path: root/md/01_Outline_of_the_life_of_Daniel_Dee_Williams.md

---
title: 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:

1. [The Knothole in the Old Wooden Bridge](02_The_Knot_Hole_in_the_Old_Wooden_Bridge.html)
2. [Adventures on Black Cap Mountain](03_Adventures_on_Black_Cap_Mountain.html)

## 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.

1. [Dan's First Big Trip](04_Dans_First_Big_Trip.html)
2. [Trees](07_Trees.html)

## 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.

1. [The Match-Head Bomb](29_The_Match-Head_Bomb.html)

## 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:

1. [Trees](07_Trees.html)
2. [Win Friends and Influence People](08_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People.html)
3. [Dan's Hobbies in High School](09_Dans_Hobbies_in_High_School.html)
4. [Dynamite and the Old Snag](10_Dynamite_and_the_Old_Snag.html)

## 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.

1. [Melody's Malady](11_Melodys_Malady.html)
2. [Chocolate Waterfalls](12_Chocolate_Waterfalls.html)
3. [Survival Journal - Introduction](13_Survival_Journal_Introduction.html)
4. [Survival Journal - Week One](14_Survival_Journal_Week1.html)
5. [Survival Journal - Week Two](15_Survival_Journal_week2.html)
6. [Survival Journal - Week Three](16_Survival_Journal_Week3.html)
7. [Survival Journal - Week Four](17_Survival_Journal_Week4.html)
8. [Survival Journal - Week Five](18_Survival_Journal_Week5.html)
9. [Survival Journal - Final Paper](19_Survival_Journal_Final_Paper.html)

## 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.

1. [Dan's Mission in Brazil](20_Dans_Mission_in_Brazil.html)

## 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:

1. [A Date with Eternity](21_A_Date_with_Eternity.html)
2. [The Volkswagen That Couldn't](22_The_Volkswagen_that_Couldnt.html)

## 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](23_Dem_Bones.html)

## 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:

1. [Emily's War Dance for Hurricane Bob](24_Emilys_War_Dance_for_Hurricane_Bob.html)
2. [Encounter with a Stubborn Tree](25_Encounter_with_a_Stubborn_Tree.html)
3. [The Rogue Wave](26_The_Rogue_Wave.html)
4. [A Critter in the House](27_A_Critter_in_the_House.html)
5. [The Banana Peel Bomb](30_The_Banana_Peel_Bomb.html)
6. [The Basement Window Non-Miss](34_The_Basement_Window_Non-Miss.html)
7. [Ricochet Rockets in the Basement](/31_Ricochet_Rockets_in_the_Basement.html)
8. [The Wedding Proposal Fiasco](32_The_Wedding_Proposal_Fiasco.html)
9. [The Picture Window Near Miss](33_The_Picture_Window_Near_Miss.html)

## 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:

1. [Some Rain Must Fall](35_Some_Rain_must_Fall.html)
2. [The Basement Window Non-Miss](34_The_Basement_Window_Non-Miss.html)
3. [Rocket Scientists](36_Little_Rocket_Scientists.html)
4. [The Blackberry Wars](37_The_Blackberry_Wars.html)
5. [Tree Frog Sabotage](38_Tree_Frog_Sabotage.html)
6. [Legendary Rocks](41_Legendary_Rocks.html)
7. [The Parable of the Sower: A New Interpretation](43_The_Parable_of_the_Sower_a_New_Interpretation.html)

## 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.