismarck Fleet Services, where she worked for almost 24 years. Duties for this job included picking up and delivering equipment parts, driving police cars to car dealerships for repairs, pulling a hot oil tank for the street patching crew and helping at the command center during the Bismarck flood. Because the job activities were so different from day to day, this employment was enjoyable; however, Alison's most fun job was driving the beer cart for the Tom O'Leary Golf Course in Bismarck. She laughs, "What a great gig! I was paid to meet new people, get a tan and have fun!"

Eager to help out her husband at Creel Bay Golf Course, Alison will continue to work on her tan and people skills. Dennis hails from Grand Forks. After graduating from Grand Forks Central, he earned a degree in parks and recreation from UND. Dennis moved back to North Dakota after working in Chicago for a time and settled in Bismarck. Dennis met Alison through mutual friends who played coed softball and volleyball. He was a softball umpire, and he eventually "tried," as Alison puts it, coaching her women's softball team. "We have played a lot of softball, volleyball and golf together," Alison says. The couple will celebrate 15 years of marriage in October. Prior to taking the job in Devils Lake, Dennis had worked for the Bismarck Parks and Recreation District for 28 years.

Obviously, family and friends are extremely important to Alison. A favorite part of living in New Rockford again is that she can sit in the bleachers or stand out at the football field to watch her nephew Teddy, who will be a NR-S senior this fall, play sports and perform musically. Another treat is to spend time with her college roommate and best friend Sheryl Carlson. Alison's two stepsons live fairly close. Jace is 25 years old, and he is attending chiropractic school at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, Minn. Last August, Jace was married to Morgan, who is an oncology registered nurse at Abbott Northwestern. Majoring in Special Education at the University of Jamestown is 20-year-old Bryce. Both Jace and Bryce played soccer for the Jimmies while attending UJ. Interestingly enough, Bryce works at Tom O'Leary Golf Course in the summers.

With three (Arthur, Alison, and Linus) having New Rockford mailing addresses, one (Louise) living in Minnesota, two (Roger and Dominic) residing in the state of North Dakota, another three (Garth, Gertrude, and Zona) in Arizona, and one (Beth) in Nevada, the Allmaras siblings are only a drive or a phone call away from one another. As did her brothers and sisters, Alison learned many life lessons from her parents. "I learned from them that a little hard work never hurt anyone; I learned the importance of having unending faith; if you are going to do something, do it right; and if you can't afford it, you probably don't need it," Alison says. Her dedication to staying active is derived from her almost-93-year-old father who takes walks nearly every single day.

In looking ahead to the future, Alison feels that when she gets old, she hopes that she will have "that one friend who will hop in the car with me and drive around in the alleys picking rhubarb and lilacs" like her mother Naomi and dear friend Ramona would do! Ramona was married to Gerard (Ardie) Allmaras, Ted's cousin, and passed away only six months after Naomi.

New Rockford does have its share of lilacs, rhubarb and alleys to investigate, so if a car is heading very slowly by your back yard, it just might be Alison and a friend. If you ask, I'm sure she will tell you, that she simply wants to take some rhubarb and lilacs home for her dad!