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the Mecca for 400,000 Harley riders! Becky rode her own Harley all the way too! |
I went to Sligo School, 3rd to 6th grades in Maryland .... Dr. Billy Hooker & I went to school
together from the 3rd grade all the way up thru Loma Linda University.
During my grade school years we lived in Mudville (dirt road) ... 3 of us
kids and my parents in a 1 bedroom apartment (True Story!). Billy Boy Hooker lived on the other side of the tracks in a real 2 story white house,
Paved roads with curbs, where all us kids would gather watching all the newest 50's cars drive by! ... Yards with actual
landscaping! I would dream of having a house and cars just like that some day!
(True Story!) ... And it has happened thanks to the American Dream!
While in Mudville (Age 8 - 11)
I got up every morning at 3am and rode my bike in the dark about a half mile across a back field to a big apartment complex in the other
direction where I had a 120 count paper route (The Times Herald) ... Another buddy of mine delivered the Washington Post on the same
route at the same time. That was before both papers merged to become the Washington Post and Times Herald. We would sit together and
talk while rolling up our papers to throw. Near by there was a small market with an outside coke machine where you would lift the lid and slide
the cokes or whatever down a metal slot ... put your money in lift your soda out .... At times when we were both out of a nickel I always carried a
small clear plastic tubbing and we would pop the lids off and drink the soda out thru our long straws ... BUT .... at the end of each month when we
both collected our paper route money we would always keep track of how many sodas we drank and slide the cash under the store door in an
envelop with a note saying thank you ... the store owner who I never met put a thank you note inside the coke machine ... This went on for almost
4 years.
Almost all of my money went into the family pot where mom worked at the hospital and dad worked nights, plus finishing up his college in
4 years .... as a preacher ...... (HARD TIMES MAKE YOU OR BREAK YOU!)
I went to 7th & 8th grades in VA. Where Dr. Less Chafen and I went all the way to school together up
thru LLU also. He is featured in some of our other webpages here ;-))
I left home at 13yrs old and went to Shenandoah Valley Academy in New Market Va.
where I worked year round in the dairy, the kitchen below the girls dorm ... umm yeah! ;-) ... and as a hall monitor
in the boys dorm ... All for just
37 cents an hour! ... paid my whole way though my 4 years there, graduating in 1960. I Would hitchhike when I wanted to go home on
the holidays from New Market, VA to Takoma Park, MD.
Many of the best friends of my life I met there! Both guys and gals! ... SVA and
Milo Academy Boarding School Where
Becky went to high school are definitely in our DNA for sure!
I (a PB ... Preacher's Brat!) moved to Crescent City in the fall of 1960 with my parents
where I met the Beckster for the fist time .. I was 17 and she was 16..... I am afraid I didn't
impress her or her friends very much
with my Fonzi Elvis doo , white tee shirt and engineer boots! ... But I think my "Red Swede" shoes and western string tie
did the trick!!!
After a couple of years she taught me to drive and I taught her what to do when we parked! ... At a neat spot over looking
the ocean .... Watching the submarine races ... hee-hee.
I was much closer to Becky's parents, Iris and Virgil Casebeer than I was to my own folks. I lived with the Casebeers in Sacramento during
the summer of 1962 selling the Bible Story Books toward my PUC tuition. I could sell snow and ice to Eskimos ... I remember early one morning
selling 3 complete sets cold turkey to 3 homes in a row just going house to house and knocking on doors. I decided that was enough for
the day and went back to the house and climbed back into bed .... The next thing I remembered was Iris and Becky literally dragging me out
onto the front lawn by my ankles ... So ... Back to work I went! (didn't sell any more that day anyway -grin)
Virgil and Iris were taken tragically in an aviation accident about 2 months before our wedding on June 30, 1963.
Had they lived they would have been very proud of us!
At Pacific Union College I was a science major ... Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Marine Biology was where I was headed .. lots of scuba
diving for 3 years with the Sheriff's Rescue Team at Lake Berryessa near the school and belonged to the Royal Dolphins Scuba Diving Club at PUC.
There were no dive computers in those days. We attached a plastic wheel with all our dive info .. Was like a slide rule. I had Twin J Valve
tanks with only a lever on the side that gave us an extra 10 minutes at a 30 foot depth.
I custom made my and Becky Girl's Wet Suits. Davy Scuba Diver PUC 1962 (Click Here) ... Not many
jobs available in the Marine Biology field at the time ... took a right turn into dentistry ... Best thing we ever did!
We are very proud of the fact that we did it on our own .... I worked for the state of CA full time 40 hrs/week , nights at Yountville
Veterans Hospital as an orderly during college, slept 1 - 2 hrs/day & Becky worked the switchboard and at the
hospital too. Many were the times we had no food at all for 4 days or so till pay day. No welfare or food
stamps or credit at the market then. I remember the .39 cent/10lb bags of potatoes and our rent of $40/month
for our little apt. under the laundry mat. We made it through college without any loans and paid as we went.
We did take out loans of course through dental school. ..... But, we still worked 70 hrs/week between us
then too. I made humorous trick photography color and sound movies for teaching purposes at the dental school and
worked weekend nights at the univerity hospital to pay for my motorcycles. Becky worked the switchboard at the dental school and at the
hospital there too.
I requested Draft after graduation from dental school. I was asked to give my preferences in order from 1 to 3 as to the branch of
service I would like to enter. I put AIR FORCE for 1, 2, and 3 and by George we got it!!! and for the base we would prefer the same thing in
order of preference 1-3 and I put Mt. Home AFB on all 3 and we got that too! 1968 - 1970.
I then went into the U.S. Airforce as a Captain. We were stationed at Mt Home AFB in Idaho were I was prosthetic officer for
2 years. I got a lot more training at San Diego Naval Hospital while there. While I am not a prosthodontist specialist , it is
the biggest part of my practice along with cosmetic dentistry.
We have 3 children, Kevin, Wesley,and Kathy and 6 grandkids ... 3 of our own and 3 others by marriage.
While we were in college Becky's folks, Iris & Virgil were both
killed in a small plane accident two months before our wedding in 1963.
WE REALLY MISS YOU GUYS!!!!!
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And now Becky's brother Bob has passed away ... Our Harley Hillclimb Page Dedicated
to Bob. .... We really miss you too Bob! .. Every time I see the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars on T.V. I think of you
and all the fun we had attending the events at Chico, CA.
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Becky and I have lived the American Dream and we did it on our own ..... anyone can do it ... but you have to
really know what you want and go for it with all you have.
