To the editor:

Growing up in a small village in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, in a working-class neighborhood populated by mostly iron miners and loggers, hanging around the local pool hall, we boys soon learned that road trips to northern Wisconsin provided insights into adult life. There were the bordellos in Hurley (Club Carnival, Showboat) and “the Green Garage” just over the border by Iron Mountain in Spread Eagle. Also, the drinking age was 18 in Wisconsin and identity checks much less frequent or serious. Not that the checks were always robust in the remote Upper Peninsula. And, in all fairness to Wisconsin, there was an establishment in Iron Mountain named “Dolly’s,” although I think Dolly predated my late teen years. But, then again, we did not have GPS in those days. Needless to say, road trips tended to be popular.

My young adult life brought me to the Far East, including Viet Nam, as a U.S. Marine. Three guesses on what occupied the minds of young male Marines 99 percent of the time. The first two do not count. Everyone knows why R&R to Bangkok, Yokohama, Taipei, Manila and other favored locations was so popular.

This was followed by a stint as an ordinary seaman on the great lakes, prior to finishing my college education.

Nothing should surprise this 72-year-old man. But, I must admit, Donald Trump’s arrogance and complete disrespect for women surprises even me. I have heard and witnessed a lot of talk about women in my day, but never the utter disregard and disdain Donald Trump is showing and has shown. The young Marines in the Far East, the young men proving their manhood in the far north of Michigan, the seamen on the great lakes, none, despite their often limited education and lack of worldliness, talked as vulgarly and disrespectful towards the women they knew and/or met. Actually, in most cases, you might be surprised at their behavior and words as regards the same.

Michael Dishnow

Soldiers Grove,

Wisconsin