Remember this are my impressions as a younger sister, my viewpoint as a mom and a few memories --- meaning that none of this may be true except that he is a great big brother and a man to be proud of.
My oldest brother is 10 years older than I am. He was the first born and so broke the way in teaching new parents how to raise a family. He grew up in a different era from those that would be reading this especially when it comes to technology. A bath is a sink with a cup was the best, any kid with water is going to have some fun even more if there is dirt involved.
He also didn't know how much he was loved for a long time until he saw this picture below. He didn't remember dad playing and caring for him. (One, dad was terribly busy providing and working with or for his dad in the farming business, as well as dealing with new and old relationships, a wife with a new religion, parents living a stone throw away not liking new bride's religion) being the oldest and a son he fought a lot against rules. Dale had tough teenage years; I remember some contention. I remember that they bought a motorcycle kit for he and dad to work to put it together - it was blue and had fat tires instead of a hotrod skinny bike. As I write that I remember Dale did a lot of model cars - hot rod weird ones "ratfink" brand, I think.
He also had to adjust very quickly to being a big brother. R. Larry came along 18 months later. (Mom was always very sick with morning sickness too so he might have felt pushed aside rather early in life) He also had a little brother that seemed to be great at everything, that couldn't have been easy.
He did have uncles that were semi close to his age, and they only lived 5 miles away, but they didn't have cars like we do. This is him with Uncle David or Delbert riding horse. (It is hard for me to picture them so young.)
Dale always had the greatest hair...my brothers had the curls while I had straight fine do-nothing hair. Isn't he a cutie?
This picture shows how young I was compared to him...I am the baby. This was the family for 8 years and then we were blessed with one more little sister.
When he was eighteen, he drove in under the carport at home, mom came out on the steps, I was playing outside as usual and heard the conversation - mom asked what the doctor said. Dale said that it was shingles on his back. (I ran up and slapped his back as he was getting out of the car and said, why do you have shingles on your back?) It hurt him. He never hurt me, and he had plenty of reason to.
One thing I remember him participating in was the church wide dance festival. He practiced so much and was able to go to Utah and preform it.
another activity I remember him doing with his friends was doing a 50-mile bike hike -- they chose to go to Cascade (which is all up hill) I think we followed them in the car, and this was them going up horseshoe bend hill. Dave is against the fence off to the side. (one friend was Fred Weber a neighbor)
One more odd memory was that one night he was in a car accident, we had a pink Rambler for the family car - station wagon and one night he was coming home late and took a corner on a hill too fast and rolled it. I remember that he was fine, the car was fine ... in fact we continued using it, it had more rattles but no other signs or the wreak. (I wonder if I ever knew the real story or not)
This is his senior picture.
He went to college in Denver Colorado - one of the most memorable family trip was dropping him off at school. It was the first time I had seen a tall 30 story or so building, we went in the elevator!, we also came home camping all the way, going through many tunnels, we discovered fizzi something little disks we could drop in a drink of water and have it been "like" soda flavored and fizzi. We also discovered fireworks in Wyoming, some little things we could throw on the ground and scare each other. Dale also worked at a candy factory so for Christmas that first year he brought home some for us to enjoy - I don't remember what it was but it was some kind of caramel stuff. I was envious that they as employees were told they could eat what they want. He said they ate some the first day and then didn't eat anymore as it made them sick ... eating too much. That is why the company would allow it. Julie would have been born the spring before he left for college, so she was his favorite. He brought her home a giant pink teddy bear, that first Christmas. This was him holding her That next summer before he left again, I would guess. (I must have been a bit jealous because I remember the bear very clearly.) That Christmas was interesting as we spent Christmas eve at the train station waiting for him to come home...the train was delayed I slept a bit on a bench. I don't remember anymore but I read this somewhere which reminded me of the bench and him coming off the train with the bear.
(I don't recognize the car so not sure if it was his or not)
I don't know where he met Janet, I don't know if he joined the Navy before or after marriage. Here he is on their reception day.
I know he joined the Navy so that he could choose what area of the military he would be in as he would have been drafted for the Vietnam War. This way he chose his field of work. He worked on a nuclear sub. (Janet was a very strong wife as he was in port for 6 months and then gone for 6 months - meaning that if they were to have children, she would be having them pretty much by herself.)
Even with choosing he was sent to Vietnam but when he got there on a ship the orders changed, and they didn't end up even landing. (again, if I remember correctly or not) it was a miracle.
One of his stations was Hawaii - Dad, Mom & Julie went over to visit just after I went off to college. I loved seeing the pictures they took and compared them to the pictures I took and found that similar things were amazing to me as to them. (era of film cameras, not digital, so you have to pay for the film and pay to have it developed so you didn't take many pictures like you can with a digital camera)
They did have children even with the 6 months home, 6 months gone (when he was gone there was little to no communication, she didn't ever know where the sub was going or at.) They had one more after this picture. Amanda is the baby pictured below, and she was born the same year as my first born.
I am not sure if he chose to not go on a mission or if the military interfered with him going. I do know that he has done more missionary work, especially family history work than any of the rest of us. He said there wasn't much to do on the submarine, so he read and talked the book of Mormon.
He may have struggled before, but I haven't seen him struggle since leaving home.
He is still going strong.
A few weird excerpts -- after retiring from the Navy he worked for a nuclear plant and recently retired from it, he gardens, he fixes everything, especially cars. Building that motorcycle taught him how things work. He has had vehicles for over 400.000 miles. He can fall asleep at the wheel (narcolepsy) always has (maybe that was the cause of the wreck I spoke of before) I know on Sweetser pass he drove off the road and had a mile marker type sign poke through the floorboard or his car - again he was lucky. He is a great home teacher - so good that the leadership would assign him those with sever needs, so he became known for a little while as the home teacher of death. (All his people died - that was why he was assigned though because he would be there to help them at a very difficult time) He travels in order to find out more family history, he did the work long before you could find it at your fingertips. He is an amazing brother and man.... I love you, Dale.
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