He would also journey through the woods collecting bugs and examining different types of wood, and would often sit by the Mississippi for periods of time. Charles did have responsibility for some household chores as well, one of them being he had to fill the icebox with ice. His mind was always working and he constructed a way of moving the ice around, which later in his life he wrote about in a book for the Minnesota Historical Society." (Randolph) .
When Charles was eight his mother enrolled him in a school in Washington, but he wasn't an attentive student. He never finished a full academic year and attended eleven different schools over a period of ten years. This was due to his family moving around so frequently. "Later in Charles's teen years, he and his mother drove out to California where they took up a small cottage at Redondo Beach, where Charles was enrolled in the local high school." (Randolph) Evangeline soon discovered her mother was seriously ill with cancer. Evangeline and Charles quickly moved out to the East to spend the winter at the farm. WWI was taking place at this time and Charles Jr. took complete authority over the management of the farm while his mother attended her mother. He found he couldn't attend school and run the farm all at the same time. The government shortly announced that because of the food shortages every farm needed to produce an abundance of crops. With this announcement, Charles was able to drop out of school and still get credit for the time out of school.
Though Charles was never a good student in his younger years, he did attend college at the University of Wisconsin. When he finally graduated, Charles enlisted into the Air Corps Reserve as a cadet and was soon moved up to second lieutenant. This is where he got most of his flying experience and training. "Later Charles and some fellow cadets started flying mail runs from St.
