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Outline of the life of Daniel Dee Williams

This article will serve as the outline of my life. It describes the locations I lived in throughout my life and a few memories from each place. Thus, it will serve as an index to the rest of the articles contained in my life history. If the incident described in an article happened completely at one location, it will be listed in that location’s description. However, some of the articles are about topics where not all of the incidents happened at the same time or place. Some of these will not be mentioned in this index.

Lakeview, Oregon

I was born in Lakeview, Oregon on July 16, 1953. My father farmed with his brother, Frane, and father in the surrounding farmland, but the family home was located in the town. I was born 6 weeks premature and weighed less than 5 pounds. I spent some time in an incubator before the doctors let me come home. I remember a photo, long since lost, of me lying on a bed next to a ruler that was larger than I was. It was a rather humble beginning to a grand life full of love and adventure.

The first home I lived in was very small and located near the railroad tracks. I have no memory of this house or what it looked like. The family moved to another small home with blue shutters where I remember a few very hazy experiences. On one occasion I was playing with some neighborhood children. One of them told me to close my eyes and open my mouth. That “friend” then threw a handful of dirt into my mouth. They all laughed and ran away. I calmly walked home and showed my mom that I had dirt in my mouth and needed help to clean it out. I was too young to realize that someone had played a mean-spirited trick on me. I just thought it was a game I didn’t really understand.

The last house I lived in, in Lakeview, was a three-bedroom home on the main road into town. I lived there until I was 6 years old. We lived next to a kind old lady we called Grandma Green. We spent hours over in her back yard climbing in her apple tree. I remember learning how to throw rocks at grasshoppers and catching them in her large, graveled driveway between our two houses. Whenever we were able to catch a grasshopper, we would carry it over to the dining-room window where our pet spider had a huge web in the window well. We would throw the bug in her web and watch her descend from her hideout in the corner and wrap the bug in a silken blanket. She grew very fat that summer from all the tasty bugs we caught for her. When school started, I walked to and from school without a care in the world about being abducted by the boogeyman. I did this for both kindergarten and 1^st grade. It seemed to my little legs like quite a long walk, but was probably only about 5 or 6 blocks.

Our simple life in Lakeview came to an end abruptly one night while the family was at a drive-in movie. We were watching “The Greatest Show on Earth” when a message came over the speaker that was hanging on our car window. The message was something like this, “Would Ralph Williams please come to the ticket booth. You have an urgent phone call.” When he came back, he told us the grain elevator was on fire and we had to leave right away. Dad and his brother owned and operated this building which processed wheat and barley into pellets of feed for cattle. When we arrived at the scene from the drive-in movie, the entire upper floor of the building was engulfed in flames. It was all kind of exciting and a bit frightening for a six-year-old, but I had no idea this meant a whole new life for me and the family. Nine months later, my dad got a job and we moved to Hermiston, Oregon.

The following two stories occurred while I lived in Lakeview:

Hermiston, Oregon

Our first house in Hermiston was a tiny house, but we only lived there for a few months. Behind the house was an open field where we played. It had one feature that was better than any playground we had ever seen. It had a huge old stump with all the roots still attached to it. It had been pulled out of the ground by some monster eons ago and left there for our personal entertainment. We could climb all over it and pretend anything our little imaginations could come up with. It was a castle, a bean stalk, an airplane or Rapunzel’s tower. It was way better than Disneyland.

The next house we lived in was right across the street from the school. It had a huge weeping willow in the back yard that was perfect for climbing. Behind the house was a huge vacant lot that was swampy in parts and had a lot of big boulders and dirt hills near the back end. We often brought glass bottles out there and set them up on the rocks as targets for throwing rocks at. After a while, all the broken glass made the place treacherous, but we didn’t know any better and neither did our parents.

I learned to ride a bike on the school yard, where we also often played during the summer. One time, while playing near the school, I bragged that I could throw a rock over the school roof. My friend said, “No way, Jose!” Of course, I couldn’t leave it at that and picked up the nearest rock and let it fly. To my horror, the rock didn’t make it to the roof, but instead went through a large window and left a gaping hole in the glass. My friend wasn’t horrified at all. In fact, he wanted to do me one better. He picked up a larger rock and through it through a larger window. Then we ran away as fast as we could go. I never told my parents or anyone else about our crime. I was pretty sure if anyone ever found out, I would go straight to prison. I don’t think I was eight years old yet, so in the Judgement Day, I’m hoping I can get a pass on that one.

Oregon City, Oregon

Soon after, my dad got a job with the Federal Land Bank and we moved to Oregon City. The house was a big old farmhouse out in the country. I expect we rented it from some old folks that didn’t want to farm any more. There were dozens of climbing trees, a huge old barn and an ancient prune dryer building whose roof had caved in. It was the perfect place for mischief and adventure. I believe I was in the 5^th grade and went to school at Carus, a small unincorporated town 7 miles south of Oregon City. There were three grades in the same room, only 5 students in my grade and only one teacher for all of us. I was the only boy in my grade, but I wasn’t very interested in girls yet. After Christmas break that year, the school moved into a brand-new school built behind the old one.

My brother and I built the coolest fort on the ground floor of the old prune dryer building. It was built out of stacked up red bricks that were just part of the rotting jumble there, but it was our own private place where we made candles out of wax and string so we could have a little light to see by. I suppose it as a miracle we didn’t burn the place down.

The following stories happened at this location. The story called Trees covered a period of many years, but started during this time.

Vancouver, Washington

Dad was promoted to manager and was transferred to a new office in Vancouver. This meant another move. The new house was a flat roofed little affair just off Saint John’s Road on the northern edge of Vancouver. It was adjacent to a railroad, so of course, we had to leave a few pennies on the rails to get flattened by the trains. We spent a lot of time playing with the neighbors. Emily Edwards lived on the West side of us. She was my first crush. She never knew it because I wouldn’t have dared telling her. However, she probably contributed to the fact that my first daughter was named Emily.

In the woods nearby there was a small lake where my brother and I liked to go fishing. We caught mostly Blue Gill, but often caught catfish big enough to bring home for mom to cook for us. We were only in this house for a year, but it made an impression.

The following story happened in this house. However, it is listed as part of the group of pyrotechnic misadventures below.

The Match-Head Bomb

Ridgefield, Washington

My father bought 60 acres from an old guy named Aquinas Fox for $20,000. I remember when dad first brought us to the property where we would build our home. We drove the car out on the knoll to the home site. We were all amazed at the beautiful view of the North fork of the Lewis River valley. We could see 3 snow-capped peaks on the horizon and forested hills for as far as the eye could see. The house cost about $16,500 to build. We moved into the house in about 1964 and became residents of the town of Ridgefield, although the house wasn’t actually within the town boundaries.

I lived in this house until 1972 when I left to go to college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. It was here that I learned how to drive, bought my first car and several motorcycles, learned how to kiss a girl, and spent many lazy summer days in the river bottoms swimming and exploring.

The following stories occurred at this location:

Provo, Utah – First year at BYU, Fall 1972 to Spring 1973

I lived in the towers at BYU. This was a group of about 4 thirty-story towers of student dorms near the campus. I lived on about the 20th floor with a guy from Oklahoma who spoke with a strong southern drawl. Dad rented a small trailer to haul my Honda 650 and Tom’s Honda 350 to school for us, along with our stuff and a whole lot more for my “friend” Terri from Salem.

While living in the towers, I got this wild-haired idea to grow a world’s record icicle during the winter months when the temperature often stayed below freezing for weeks at a time. I opened my window just a crack and extended my pool que about 18 inches out into the freezing air. I then rigged up a large soda fountain cup with a hole in the bottom just inside the window. A few straws channeled the water from the cup out the window onto the pool cue, where a short piece of rope was attached. When I filled the cup with water, it dripped slowly through the straws onto the rope suspended by the pool cue. I did this many times every day until the icicle grew about 20 feet long. After a while, the icicle got so big and heavy that I feared it would bend my pool cue, so I ended the experiment before the guy from the Guinness Book of World Records could come and measure it. So much for my dreams of being world famous.

Desert Survival Course

The following group of articles are all about a course I took from BYU during the summer of 1973. The first two are descriptions of specific events. The rest are all extracts from the journal I kept while taking the course.

Brazil – Fall 1973 to Fall 1975

I spent 4 months at the Language Training Mission and 20 months in southern Brazil. It was a building experience for me because the Catholic church was so strong in those days that it was a real challenge to find people seeking the complete truth. See the article listed below.

Dan’s Mission in Brazil

Provo, Utah – 1976 to 1978. Roman Gardens student apartments

We sarcastically called the complex the Roman Ruins because they were not in the best repair, but I had no complaints. I only slept there and spent most of my time on campus studying electrical engineering. I had a roommate named Rod and Jeff Rankin, who was the Elder’s Quorum president in our student branch. Both played a role in my marriage to the woman of my dreams, Lori Diane Fooks.

I met Lori on January 22, 1978. She answered the door when I knocked on it. I was seeking one of her roommates to get information to request her membership records. I was serving as the branch membership clerk in the student branch. Since it was Lori’s birthday, she was having a party of sorts and was in a somewhat “feisty” mood. See the article, “The Day We Met” for Lori’s own very colorful account of this momentous event in the cosmos. Being the socially awkward nerd I was at that time, I was caught by surprise and was a bit frightened by her forwardness. I declined her offer and walked away, but her disarming sense of humor gave me the courage to return a few days later. I asked if the offer of cake was still good. She said the cake was all gone, but I could have some Jell-O if I wanted it. We began seeing each other more and more often after that.

By the time Spring was starting to emerge, we were considered a couple in the branch, but not yet engaged. BYU sponsored an event called Preference, where the girls were responsible to ask the boys to go with them. Lori conspired with my roommates to kidnap me by surprise from the apartment just prior to the event. Jeff, the Elder’s Quorum president, was supposed to arrange to have me present at the apartment at the appointed hour. Accordingly, Jeff left a note on my bed that morning to ask me to meet him for an interview in the evening at about 6:30 at the apartment. When I saw the note, Jeff was already gone to campus and I thought it was odd he would ask me to have an interview at that specific time when we were roommates, and he could talk to me just about any day without an appointment. Like a clueless dufus, I blew it off and stayed on campus late into the evening working on my studies. When it was evident I couldn’t be found, Lori took my roommate, Rod, in my place. The date was a candlelight dinner under the stars on Squaw Peak followed by a trip to the Salt Lake Planetarium. I never had any idea what I had missed until the next morning when Rod told me how badly I had destroyed Lori’s surprise extravaganza.

I realized I needed to make it right, so I began to do some scheming of my own for a big date the next weekend. I convinced a friend in the student branch who had his pilot’s license to do a double date with me and Lori by renting a 4-seater Cessna airplane at the Provo airport. We had about an hour of flying over the snow-covered mountains of the Wasatch Range. It was fascinating, but a little bit scary. My friend wasn’t a highly skilled pilot and the landing was pretty rough. We bounced quite hard on the runway, but he managed to get us back to the airport in one piece and with our underwear still clean. After the flight, we went out for breakfast at a pancake house. I think I spent my whole month’s allowance for that date, but at least I restored the prospect that a whole generation of amazing people would yet be descended from Lori and me.

The following stories occurred while living at this location:

Provo, Utah – 1978 to 1980, married couples’ apartments

Lori and I were engaged on June 8, 1978, the same day the church announced the revelation about “All Worthy Males” to the world. We were married on August 26, 1978. We lived in a building of apartments for married couples still attending BYU.

I graduated from BYU with my electrical engineering degree and started my master’s program so Lori could finish her degree in speech therapy. We lived in a second floor, two-bedroom apartment and soon moved up to the third floor because they had swamp coolers up there. I also started doing part-time work for a small start-up company near campus. Shortly thereafter, I ceased working on my master’s degree and started working full-time for SOS Computers for a starting salary of $16,500. Then, in early 1979 we learned that we would be parents for the first time. Lori managed to finish her degree just a few weeks before we welcomed Emily into the family.

American Fork, Utah – 1980 to 1989, SOS, Eaton-Kenway, Signetics

I don’t know how, but we qualified to buy our first house in American Fork for $49, 000 and moved into it in the Spring when Emily was still only a few months old. Our house payment was about $400. While living there, we welcomed Ryan, Megan and Mallory into our family. We had a small fleet of 2 Volkswagen bugs, one old green one I rebuilt after my mission and an orange one given to us by Lori’s dad. I left SOS and started working for Eaton-Kenway and had to commute up to Salt Lake City. That got very old, and we rejoiced when I got hired by Signetics in Orem, Utah for $22.000. After a few years at Signetics, I was making $54,000. We had a plan to pay off the house in about 4 years and enjoy a life of luxury forever in American Fork. The Lord must have needed a bishop in Maine, because the recession hit, and I lost my job. The only career door left open was in the state of Maine. I felt like we had been banished to outer Mongolia, but Maine turned out to be a wonderful place to raise our little family.

The following stories occurred while living at this location: 1. Dem Bones

Windham, Maine – 1989 to 2002, National Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor

They put us right to work in the Windham Ward, a very dedicated group of faithful saints just north of Portland, ME. I was called to be the 2^nd counselor in the bishopric after only living in the ward for about 3 months. I was then bumped up to first counselor, then the stake hi counsel and eventually served as the bishop for 6 ½ years. Those 13 years were some of the most rewarding of my life.

The following stories occurred while living at this location:

Fisher’s Landing, Washington – 2002 to 2006, Flipping houses with Dad, WSU

These were some of the darker days of my life. The 2002 recession killed my livelihood in Maine. We packed up our belongings into a 24-foot rental truck and took a week to drive from the east coast to the west coast. The house in Fisher’s Landing was a tiny 1050 sq. ft., 3-bedroom house in a development where the houses were only a few feet apart. We bought the house sight unseen for $130,000 because it was affordable for a guy without a job. Emily and Ryan were at BYU and Megan joined them shortly. It was just Mallory, Lori and I living there where I tried to figure out how to rebuild my life.

Lori and I worked with my father for a few years flipping houses. Working with my father was a blessing because he passed away in 2005. It gave me a chance to spend a lot of time with him before he left this world. However, it soon became obvious that doing all the renovation work was very hard on my aging body. I was quite happy to be able to use a NAFTA program to go back to school at WSU. I earned a second bachelor’s degree in software engineering and was given a full ride scholarship and teaching assistantship to work on my master’s degree, also in software. I was just finishing my program when my mother invited us to live at the family homestead in Ridgefield. We didn’t think twice about leaving Fisher’s Landing. The housing bubble was raging, and we sold that house for $219,000, a $90,000 profit after living there for only 4 years.

Ridgefield, Washington – 2006 to 2018, Hewlett Packard, Powin Energy

Shortly after moving to the homestead house in Ridgefield I landed my dream job at Hewlett Packard in 2007 and started working there full-time. It seemed like all the pieces had fallen into place for Lori and I to live out the rest of our lives in relative peace and financial stability. We spent most of the profits of our last home sale to upgrade and renovate the Ridgefield home. Just as it seemed that all our troubles were over, the housing bubble popped and the economy dove into the “Great Recession”. As a new employee at HP, I had no seniority and lost that job in 2009.

NAFTA again paid for me to take some classes while on unemployment. I earned the Oracle Java Programmer Certification in October 2009 and the Oracle Java Developer Certification in March of 2010. I also taught “Introduction to Database Systems” as an adjunct Professor at WSU from January to May of 2010. I did a little work as an independent contractor for a company called Griswold Water Systems until early 2011 and finally landed a job with Powin Energy in September of 2011. During those two years since losing my job at HP, there was very little income, but it always seemed to be enough to cover the basics and keep us out of debt. I attribute that blessing to many years of faithfully paying my tithing. The job at Powin was interesting because they were a start-up in the field of grid-scale energy storage, but the commute to the south side of Portland was an hour each way and there was always the hint that the company would fail before breaking into the big leagues and achieving a little stability. They finally ran out of investment funding and let me go in October of 2018.

The following stories occurred while living at this location:

Meridian, Idaho – 2018 to present

After moving to Meridian, Idaho to live with our daughter, Emily Clark, I worked part-time for Dan, her husband, as his warranty issue fixer from January 2019 until July 2019 when I qualified for full retirement benefits from Social Security. The plan was to build an in-law apartment on their lot and enjoy just being “Nana and Papa” to our grandchildren. Apparently, the rest of our mortality was not meant to be a breeze just yet because we spent over 2 years fighting with the Home-Owners Association to allow the project to proceed. While waiting to resolve those issues, COVID-19 struck and traumatized the entire world. However, with my 67. 8 years of perspective to draw upon, I am at peace with all these tribulations. Through everything that has come my way, the gospel of Jesus Christ has always given me the peace and assurance that I needed to get past them. I can’t wait to see what else is in store even in these times of so much turbulence in the world.