Letter From Dad: To Aubrey

Sent: Wed 12/28/05 11:50 AM

Aubrey,
My computer sorta froze up not long after I sent you that email last night. I had to unplug it to get it to shut down. Until I did that the computer wouldn't function and the phone line was tied up and unusable. It's not a good idea to just unplug a computer because some data may be lost. Fortunately, nothing seems to be wrong with it today.
There are a few chores to do here for Gma. Getting things ready for the cold, freezing winter. Covering waterpipes and faucets, checking rain gutters, covering special treasures exposed to the elements, etc. Getting the chicken pen more comfortable for her 2 hens is almost done. I moved it up into the front garden area and the hens are having a great time scratching around thru the raised planter beds.
The Mercedes is ready to go except for the battery not keeping a charge very well. If I use jumper cables to start it, it will restart fine as long as it doesn't set too long before attempting to restart. Otherwise it will only groan and click. Will have to buy a new one before the trip. Either Costco or Walmart. Diesel vehicles require a much more powerful battery than the standard vehicle. So, more expensive. Sure don't want to have battery problems twenty miles outside of Baker or Primm. I got the first hint of battery problems the day I was trying to leave for Calif. from Rachel's parking lot on my last visit. Heidi had to help jump-start my car in the parking lot with her truck. Twice.
There is a rain storm here for the next 3 - 4 days. Temps are in the 30s to 40s.
Gma seems a bit sad that I'm leaving. She is very happy every time she comes home and finds me still here. The other women at her work are either sick or visiting with family so Gma is expected to fill in for them and make sure the DR's office runs smoothly. She is working every day and the days are long. Normally there are 3 to 4 women in the office. Today they are down to one other lady besides Gma and the other lady is complaining about her husband being sick and she is not feeling well. Gma is as stable as a rock, always reliable and faithful. She is a special and a great woman. She certainly deserves many blessings now and in the hereafter. We attended church at her ward on Christmas Day.
Well, better go. Things to do and I have to go to Sonora to see where my money is before I can even leave for UT.
Love you, (and your sisters)

dAd

Rex's Version of Success, 2003

Sent:	Sat 4/19/03 1:34 PM
To:	idispatch4911

Cool,
Maybe we will have to take the boat out for a spin and some fishing if the weather is pleasant. Bring your 'boomstick' and we'll "drill some holes" at the range, the indoor one on Yosemite Ave. here in Motown and the Gun Club range in Jamestown.

I sure feel better after a good nights sleep. Just slept until I wanted to get up. Woke once during the night and took a pill then went back to sleep. Refreshed today. Usually have more restless nights than last night. Am starting the process of scaling back about 25% on my meds. I am really getting tired of basing how much work I can do on the pill intake. Have done this before. I know when I have reached the point to where I'm overdoing the work based on the meds helping me to feel I can do more work. It can become an ever increasing cycle of pill taking, so time to scale back.

Rest more. After all, I'm not in my 20's anymore and can't work at the pace of a 20 or 30 year old.

The theory for becoming a success is "Find a NEED and fill it".
What I need to do is hire Mexicans. haha. That is what everybody else that is really making it in this business is doing. Housing is certainly a "need". Here is the formula that is working for the construction industry :



1. Hire truckloads of Mexican or any cheap labor to do the work. Doesn't matter what 10 to 15% of the work looks like or how badly it is done, just keep cranking it out. This small percentage of loose ends created by the cheap labor will be dealt with by step 2:

2. Hire a nucleus of 'key' guys, good at problem solving. One guy, particularly good at Supervising/Delegating. A Leader. Under this 'leader' there is a need for someone that can be creative enough to fix the screw ups the 'cheap labor' created. This creative position may be 1 to 3 individuals, maybe each with their own specialties. Pay these 'key' guys more to keep them around and happy. These guys are also the eyes and ears for the Leader. There needs to be a loyalty within this nucleus.

3. Turn out a product that meets the minimum acceptable standards for the industry you are involved in. Always make sure your product hovers around these minimum standards. No flashes of brilliant ingenuity accepted unless it can be cashed in on somehow thru a marketing campaign. Remember ... the bottom line.

4. Have a willing, sheep-like people with tolerable credit ratings and an unquenchable desire to feed their own egos and every whim with 'the latest' or the newest' fad or fashion. They want to show off their acquired possessions to their envious friends and neighbors/co-workers. In their own minds, they must 'feel' as if they are doing better everyday. They must get more, every day, every paycheck. More stuff. Newer stuff. Once acquired, there is the need to 'store' this new stuff.

This is easily resolved by upgrading one's housing situation. What is needed is more space. Buying homes with three car garages and extra bedrooms can resolve the dilemma. This added square footage can be turned into guest rooms, media/music rooms, hobby rooms, sitting rooms, reading rooms, display rooms, etc.

In earlier times, say 50, 100 or 200 years ago, this country's backbone was the family. The big family. In a one or two room house. The living, sleeping and dining quarters were all found within the same square footage. Multipurpose rooms. Great families with large numbers of children were raised without the benefit of each having their own room or 'space'. They learned to share because it was essential. There was no other way.

Today, if people would only cut down on the number of children they feel they need, to have a 'complete family'. Hey, that also frees up a room for 'stuff'. If there is a void felt by not having that one additional child, this can be rectified by the addition of a pet. Usually a dog. These animals tend to be interactive with the humans in the house. They can sometimes be trained to not damage too many of the acquired items that are in storage or on display. They tend to require less maintenance than a child and are less costly. They are not inexpensive, just cost less to maintain than a child.

Goldfish and cats are sometimes chosen as the preferred pet. These are much less interactive. Personally, I found that watching goldfish for a few minutes after a crazy day to be therapeutic.

It is not known why people have cats for pets. Having had the experience of being a husband and father for about 16 years, I saw no need to have a pet who also ignored me.


Whoa, sorry Rachel. I went thru a stream of consciousness thing.... This could be an essay with more work on it.

Love dAd

Happy Dad's Day

We love you so much, Dad.

Rex Liked: Meridian Magazine Article, August 2005

Click here: Meridian Magazine :: Articles : Making the Grade: Study Pointers for LDS Students

Dear Girls,
I thought that this guys approach to "learning" was very interesting. His story about being just an average student in high school rang a bell with me.

I know my mind is capable of much more than I make it do.

His story is encouraging that I can improve my mind and my way of learning and digesting knowledge.

There are 4 or 5 more parts to this article which will be on this website over the next few days. I hope this strikes you as something worth pursuing and looking into. At age 51 I see how much more I could have done (or learned) if I had just attempted to stretch myself. I also see that those who learn how to "learn", end up making more money and that as you well know, is BETTER than making or having less money. Knowledge opens more opportunities, for sure.

D&C 130:18 - Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
v.19 - And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
v.20 and 21 are also very interesting.


I love you girls more than you will ever know,

dAd

Rex the Scout: November 2005

Sent: Sat 11/12/05 1:59 PM
To: idispatch4911

Rado, Seeing your California pix brought back memories of a fun few days. Just wasn't long enough for me.

We (Rick F., Floyd S., Craig E. and I) took the Scouts and our bikes to San Francisco. The Tiberon Ferry floated us over to Angel Island where we rode the bikes around the island, about a 4 or 5 mile loop. It's an old military location from the beginning of the Civil War. Now it's a state park. Floyd and I pushed our bikes about a 1/3 of the way. I took some pictures on a funky throw-away camera. Haven't taken the whole roll yet. These cameras are a big disappointment after using digital stuff.

Craig pedaled the entire ride on a 3 speed bike! He has been using a exercycle in his house daily. Rick is 47, Floyd is 47, Craig is 48... and my excuse is that I'm 51! I also used the "cancer-death-bed" excuse too, ha!

This next weekend the Scouts are going on a 15 mile bike ride/campout. We'll camp at Caswell State Park in Ripon and ride our bikes from there to Modesto (Dale Rd. Chapel). Early next month we'll try crabbing at Dillon Beach if I have my steering on the boat fixed. Have all the parts, just need to spend the time now that my energy is coming back a little.

I'm here at Gma's and was going to change a few tires but gave it up. I miscalculated on tire size for the Mercedes. Hope things are going well for you and Heidi.

Love, dAd

Dad's Testimony - Sent May 2005

Dear Rachel, Aubrey and Heidi,

Hi girls,

It's getting late Sunday evening and I'm pretty tired of deleting junk email.

I just wanted to tell each of you girls before I go into this next 2 months of medical unpleasantness that I really love each of you. You each have talents and strengths I admire. Each of you are good people, fun to be around, with much to offer others. You each are a credit to society and to the McBride and Carson families. I'm proud that each of you is striking out on your own to live life, develop your talents and skills and be more rounded personalities. You'll each have challenges ahead but that's what makes life interesting.

I've often wished we could have grown up closer together, had a more gospel based family life and that we'd have logged many more hours, days and years of experiences together by now. This has been a gnawing regret in my life and really don't know where I could have done things differently under the circumstances we faced (except to have been a better example of what a husband, dad and a priesthood holder should be). I have always wanted to be closer to each of you. You each should have had better. My hope is that what you've been through will not sour you too much as you face the challenges of adulthood. I'm proud that each of you will watch out for each other.

I go into these medical procedures buoyed by the strength I feel from each of you. It may be a bit selfish but I want many more memories with each of you, individually and together. I go into the UC Davis Medical Center willing to face all they can throw at me ... and more, if necessary to be able to see you girls farther into your adult years.

If, though for some reason things don't come out the way we expect, I must say this one thing. There were a couple of things I did correctly in relation to you. Your Mom and I saw to it that you were blessed and given names as infants in the Lord's Church by proper priesthood authority. I entered the waters of baptism with each of you and used my priesthood authority to perform that most sacred of saving ordinances. It is so critically important an ordinance that even Jesus, the most perfect person to ever walk the face of this earth sought out someone with the proper priesthood authority (John the Baptist) and submitted himself to be baptized. Any question or doubt how important the ordinance is?

I laid my hands on each of your heads and confirmed you each members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You were each given the gift of the Holy Ghost, a gift to use as you see fit. Live by the gospel teachings and the gift will be a great blessing in your lives. Your conscience is the "Light of Christ" mentioned in the scriptures. Ignore it and the gift will fade away little by little. But, if you call upon it, it can be a help and a companion to you in times of making personal decisions or even in times of danger. Nurture it as if you would nurture a seed to grow and it will be a guide and bloom into something of great worth throughout your lives. These ordinances were the best things I could have helped you to experience. They were not gifts I could offer to you myself. I have no power myself except that I was ordained to be able to do these things by the power of the Holy Priesthood.

Heidi mentioned once that she could barely remember the experience of baptism and so felt it had little meaning for her. She has a good point, and it is a fair and understandable observation. I happen to remember mine because I was 14 and a half when I was baptized.

At the age of eight it could be very easy to be just doing what the family considered acceptable. As your parents, we should have helped Heidi (or each of you) to better appreciate what she was going to experience. That she was baptized at 8 years old and the divorce took place when she was 9 years old tells us that other stresses were on each of us and we perhaps "dropped the ball" in guiding her at a critical time.

We all got "beat up" in the divorce in one way or another. It does not however make Heidi's baptism or anyone else's less valid. Each of us still has the responsibility to guard our membership in the Lord's Church by living the Commandments to the best of our ability. We all will stumble and we all can resolve to do better. It's part of the repentence process.

You've heard these words before but they are nevertheless just as true. There is a true church on the earth. A church that is guided and organized the way Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would have it done. Joseph Smith was, and is the prophet who was the Savior's representantive on earth to do the job.

There is a man living today who serves us as the current prophet for our times. Gordon B. Hinckley.

If we keep an ear to the Lord's prophet today, we can be assured of not being lead astray from the critically important things in this life.

The Book of Mormon is a true record of a people who lived centuries ago on this American continent. It is a record of God's dealings and teachings to these ancient people through prophets who left their words and testimonies for us to consider. If you have any doubt about whether the Book is factual, you are offered a promise and challenge to find out for yourselves of it's truthfulness. I've accepted Moroni's challenge (Moroni 10:3-5) many years ago and know for myself. I may not be the best example of how to live a righteous life but I know it's true.

I challenge each of you girls to become familiar with the Book of Mormon. Take Moroni at his word and find out for yourselves what all the commotion is about. It's either true or it's not. If it's not, if all this true church stuff is a lie, Heavenly Father will warn you off such a crazy book. If it is true, (and you find this out by reading, pondering and praying to find out) it will be the most important discovery in your entire lives.

Love always,

dAd

A Tale of Six Boys

Hi Girls,
This is an interesting story. Gpa McBride also fought on the island of Iwo Jima in February and March of 1945. The battle lasted about six weeks including the "mop up" (rooting out the last of the Japanese soldiers hidden in tunnels and foxholes after the main fighting was over).
He told me once that he was not close by as the flag was raised because his unit was fighting farther away from that location. But, he told me he was able to look over and see that the flag had been raised. He had been busy doing his own fighting with his unit. He did see it after it was up.
Think about it ... Gpa was in close proximity to one of the most historic events of the battle. He was 19 years old and wouldn't turn 20 for another 7 months. He had already been in the Marines since he was 17.
Both of your Grandfathers experienced amazing challenges as young men.
I know they love each of you in their own way of being able to express those feelings.
I hope that each of you girls know that I love you. You don't know how much that is because it is hard to place a "quantitative value" (ability to measure) of how much I love you. Just know that I do. I wish there was a way to express it in such a way you might be able to see or know.
I'm proud of each of you for your accomplishments. I'm proud of you for your potential. I'm proud of you for just being the enjoyable and interesting personalities that make up your ... "you".

Love you,

dAd

A Tale Of Six Boys

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI. where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.
On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.
Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, "Where are you guys from?"
I told him that we were from Wisconsin. "Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story."
(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who has since passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night).
When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night).
"My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called "Flags of Our Fathers" which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.
"Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called "War." But it didn't turn out to be a game.
Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are generals who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old.
(He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph. ...a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not old men.
"The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'
"The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So you take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32. ...ten years after this picture was taken.
"The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.
"The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.
"You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.
"When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'
"So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time."
Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.
We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice. Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom. Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world. STOP and THANK GOD for being alive and being free because of someone else's sacrifice.
REMINDER: Every day that you wake up FREE, is a Great Day

Seafood and Fudgsicles

Dad loved buffets.



He didn't really care what kind of buffet it was, but he was quite fond of Chinese food all-you-can-eat places. He'd even go alone if needed. We've been a buffet family from the very beginning in Modesto: Kings Table, Hometown Buffet, The Golden Dragon. Our family loved the variety.

When Dad would come to visit us once we moved to St. George, and if it was a Friday night, we'd all drive down to Mesquite, Nevada and hit the Friday Night Seafood Buffet at either the Casa Blanca or the Virgin River.

Dad's idea of a great evening was loading up his plate with as many peel-and-eat shrimp and crack-and-eat crab legs as he could balance while walking to the table to sit down. Then doing that a few more times. We'd all get tired of sitting and waiting for Dad to finish eating, so he'd finally give up and we'd all waddle our crab-filled bellies out to the parking lot for the ride home.

As we'd walk out, Dad would always mention: "If you add up all the crabs that we just ate, what would they look like all running across the parking lot?"

I always got a kick out of that.


-------------


I remember as a kid, Mom worked for Doctors Medical Center in Modesto. Every summer, they'd have a big picnic for all the employees. We each got a bracelet which entitled us to "free food" and all the games they had there for kids. It was quite a fun time.

Dad decided that the free fudgsicles offer was too good to pass up.

Dad sat at our table and made us girls run and get him fudgsicles. After all three of us running up multiple times, the tally was NINETEEN fudgsicles. I'm not sure if Dad fizzled out at 19, or if we were just too scared to ask the popsicle guy for more. But that story has come up multiple times throughout the years as a source of pride and embarasment for Dad.

Letter From Dad: To Aubrey, For Valentine's Day

From Aubrey: I was going through some boxes of my memorabilia recently and found this Valentine letter from Dad. It has no date on it, but was probably written in February 2006. It was written in true Rex McBride style- in all caps and on yellow legal paper! :)

It reads:

HI BOOB-

CONSIDER THIS NOTE YOUR VALENTINE'S DAY CARD AND BOX... OF CHOCOLATES, HANDFUL OF FLOWERS... NO... A DOZEN ROSES... NO MAKE THAT 2 DOZEN ROSES AND A 5 lb BOX OF SEE'S CANDY....AND DINNER AT A FANCY RESTAURANT. SINCE WE'RE PRETENDING... 2 TICKETS TO THE OPERA AND A WEEK IN HAWAII. SEE HOW MUCH FUN I AM? I'LL BE JUST AS GENEROUS WITH YOUR SISTERS.

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH...AND WANT TO WISH YOU THE BEST IN LIFE. I LOOK FORWARD TO EACH AND EVERY CONTACT I HAVE WITH YOU.

YOU ARE MENTIONED IN ALL MY PRAYERS AND I'M PROUD OF YOU. DO YOUR BEST AT WHATEVER YOU ATTEMPT. YOU MAY ARRIVE AT THE CONCLUSION THAT YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH AND MOVE ON. BUT YOU KNOW YOU'VE RUN THINGS TO THE END AND DECIDED ON A COURSE CORRECTION.

YOU GIVE ME MORE OF A REASON TO FIGHT AND DEAL WITH MY OWN CHALLENGES AND SEE THEM THRU. I'M FAR FROM PERFECT BUT YOU MAKE MY LIFE MORE SO.

LOVE ALWAYS,
DAD.

Best Vacation Ever

I think it was about 1999. I had my own apartment and Dad brought a brown van and trailer load of furniture that he had saved from our Knoles Court House days. We filled my new place with old furniture, but had a doozie of a time getting the hide-a-bed sofa in the stairwell and into the second floor apartment.

We watched the movie Tombstone with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer. Dad wasn't one to watch the same movie over and over: if he was going to spend his time with a second viewing of a great movie, he'd rather wait a good five or ten years in between showings. But we watched Tombstone a few times that week he stayed at my new apartment. We hit Hollywood Video and rented an old movie My Darling Clementine about the gunfight at the OK Corral. It was full of errors in history, even Doc Holliday who was a dentist in real life, performed abdominal surgery in this flick. We watched it and laughed hysterically.

And we started planning...

We planned a McBride vacation to top all the Disneyland trips of our youth. We would take the brown van from St George and drive down to Tombstone, Arizona and see the OK Corral, the Bird Cage Theater, and any other sites a good Wyatt Earp fan cared to see.

We gallivanted through Southern Arizona, down to Tombstone, over to Nogales, Mexico and then headed back north towards Las Vegas. On the way home, we stopped at the Hoover Dam, but didn't have time to do the tour.

That trip taught me so much:

*It taught me that even when on vacation, you can always find someone who knows someone who knows where the nearest LDS chapel is to attend church. We went to Young Womens at some Ward in Benson, Arizona and they found it strange that we made the effort to go to church when we didn't know a soul in the area and were on vacation just passing through. It was that important to Dad to attend church as a family, broken as we were.

*It taught me that you don't really need air conditioning if you have pillow cases, an ice chest, and a little bleach-water. We also stopped at K-Mart and got some cool battery operated personal misting fans that Dad thought were must have purchases for $1 or so.

*It taught me that car trouble can be a learning experience - we all learned how to unpack a van full of junk, change a blown tire on the side of the road, repack all the junk, and limp in to the next town. I was most surprised that Dad didn't lose his temper or yell or curse at any time during that little fiasco.

*It taught me to give. We were at a gas station outside of Lake Havasu City. We had just seen the London Bridge and we stopped at a gas station. A middle aged woman, maybe 40 or 50 years old (she seemed older) was outside asking for money. Dad, always the boy scout, handed her a few cans of food that he had packed along and an extra can opener. The woman looked up almost in tears and thanked him. He handed her a few dollars too. She asked him how she could repay him. Dad gave his usual answer: "Some day, two young men in white shirts and name tags will cross your path. They have a message. Listen to that message."

*It taught me to think of others. We took a little day trip down to Mexico. None of us had been - Dad went sometime right after high school with some friends but wanted to take us. We parked at a McDonald's restaurant just inside the border. (Thank goodness Dad thought to bring several gallons of drinking water with us.) The whole time in Nogales, Dad kept urging us to let him buy us each one thing to remember the trip. We visited several shops and had young "Vato" salesmen yelling at us "We are cheaper than Walmart!" Aubrey got some genuine gold jewelry that turned her finger green within a few hours. (Heidi, what did you get? I don't remember.) I never saw anything that I just couldn't live without. Dad was also looking, but he was looking at things that he would hate. I didn't see him needing a flower pot, or a terra cotta rooster. I finally realized that he was looking to get something for Grandma. She still has the rooster he brought hundreds of miles back to Saint George, then hundreds of more miles to Sonora.

We made it back home, a little sunburned, and a lot closer as a family unit. It was much less expensive than a trip to Disneyland. We went to grocery stores and bought loaves of bread and canned goods to eat. We didn't hit every drive through. We stayed in a motel a few nights, but mostly drove through the night in "the little brown van that could."

I really enjoyed that trip. I still enjoy the memories we made with Dad. That was my best vacation ever.

Empty Milk Glass

I remember being a little kid at the dinner table. We'd help Mom set the table and we'd all sit up to eat. Dad would sit down and Mom would ask what we wanted to drink for dinner.

"MILK!"

Mom would first pour Dad a nice, tall glass of milk. Then she'd turn her back and start pouring smaller glasses for us. As we sat at the table waiting for Mom to sit down, we'd watch Dad tank that glass of milk - gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.

Mom would be done pouring for us and for herself and walking back to the fridge to put the jug away. Dad would then say, "HEY! I didn't get any!"

Dad's glass always had mysterious streaks of milk inside even though he "didn't get any."


-----

As an adult, I realized how much of a country boy Dad was. He would only ever drink whole milk, and to him that was barely acceptable. He'd be much happier in the mountains laying under a cow and squirting milk from the source. To his city-girl daughter, that seems so unsanitary!

Rex & His "5" Girls

Grandma told me that Dad always liked this picture. I was quite pregnant with the twins and we knew they were girls. We didn't know their names at the time. Grandma was the one to take this picture. We were on our way to hit a buffet dinner (of course) at Golden Corral and I think it was in honor of Dad's birthday.

Ball Point Pens & Feet

One of my favorite memories as a kid was when Dad would tuck us in to bed at night. He'd tell us one of many silly stories of his youth that would crack us all up. Then he'd turn out the lights and say goodnight.

Occasionally, just as I was drifting off to sleep, Dad would suddenly come back in my room, pull the covers off the bed, and put one of my feet in a choke hold. He would be giggling and taunting as I screamed for mercy. Dad would take a ball point pen and, holding my foot while I kicked and screamed and giggled, write my first, middle, and last name on the bottom of my foot. If I wiggled enough for him to not finish a letter, he'd have to do that letter over and over again until it looked right. Just more Daddy style torture.

And something that I'll have to try on my kids eventually also...