But Then What Happened?

  Butch was my oldest brother, about 10 years my senior. He embodied everything one could want in a big brother.  My earliest memories start in about 1963 or so... when I was about 4 years-old. We lived in Lakewood, California... a few blocks down the street from Artesia High School where all four of my siblings would eventually graduate. Normally, brothers fight from time to time. Seems to be part of the psychological make-up of males as they grow up. But Butch and I never fought. Maybe it was the 10 year age difference but I'd like to think it was because of my sincere admiration for him and our brotherly love for each other. Butch was so cool! As a teenager, he had a job, a car, girlfriends and numerous buddies who would come over all the time. They were all cool too... Timmons, Higgy and many others. Sometimes they'd go down the street to the high school and play 'over the line,' a variation of baseball that could be played with as few as two players on each team. B...

  PARADIGM SHIFTS In 1975, at age 16, when I relocated from small town Iowa to Southern California, I felt that I was in Utopia. Not only was I freed from a miserable home life and the vices I had used to cope with it, but for the first time, I felt like an eager artist with a blank canvas before me. I was going to paint my life's picture with the colors and detail of my choice. My new life was a smorgasbord of opportunity with all the cool trimmings... the weather, the beaches, the mountains, the entertainment options, my favorite sports teams. Everything was new and exciting! So, for 15 years, 1975 to 1990... I partook of all that Southern California had to offer a young man in his teens and twenties. And it was FANTASTIC! During that time span, I graduated high school, went to college, got married to the love of my life, had 3 (and soon to be 4) little girls, and played softball year around. I was George Bailey and mine too was about to be a "Wonderful Life!" But in th...

  The period between 1990 and 1994 were among the most eventful for me and my growing little family. As the calendar flipped to the decade of the 1990's, we were still living in Jeana's childhood home in Lakewood, California. We had been there since July of 1983. Jeana and my marriage had survived the "7 year itch" and was closing in on a decade of wedded bliss. Maelynne, our oldest, would turn 8 in 1990, Tara 7 and Aubree 4.  FAMILY EXPANSION Perhaps the biggest news we discovered in early 1990 was that Munson baby #4 would greet us later that year. Being the clever human that she is, Jeana informed me of the exciting surprise by giving me a card. It was around Valentine's Day, so the card was not a surprise but the bulge in the envelope was certainly intriguing.  I don't recall much about the card but the "bulge" turned out to be a pacifier... a BABY pacifier. I was confused for a split second before the meaning became clear... we had another baby ...

  FAMILY Aubree May 15 th , 1986 brought with it child #3. It was a boy!!! Just kidding. We were incapable of creating boys. Aubree Faith graced us with her presence. Maelynne was 3 and Tara was 2. I loved my girls and I loved being their dad. I started teaching my girls how to play softball at a very early age. I taught them how to catch, how to throw and the proper mechanics in their swinging of the bat. Sports had meant so much to me growing up that I wanted to share that passion with them. Living in the LA area, the Los Angeles Dodgers played on TV almost every night during the baseball season. Starting at about age 4, Tara would share my recliner with me as we both watched these games and she would ask question after question about what she was watching and I was happy to explain it to her. She tucked away that knowledge and it would become an amazing resource as she grew up playing ball. In 1988, I signed Maelynne and Tara up to play softball at Artesia Park. Mae was 5 and Ta...

  CAREER 1985 marked my first full year at Waltco Truck Equipment Company, where we manufactured and installed hydraulic tailgate lifts for trucks and trailers. How did I get there and what about my teaching career? I will explain. After getting out of college, I was employed at a small Christian school where I wore the hats of a teacher, a coach and an athletic director. Jeana was the school secretary. I loved what I did as I bonded with my students and the athletes whom I coached. But man… it was a real struggle trying to survive in Southern California on a near poverty level paycheck. For we teachers, one of the rituals at the end of each school year was to find summer employment. Our small school couldn’t afford to pay us when tuitions were not flowing into the coffers. So I would find odd jobs as I attempted to keep us financially afloat. The summer after my third year of teaching, I was talking to a softball teammate named Ken after a game one night. I was lamenting t...

After Bill made his way back to California, my contact with him diminished greatly over the next five years or so. I do remember a trip I made to California in 1971, when I was 12. A memorable event from that visit was an impromptu driving lesson with Bill as my instructor. There were two elements that made this a really bad idea... 1) I was 12, 2) We were in Cali-freaking-fornia! Bill pulled into an abandoned gas station and we switched positions in his car. Following his instructions, I pressed on the brake and gently pulled the shifter on the steering wheel to the drive position. I eased forward toward the highway, put on the brakes and took a deep breath. The highway had a center divider with grass and some small trees. I couldn't cross over the divider and that left me with only one option and that was to turn right out of the gas station. The only problem is that I really wasn't aware of which side of the street we were supposed to drive on. I thought it varied state by s...