Photo by Charlie M. Hartman Bob Mielke has had a good life, with many accomplishments to be proud of. “I want to live another twenty years,” said 84 year-old Bob.

good life. He took an early retirement at age 55 from Kraft Foods after putting in 37 years with the company. Now he spends his days playing cards and having coffee with friends. He loves to sing — Christmas songs in German are his favorite. He is a member of the Concord Singers.

Born in Lafayette township in 1941, Mielke and his family moved to a farm north of Courtland in 1948.

“I can still remember our dad moving our things with the horses,” said Mielke.

The oldest in a family of five children, Mielke, still misses his farming days.

“When my dad got sick with arthritis, I did most of the farming myself. I had two uncles that helped. I had corn and soybeans. And then my dad had a recovery and helped again,” said Mielke.

He attended Immanuel Lutheran Church for grade school and graduated in 1959 from Nicollet High School. When he started at Kraft, in 1959, he made $1.93 an hour. He bought a Ford 1962 Galaxy 500 for $2,700 and by 1979 moved to a home up by the New Ulm golf course. He was promoted to operations supervisor after working his way through the ranks at Kraft.

“I valued my job. I had 18 years perfect attendance,” said Mielke.

He joined the U.S. Army in 1962 when things didn’t work out with a girl he liked. To him, it seemed like a good time to enlist, and Kraft held his spot while he was gone.

“I spent 33 months working at the Pentagon working with the CIA. I was 21 when I went to basic training. During that time, I was at JFK’s funeral; we witnessed the whole works. We were put on alert. I got out in 1965 because Vietnam was kicking up then,” said Mielke.

After returning to New Ulm, he found love again, but this time it would last a lifetime. “I took out my wife’s sister first, and that didn’t pan out. Shirley caught my eye, and we started dating for two years and then we got married. We’ve been married for 58 years,” said Mielke.

In 1973, he joined the National Guard here in town and stayed with it for 30 years. During that time, he mostly fingerprinted people and ran reports.

While working for Kraft and working at the National Guard, he took on a third job as a school bus driver. He drove it for 38 years, wherein, he hauled mostly sports teams.He and Shirley had one daughter, Missy Mielke, who has since graduated college with a master’s and moved out of state.

“My marriage was one of my happiest moments of my life. The best times we got along was in the beginning of our marriage,” said Mielke. “I value my sobriety and my religion. I sing in the church choir, and I sing with the Concord Singers. If things don’t go right, you sing a song. I sing the second bass; I have a deep bass voice. I just love singing with the Concord Singers,” said Mielke.

“I’m proud of the things I’ve done and accomplished,” said Mielke