Individual Details
Richard Hiram DAVIS
(27 Nov 1935 - 23 Sep 2007)
Richard Hiram Davis
My earliest memory is of a big iron pot boiling over an open fire in our backyard. Mom told me later that it must have been when we lived in Omaha, Nebraska and the pot was to boil the food for the pigs. I was not two years old yet, according to Mom.
I was born in Bunker, Missouri on November 27, 1935 but for 40 years we celebrated my birthday on the 25th, and I never did find out why. After my birth I was kept in the hospital after Mom went home but I had company. Russell and Betty were both there suffering from injuries they had received in an automobile accident.
We moved a lot of times while I was growing up because Al had to keep on the move to keep from being caught by people he had cheated in one way or another.
We were living in Moorpark, California when Carol Gene was born, and lived there about a year or so.
Richard Hiram Davis ~ Born: November 27, 1935 - Bunker, MI
Died: September 23, 2007 Married: January 31, 1953
Carol Sue Wirsching ~ Born: November 19, 1934 - Tucson, AZ Died:
Children:
James Steven Davis ~ Born: October 25, 1953 - Tucson, AZ
Richard Hunter Davis ~ Born: September 14, 1955 - Rosemead, CA
We then moved to Miami, Arizona where we lived way out in the desert with no amenities. We had an outdoor privy and had to carry water and heat it outside in a big washtub when we needed baths. The youngest was always bathed first and on up to the older ones who I’m not sure didn’t come out of the water just as dirty as they went in.
Richard ~ 1936
In the summer when the swimming pol was open we would walk about 10 miles or so to the town of Globe and just stand and watch the swimmers because we never had enough money (5 cents) to get in.
We had an old mule, and to get a little spending money, we would offer other kids rides. After they were on the mule, we would take them to a cleared area surrounded by goathead stickers and make them get off and walk. Of course, they could not walk very far because of the stickers, so we would offer to let them ride the mule out of the stickers if they gave us some money (from 1 to 5 cents depending on how well off their parents were).
Al was a deputy sheriff there for a while, but it wasn’t for long.
Moorpark 1938 or 1939
Once June, Jerry and I found an old truck tire and decided to roll to the top of a hill and let it go. We let it go and did we run. That tire went down that hill and crashed through the window of the hardware store. Thank God, Al never found out it was us or might not have survived.
After Tommy was born, we moved to Montgomery Creek, California as Al had a job working on the Shasta Dam. Again there were no amenities, and, after about 4 months, when it started to get really cold, we moved to southern California. I still remember how beautiful it was and have often wished we could have stayed there.
We moved to Bell Gardens, because Aunt Flossie lived there. We lived in a series of different homes until we finally wound up living in the big house on about 10 acres of land. There was a big barn and lots of trees and pastures. There was also a bunkhouse where Jerry and I slept most of the time when we got older.
Once I had been working in the stables mucking out the stalls and my boots were filthy. June had spent hours cleaning and waxing the kitchen floor on her hands and knees and told me I better not walk across her clean floor. Naturally I did. She picked up a butcher knife and threw it at me. I raised my arms in front of my face and that knife sliced both of my elbows to the bone, so not only did I get horse manure all over her clean floor, but also a lot of blood. She took me to the doctor, and then she went to stay at a friend’s house. She was afraid of what would happen to her when our folks found out.
We once had a small female dog, which came into heat and was being chased by all the male dogs in the neighborhood. I was standing in the gate opening when she came toward the house. She ran between my legs and the dogs following her knocked me down, ran over me and broke my leg. No one knew it was broken at the time, until Mom found me crawling across the floor trying to get a drink of water in the middle of the night.
Russell and Dick 1939 ~ Miami, AZ
We all went to Laguna School, which was just across the street from our home. When that was closed because the Edison Company needed the property, we went to Colmar, Bell Gardens Junior High and June and Jerry went to the high school there too.
Jerry & Dick ~ 1940
In the eighth grade, I took a horticulture class at school. Most of the kids in the class grew flowers, but I figured if I was going to spend all that time getting dirty, I was going to grow food. So I planted carrots, cabbage, squash and Mom made a lot of soup and stew using the vegetables that came out of that small patch. At the end of the semester, there was a flower show in the auditorium for all of the students. After the other kids had taken their bouquets, I went through picking the flowers left over and won first place.
In 1950, three friends and I decided we would take off and go to Oklahoma. One of the boys had a really nice car, but between us, we probably only had $10. After the first few days, in order to buy food, we started selling parts from the car and by the time we got Oklahoma there was not much left of it. I think we sold what was left of the car for $25, which didn’t last very long.
Because we were from California and had duck tail hair cuts no one would give us any work. We slept in the park for 12 hours, then moved to another park or we would have been arrested. I finally decided we had to get our hair cut, so I started picking up bottles and turning them in. When I got enough, I had my hair cut in the standard white sidewall cut. After that we got jobs picking cotton and broom corn. That is the hardest type of work there is. Our employer originally offered us $2.00 and lunch, but we ate so much that he told us we could either have the money or the lunch but he couldn’t afford both.
We took the money. We could buy a lot of bread, baloney and peanut butter for $2.00.
We finally decided we had had enough of farm life and decided to head back to California. We broke up into two groups, as we thought no one would a ride to four boys, but they would to only two.
Dick ~ 1945
The kid I was with was so green and naive; he believed every thing I told him. As we started across a really desolate part of the area, I was telling him how the place was just alive with rattlesnakes and Gila monsters and scorpions that would crawl right into our sleeping sacks. When I woke up in the morning, this kid was by the side of the road sitting on top of his suitcase trying to sleep. Just about that time a Greyhound bus was coming. It was going so fast it blew him off the suitcase and he started running through the brush yelling at me about all of the horrible things that were going to get him. Needless to say, he decided to get to a phone and call his parents to send him money so he could get home. I don’t think he ever spoke to me again, and I’m not sure why.
Dick with James and Jerry ~ 1954
Once when Jerry and I had been out of town, we came home and saw Al in the kitchen going over his income tax trying to cheat the government. We had just come back from Caliente and while we were there had bought some big fireworks. We couldn’t resist. After lighting the fuse, we quietly opened the door and rolled it under Al’s chair. When it went off, he reared up breaking the bulb in the lamp, and screamed, “Oh my God, they’ve shot me”.
Dick 1956 (top) and 1957 (bottom)
Jerry and I decided we had better sleep somewhere else and come home the next day, as if it were the first time. He suspected it was us but he could never prove it and we did a great job being innocent.
1955 ~ Fran & Luke’s home: Nick, Jim, Luke, Dick and Emmett
After Jerry became a jockey, he got me a job as an apprentice. We rode at Bay Meadows and Pleasanton in central California, Caliente in Tijuana and Pomona and Los Alamitos in southern California.
I was not in Jerry’s class as a jockey, but before and after I married Carol, I had quite a good reputation for breaking and getting young horses ready for the racetrack. I was even featured in an article in Quarter horse Magazine one month.
Once I went to Las Vegas to ride in a match race for one of the owners. When I won, he offered me ten acres of desert property or $200. Naturally I took the money, and now wished I had taken the property. It was just about where MGM Grand sits now. I think I spent most of the winnings on food for Mom, Carol Gene and Tommy.
One year, when I was 17, the trainer I was working for decided to go to Tucson, Arizona to the races at Rillito race track. We were staying with one of his friends on the outskirts of town and that was where I met Carol Sue.
Carol was quite popular at U of A when we met and had just broken up with a fellow she was going with. I think she married me on the rebound.
After James was born (he was named after Carol’s father), we moved to California and rented a house with Jerry and Dolly in Downey.
We then moved to El Monte across the street from the stables where I was working. While living there, we helped the next door neighbor (our landlord’s brother) build a swimming pool in his yard. When it was finished, we enjoyed it immensely, but I’d never do it again. The pool was about 10 x 20 feet and that is a lot of dirt to dig out with a shovel. We even taught Jim to swim before he was a year old.
Our next move was to Rosemead to probably my favorite house. It was here that Richie was born. We only lived there about a year, but it was a really nice house.
Dick with James ~ 1961
When I got a job on a ranch out in Chino, a house was provided, so we moved out there when Rich was about 4 months old. That was probably as drafty a house as I have ever lived in. When the wind blew (and it could stir up enough dust to block out the sun) the dirt would come through all of the cracks and pile up on the floor. If it blew at night, Jim would wake up in the morning with eyes and mouth caked with dirt.
Christmas at Fran & Luke’s
One day Jim climbed over the fence from our yard to the pasture where we kept the brood mares and started chasing the horses. He was only about two and a half, which was a good thing, because one of those mares came running by and kicked at him as she went by. If he had been about two inches taller she would have killed him. We put him back in our yard and warned him never to do that again. It wasn’t more than an hour later that we saw him trying to climb over the fence again. This time we put him back in the yard, tied a rope around his waist and tied the rope (with a lot of slack) to the clothesline. He just sat and cried for about twenty minutes, but when we untied the rope, he never again climbed over the fence.
After ten years working with horses, I decided to do something else. A friend offered me a job in L.A. working for Rapid Blue Print and I decided why not? I stayed with that company for 18 years until the owner died and the plant closed.
I guess I was sort of an adrenaline addict because I was bored, so I started riding broncs and Brahma bulls in the local rodeos. I did this for about four years until one day at a rodeo in Pico Rivera a bull hit me under the chin, knocking me unconscious, then when I was on the ground, proceeded to stomp all over me.
I woke up in the hospital and as our only car was at the rodeo grounds, I called Uncle Luke to ask him to pick me up at the hospital and take me to get the car. I drove home without any trouble, but everything from the time I got on the bull until the next morning is a complete blank and the only reason I know I did these things, was because I was told about them later. After that episode, I decided motorcycles were the thing. I had two or three different ones and had a ball.
After I quit riding, I didn’t have anything to do with livestock, so the boys were not really aware of my past. One day we went over to see Jerry and he offered to let the boys ride one of his older horses. When I was getting the horse ready, Richie looked up at me and said, “Gee Dad, do you know how to saddle a horse?”
One time Tom and I and a bunch of friends were riding up in the Big Bear in winter. The rangers asked us if we would go onto some of the back roads, to look for some lost hikers. That was a hairy ride. If you got a little off the road, you could disappear in the snow up to the neck. Someone else finally found the hikers, but we had a great time looking.
My sons ~ James and Richie
I tried Motocross and desert racing and enjoyed them all. When Jim got old enough I got him a bike and we did a lot of riding together.
After we bought our camper, I thought it would be nice if Carol could come along so I sold the motorcycles and bought a dune buggy. When that didn’t have enough power, I bought a Corvair Spyder with a turbo and had a dune buggy built. Until the day I sold it, no one ever outran me in the sand, either level racing or hill climbing. On the pavement, it was clocked at over 120 miles an hour. Of course, we had to be careful on the roads because it was not legal; no fenders or windshield.
Dick ~ 1998
I started shooting shotguns about 1959 and have been shooting in competitions ever since that time. I won my first trophy in 1961 at a shoot in Stockton and have been hooked ever since.
In about 1974, I was working as a service technician for Read & Co. in Los Angeles. One of the machine I had to service was at the Santa Monica Airport, so while I was there I decided to take flying lessons. After about 20 hours of flight time, I wanted to buy a plane. Carol and I looked around for awhile and settled on an older Cessna 150. We added a lot of electronics and some other goodies in the next couple of years and did a lot of flying all around southern California.
Of course, I had to finish my schooling and take the tests required to get a pilot’s license, and during that time, I really learned to study for the first time in my life. Besides just flying the plane, a pilot has to learn how to load so the plane is not overloaded, how to calculate flight turns and distances, and learn all about weather. It is almost like going to college, but a lot more fun.
Carol decided she needed to learn to fly, so she started taking lessons. As she was going to be the co-pilot most of the time, she learned to fly from the right seat. (In a small plane the pilot sits on the left-hand side).
Carol ~ 1998
The only problems we ever had were from our own carelessness. Once I didn’t shut my door properly and it kept trying to blow open while we were flying. Another time, we were coming back to Brackett Field in Pomona, where we parked the plane and almost ran out of gas before we got there.
Carol had a couple scary times. Once when she was flying back from Santa Monica with her instructor, the plane blew a cylinder. It only had four to begin with, so it did not want to stay in the air. However, the made it back to Brackett and we had to put in a new cylinder. Actually, it required two, because while working on the blown cylinder the mechanic noticed another one was in pretty bad shape, so we had that one repaired too.
We kept the plane about three years, but when we stopped flying enough to make it worthwhile to own it, we sold it. An airplane has to have a complete going over every year even if you never fly it at all. We had to pay for parking and the taxes on the land where our space was located. And, just like a car, we had to have full insurance coverage.
When so many of our dune buggy group died or moved away and so many areas were being closed to off road vehicles, we also sold our dune buggy.
Beula, the mid-wife with baby Dick
In 1980, I started working for Continental Graphics as a service technician. After about a year, I was promoted to Director of Engineering in charge of all building repairs and changes for fourteen facilities. When all of the new AQMD regulations became law, I was also required to keep the whole company in compliance. A penalty of $50,000 per day could be imposed for any violations, so it was mandatory to stay in compliance and we never had to pay any penalties the whole time I was in charge.
In the 1980's, I was an auxiliary with the San Bernardino Sheriff’s bomb squad. One of the requirements was to “ride the sled” which was a sled with a steel plate on the front. Each member was required to sit on the sled (with ear plugs and a helmet) as up to 10 sticks of dynamite were set off on the ground just in front of the steel plate. When that dynamite went off the sled was blown backwards and it was really a ride.
One year I helped with the disposal of illegal fireworks. All of the fireworks collected were placed in a big ditch out in the desert. When it was almost full, everything was covered with diesel fuel and set alight. That was the biggest display I have ever seen. There were M-80's and skyrockets plus all of the little firecrackers blowing up and shooting up in the air. What a great time!! It must have lasted for half an hour or more.
In 1992, I was invited to join a shooting group called the California Indians. They meet twice a year for a lot of shooting and a lot of festivities. The big shoot is in Reno where they have their “Iron Man” shoot, which is 1000 targets in 5 days. So far I have shot in 7 of them, but some of the members have over 20 years. I’m not sure I’ll make that distinction as it is really a grueling 5 days.
While I was working for Continental, I met a man who was interested in making recoil pads for shotguns, so we went into a partnership. He provided the machinery and I provided the know-how on recoil pads. It has now become almost half of their business.
Carol and I go to as many gun shows as possible, so the pads will become known and increase our sales. We now also sell to Winchester, Ithaca, Knight Rifle and two or three other small companies. We ship pads as far away as Israel and South Africa to gun manufacturers there.
Before we retired in 1996, we decided we were not going to stay home all of the time, so we bought a larger motor home, and we have spent at least 3 months in it every year since then. We have not made it back east yet, but are hoping to do that in the near future.
When we take our trips in the motor home, we always go to at least one gun show, so that we can deduct all of our expenses. That really makes it nice.
I have had some health problems this year and had to cut our trip short, but I am feeling much better. Next year will hopefully be a great year for all of us!
1994 ~ Dick and Carol near Yosemite
THE END OF UNCLE DICKIE"S STORY
My earliest memory is of a big iron pot boiling over an open fire in our backyard. Mom told me later that it must have been when we lived in Omaha, Nebraska and the pot was to boil the food for the pigs. I was not two years old yet, according to Mom.
I was born in Bunker, Missouri on November 27, 1935 but for 40 years we celebrated my birthday on the 25th, and I never did find out why. After my birth I was kept in the hospital after Mom went home but I had company. Russell and Betty were both there suffering from injuries they had received in an automobile accident.
We moved a lot of times while I was growing up because Al had to keep on the move to keep from being caught by people he had cheated in one way or another.
We were living in Moorpark, California when Carol Gene was born, and lived there about a year or so.
Richard Hiram Davis ~ Born: November 27, 1935 - Bunker, MI
Died: September 23, 2007 Married: January 31, 1953
Carol Sue Wirsching ~ Born: November 19, 1934 - Tucson, AZ Died:
Children:
James Steven Davis ~ Born: October 25, 1953 - Tucson, AZ
Richard Hunter Davis ~ Born: September 14, 1955 - Rosemead, CA
We then moved to Miami, Arizona where we lived way out in the desert with no amenities. We had an outdoor privy and had to carry water and heat it outside in a big washtub when we needed baths. The youngest was always bathed first and on up to the older ones who I’m not sure didn’t come out of the water just as dirty as they went in.
Richard ~ 1936
In the summer when the swimming pol was open we would walk about 10 miles or so to the town of Globe and just stand and watch the swimmers because we never had enough money (5 cents) to get in.
We had an old mule, and to get a little spending money, we would offer other kids rides. After they were on the mule, we would take them to a cleared area surrounded by goathead stickers and make them get off and walk. Of course, they could not walk very far because of the stickers, so we would offer to let them ride the mule out of the stickers if they gave us some money (from 1 to 5 cents depending on how well off their parents were).
Al was a deputy sheriff there for a while, but it wasn’t for long.
Moorpark 1938 or 1939
Once June, Jerry and I found an old truck tire and decided to roll to the top of a hill and let it go. We let it go and did we run. That tire went down that hill and crashed through the window of the hardware store. Thank God, Al never found out it was us or might not have survived.
After Tommy was born, we moved to Montgomery Creek, California as Al had a job working on the Shasta Dam. Again there were no amenities, and, after about 4 months, when it started to get really cold, we moved to southern California. I still remember how beautiful it was and have often wished we could have stayed there.
We moved to Bell Gardens, because Aunt Flossie lived there. We lived in a series of different homes until we finally wound up living in the big house on about 10 acres of land. There was a big barn and lots of trees and pastures. There was also a bunkhouse where Jerry and I slept most of the time when we got older.
Once I had been working in the stables mucking out the stalls and my boots were filthy. June had spent hours cleaning and waxing the kitchen floor on her hands and knees and told me I better not walk across her clean floor. Naturally I did. She picked up a butcher knife and threw it at me. I raised my arms in front of my face and that knife sliced both of my elbows to the bone, so not only did I get horse manure all over her clean floor, but also a lot of blood. She took me to the doctor, and then she went to stay at a friend’s house. She was afraid of what would happen to her when our folks found out.
We once had a small female dog, which came into heat and was being chased by all the male dogs in the neighborhood. I was standing in the gate opening when she came toward the house. She ran between my legs and the dogs following her knocked me down, ran over me and broke my leg. No one knew it was broken at the time, until Mom found me crawling across the floor trying to get a drink of water in the middle of the night.
Russell and Dick 1939 ~ Miami, AZ
We all went to Laguna School, which was just across the street from our home. When that was closed because the Edison Company needed the property, we went to Colmar, Bell Gardens Junior High and June and Jerry went to the high school there too.
Jerry & Dick ~ 1940
In the eighth grade, I took a horticulture class at school. Most of the kids in the class grew flowers, but I figured if I was going to spend all that time getting dirty, I was going to grow food. So I planted carrots, cabbage, squash and Mom made a lot of soup and stew using the vegetables that came out of that small patch. At the end of the semester, there was a flower show in the auditorium for all of the students. After the other kids had taken their bouquets, I went through picking the flowers left over and won first place.
In 1950, three friends and I decided we would take off and go to Oklahoma. One of the boys had a really nice car, but between us, we probably only had $10. After the first few days, in order to buy food, we started selling parts from the car and by the time we got Oklahoma there was not much left of it. I think we sold what was left of the car for $25, which didn’t last very long.
Because we were from California and had duck tail hair cuts no one would give us any work. We slept in the park for 12 hours, then moved to another park or we would have been arrested. I finally decided we had to get our hair cut, so I started picking up bottles and turning them in. When I got enough, I had my hair cut in the standard white sidewall cut. After that we got jobs picking cotton and broom corn. That is the hardest type of work there is. Our employer originally offered us $2.00 and lunch, but we ate so much that he told us we could either have the money or the lunch but he couldn’t afford both.
We took the money. We could buy a lot of bread, baloney and peanut butter for $2.00.
We finally decided we had had enough of farm life and decided to head back to California. We broke up into two groups, as we thought no one would a ride to four boys, but they would to only two.
Dick ~ 1945
The kid I was with was so green and naive; he believed every thing I told him. As we started across a really desolate part of the area, I was telling him how the place was just alive with rattlesnakes and Gila monsters and scorpions that would crawl right into our sleeping sacks. When I woke up in the morning, this kid was by the side of the road sitting on top of his suitcase trying to sleep. Just about that time a Greyhound bus was coming. It was going so fast it blew him off the suitcase and he started running through the brush yelling at me about all of the horrible things that were going to get him. Needless to say, he decided to get to a phone and call his parents to send him money so he could get home. I don’t think he ever spoke to me again, and I’m not sure why.
Dick with James and Jerry ~ 1954
Once when Jerry and I had been out of town, we came home and saw Al in the kitchen going over his income tax trying to cheat the government. We had just come back from Caliente and while we were there had bought some big fireworks. We couldn’t resist. After lighting the fuse, we quietly opened the door and rolled it under Al’s chair. When it went off, he reared up breaking the bulb in the lamp, and screamed, “Oh my God, they’ve shot me”.
Dick 1956 (top) and 1957 (bottom)
Jerry and I decided we had better sleep somewhere else and come home the next day, as if it were the first time. He suspected it was us but he could never prove it and we did a great job being innocent.
1955 ~ Fran & Luke’s home: Nick, Jim, Luke, Dick and Emmett
After Jerry became a jockey, he got me a job as an apprentice. We rode at Bay Meadows and Pleasanton in central California, Caliente in Tijuana and Pomona and Los Alamitos in southern California.
I was not in Jerry’s class as a jockey, but before and after I married Carol, I had quite a good reputation for breaking and getting young horses ready for the racetrack. I was even featured in an article in Quarter horse Magazine one month.
Once I went to Las Vegas to ride in a match race for one of the owners. When I won, he offered me ten acres of desert property or $200. Naturally I took the money, and now wished I had taken the property. It was just about where MGM Grand sits now. I think I spent most of the winnings on food for Mom, Carol Gene and Tommy.
One year, when I was 17, the trainer I was working for decided to go to Tucson, Arizona to the races at Rillito race track. We were staying with one of his friends on the outskirts of town and that was where I met Carol Sue.
Carol was quite popular at U of A when we met and had just broken up with a fellow she was going with. I think she married me on the rebound.
After James was born (he was named after Carol’s father), we moved to California and rented a house with Jerry and Dolly in Downey.
We then moved to El Monte across the street from the stables where I was working. While living there, we helped the next door neighbor (our landlord’s brother) build a swimming pool in his yard. When it was finished, we enjoyed it immensely, but I’d never do it again. The pool was about 10 x 20 feet and that is a lot of dirt to dig out with a shovel. We even taught Jim to swim before he was a year old.
Our next move was to Rosemead to probably my favorite house. It was here that Richie was born. We only lived there about a year, but it was a really nice house.
Dick with James ~ 1961
When I got a job on a ranch out in Chino, a house was provided, so we moved out there when Rich was about 4 months old. That was probably as drafty a house as I have ever lived in. When the wind blew (and it could stir up enough dust to block out the sun) the dirt would come through all of the cracks and pile up on the floor. If it blew at night, Jim would wake up in the morning with eyes and mouth caked with dirt.
Christmas at Fran & Luke’s
One day Jim climbed over the fence from our yard to the pasture where we kept the brood mares and started chasing the horses. He was only about two and a half, which was a good thing, because one of those mares came running by and kicked at him as she went by. If he had been about two inches taller she would have killed him. We put him back in our yard and warned him never to do that again. It wasn’t more than an hour later that we saw him trying to climb over the fence again. This time we put him back in the yard, tied a rope around his waist and tied the rope (with a lot of slack) to the clothesline. He just sat and cried for about twenty minutes, but when we untied the rope, he never again climbed over the fence.
After ten years working with horses, I decided to do something else. A friend offered me a job in L.A. working for Rapid Blue Print and I decided why not? I stayed with that company for 18 years until the owner died and the plant closed.
I guess I was sort of an adrenaline addict because I was bored, so I started riding broncs and Brahma bulls in the local rodeos. I did this for about four years until one day at a rodeo in Pico Rivera a bull hit me under the chin, knocking me unconscious, then when I was on the ground, proceeded to stomp all over me.
I woke up in the hospital and as our only car was at the rodeo grounds, I called Uncle Luke to ask him to pick me up at the hospital and take me to get the car. I drove home without any trouble, but everything from the time I got on the bull until the next morning is a complete blank and the only reason I know I did these things, was because I was told about them later. After that episode, I decided motorcycles were the thing. I had two or three different ones and had a ball.
After I quit riding, I didn’t have anything to do with livestock, so the boys were not really aware of my past. One day we went over to see Jerry and he offered to let the boys ride one of his older horses. When I was getting the horse ready, Richie looked up at me and said, “Gee Dad, do you know how to saddle a horse?”
One time Tom and I and a bunch of friends were riding up in the Big Bear in winter. The rangers asked us if we would go onto some of the back roads, to look for some lost hikers. That was a hairy ride. If you got a little off the road, you could disappear in the snow up to the neck. Someone else finally found the hikers, but we had a great time looking.
My sons ~ James and Richie
I tried Motocross and desert racing and enjoyed them all. When Jim got old enough I got him a bike and we did a lot of riding together.
After we bought our camper, I thought it would be nice if Carol could come along so I sold the motorcycles and bought a dune buggy. When that didn’t have enough power, I bought a Corvair Spyder with a turbo and had a dune buggy built. Until the day I sold it, no one ever outran me in the sand, either level racing or hill climbing. On the pavement, it was clocked at over 120 miles an hour. Of course, we had to be careful on the roads because it was not legal; no fenders or windshield.
Dick ~ 1998
I started shooting shotguns about 1959 and have been shooting in competitions ever since that time. I won my first trophy in 1961 at a shoot in Stockton and have been hooked ever since.
In about 1974, I was working as a service technician for Read & Co. in Los Angeles. One of the machine I had to service was at the Santa Monica Airport, so while I was there I decided to take flying lessons. After about 20 hours of flight time, I wanted to buy a plane. Carol and I looked around for awhile and settled on an older Cessna 150. We added a lot of electronics and some other goodies in the next couple of years and did a lot of flying all around southern California.
Of course, I had to finish my schooling and take the tests required to get a pilot’s license, and during that time, I really learned to study for the first time in my life. Besides just flying the plane, a pilot has to learn how to load so the plane is not overloaded, how to calculate flight turns and distances, and learn all about weather. It is almost like going to college, but a lot more fun.
Carol decided she needed to learn to fly, so she started taking lessons. As she was going to be the co-pilot most of the time, she learned to fly from the right seat. (In a small plane the pilot sits on the left-hand side).
Carol ~ 1998
The only problems we ever had were from our own carelessness. Once I didn’t shut my door properly and it kept trying to blow open while we were flying. Another time, we were coming back to Brackett Field in Pomona, where we parked the plane and almost ran out of gas before we got there.
Carol had a couple scary times. Once when she was flying back from Santa Monica with her instructor, the plane blew a cylinder. It only had four to begin with, so it did not want to stay in the air. However, the made it back to Brackett and we had to put in a new cylinder. Actually, it required two, because while working on the blown cylinder the mechanic noticed another one was in pretty bad shape, so we had that one repaired too.
We kept the plane about three years, but when we stopped flying enough to make it worthwhile to own it, we sold it. An airplane has to have a complete going over every year even if you never fly it at all. We had to pay for parking and the taxes on the land where our space was located. And, just like a car, we had to have full insurance coverage.
When so many of our dune buggy group died or moved away and so many areas were being closed to off road vehicles, we also sold our dune buggy.
Beula, the mid-wife with baby Dick
In 1980, I started working for Continental Graphics as a service technician. After about a year, I was promoted to Director of Engineering in charge of all building repairs and changes for fourteen facilities. When all of the new AQMD regulations became law, I was also required to keep the whole company in compliance. A penalty of $50,000 per day could be imposed for any violations, so it was mandatory to stay in compliance and we never had to pay any penalties the whole time I was in charge.
In the 1980's, I was an auxiliary with the San Bernardino Sheriff’s bomb squad. One of the requirements was to “ride the sled” which was a sled with a steel plate on the front. Each member was required to sit on the sled (with ear plugs and a helmet) as up to 10 sticks of dynamite were set off on the ground just in front of the steel plate. When that dynamite went off the sled was blown backwards and it was really a ride.
One year I helped with the disposal of illegal fireworks. All of the fireworks collected were placed in a big ditch out in the desert. When it was almost full, everything was covered with diesel fuel and set alight. That was the biggest display I have ever seen. There were M-80's and skyrockets plus all of the little firecrackers blowing up and shooting up in the air. What a great time!! It must have lasted for half an hour or more.
In 1992, I was invited to join a shooting group called the California Indians. They meet twice a year for a lot of shooting and a lot of festivities. The big shoot is in Reno where they have their “Iron Man” shoot, which is 1000 targets in 5 days. So far I have shot in 7 of them, but some of the members have over 20 years. I’m not sure I’ll make that distinction as it is really a grueling 5 days.
While I was working for Continental, I met a man who was interested in making recoil pads for shotguns, so we went into a partnership. He provided the machinery and I provided the know-how on recoil pads. It has now become almost half of their business.
Carol and I go to as many gun shows as possible, so the pads will become known and increase our sales. We now also sell to Winchester, Ithaca, Knight Rifle and two or three other small companies. We ship pads as far away as Israel and South Africa to gun manufacturers there.
Before we retired in 1996, we decided we were not going to stay home all of the time, so we bought a larger motor home, and we have spent at least 3 months in it every year since then. We have not made it back east yet, but are hoping to do that in the near future.
When we take our trips in the motor home, we always go to at least one gun show, so that we can deduct all of our expenses. That really makes it nice.
I have had some health problems this year and had to cut our trip short, but I am feeling much better. Next year will hopefully be a great year for all of us!
1994 ~ Dick and Carol near Yosemite
THE END OF UNCLE DICKIE"S STORY
Events
| Birth | 27 Nov 1935 | Bunker, Missouri, United States | |||
| Residence | 1940 | Simi, Ventura, California, United States |  | ||
| Marriage | 31 Jan 1953 | Carol Sue WIRSCHING | |||
| Death | 23 Sep 2007 | Riverside, Riverside, California, United States | |
Families
| Spouse | Carol Sue WIRSCHING (1934 - ) |
| Child | Living |
| Child | Living |
| Father | Lewis Alvin "Al" DAVIS (1890 - 1970) |
| Mother | Clara Ruth "Ruth" BRUCE (1901 - 1987) |
| Sibling | Living |
| Sibling | Lewis Jerry "Jerry" DAVIS (1934 - 2013) |
| Sibling | Living |
| Sibling | Living |
Endnotes
1. Ancestry.com, 1940 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012), Year: 1940; Census Place: Simi, Ventura, California; Roll: m-t0627-00364; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 56-41.
2. Ancestry.com, U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2014), Issue State: California; Issue Date: 1951.