When I think about Mom and Dad I remember playing outside the window where mom would let me and Ben make huge mud puddles and play in them smearing mud all over ourselves until mom would come out and tell us to stop making such a huge mess.

I remember them taking us camping to strange a beautiful places. remember being raised on honey and carob and fresh milk from a farm. We would go with mom or dad to the nearest Co-Op to get honey and fresh milk. Dad used to play fun games with us in the snow, he taught us how to play 'Fox and Geese' in the snow. We would bring in big bowls of snow in the winter and we would poor milk and honey into the snow and eat it.

We would go down the street to the nearest swimming hole in the woods and would play with frogs and crawdads and dad would help us build little dams and wading pools. I remember mom getting bored out of her mind on some days, so she would load us into the van to go swimming in places like Arrowhead Lake. I remember mom making homemade candy from honey. She would show us how to pull it and pull it and pull it like taffy until it became like a caramel.
We’ve had a garden just about everywhere we’ve lived and I remember working side by side with both of them growing vegetables, fruits and herbs. One time in the McCrary house in NC we had to clear a spot for the garden and I remember having fun clearing shrubs and digging up holes to make the garden.
Dad always had a firm but loving hand in the way that he raised us. Like when we’d get in trouble, he’d always lecture us very sternly and then explain the why’s of the consequences and so would mom. There were always good lessons in everything they taught us in gardening, reading and planning together as a family. Dad always read us good and interesting books, he used to love to read us stories. Looking back on it, reading to us like that was probably a good way of keeping us in a good home with good values instead of us being out and about getting into trouble.
They would always teach us good values out of the scriptures. Even to this day they’ll round whoever is home up for scripture study. They always taught that serving a mission wasn’t just a good idea but a commandment from the Lord. They tried to teach us all good manners and a dignified way to dress and act properly. They always taught us to have good manners and to be respectful when in guests’ homes. We would learn responsibilities from feeding the dog, washing the cars or having doing the dishes on our “dishes night” or fixing meals. I have mom to thank for not minding doing dishes so much these days in fact I find it almost therapeutic. If mom hadn’t talked me into doing dishes when it was my turn all the time, I would probably hate doing them now. None of us would have made it to be Eagle Scouts if it weren’t for mom.
I know they always tried to help each one of us through the hard times in our own lives. Whether it was tough times at school or trouble with boys and girls at school or just growing up, you know growing pains and the like.
Mom and dad always taught us that if you have a goal or something in mind that you want you have to reach out and grab it and take it. Whether it’s career oriented or a talent or skill that you want to acquire. You know like my art. In fact artwork has become a running tradition in our family because of that. I guess that what I’m trying to say is that they taught us to work for what we want to accomplish, for our goals, and if we do it’s a lot more satisfying. If you don’t have to work for something then it’s a lot easier for it to fall by the wayside and you won’t appreciate it. You have earn your own way in this world, you can’t just have things handed to you. Thank you for teaching me all of these important life lessons and how to be a good parent. I love you guys.

Love,

Darby

From Janet

What can I say? Your Father was born July 29, 1942. He was supposed to be a girl. I had two brothers already. Oh well such is life. I was only seven so I'm not sure about this but I understand he never wore diapers. I admit I dropped him on his head, but in my defense he was little, about a year old he should have out grown it. Don't you think?
When we moved to Quincy and our new lawn was near death he took the shovel a big tin can and rode a mile or two into the country on his bike and returned with the can full of earth worms. He scattered the worms on our very sick lawn and it lived.

With Uncle Lyle's help they made a KILLER batch of cookies--equal parts of salt and sugar. He gave himself a haircut and covered the mistakes with shoe polish. He loved to work in the garden with Mom and Dad.

Little brother, affectionately known as Teeny Deany, you along with your dear wife Lily have raised an awesome family. CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR 40th ANNIVERSARY.
I love you both
-Janet

From Boyd

When I called Boyd to enlist his participation in this project, suffice it to say, he didn't have any idea what a blog was. I think he said something about not knowing "how to even turn the darn thing on" and that he wasn't "even sure that emails existed." That he preferred " a rotary dial with an operator on the other end" After pullin' my leg clean off and making my belly ache from so much laughing, he told me his Sweetie Pie would help him out when she returned from out of town. When she got back and unravelled the mysteries of the email I had sent him, he read how he could dictate over the phone and opted for that route.


He told me about how back in the day, he used to have to go to Grandma's house to use the phone once a week, but preferred riding his quarter horse around. The phone number was 410J (I may have written that down wrong) and they shared the line with four other families. You cranked it a few times and told the operator who you wanted to talk to. Usually all you had to say was the name and she'd know how to connect you. BUT ANYWAY...

Then he dictated the following to me.... I'll try to get it as close to his actual words as my notes allow:

"If there's one thing about Dean, it's his creative memory. He likes to tell how, as a wee babe, he potty trained himself. I'm sure he's made more than a few think he was a child prodigy with that yarn, but what I'd like to know is how in the hell he made the trek from the house to the out house, 'cause that's what we had back in those days, without fallin' in the hole? That's what I'd like to know!"

And then there's the legend of the Great Dean and his haircut...
One day when Lyle and Dad were going in to town to the barber to get their hair cut, Dean got upset over somethin' and lost the privilege of going into town. Hell, I was workin' in the fields with the hired man, so he wasn't left all alone. He was about 9 or 10 or maybe even younger at the time. He decided to get Mom's haircuttin' stuff and just do it himself. Now that consisted of some spring loaded clippers, which half the time pulled out just as much hair as they clipped 'cause the human hand can only move so fast. Now if you are doing this to yourself, and you may or may not be using a mirror... anyway he got it to where he had it like a mohawk on top and he knew he'd messed up. So then he got lookin' around in Mom's stuff and found some black shoe polish and figured since he had such dark hair he could fix it with that and no one would be the wiser.

From a block away you could see somethin' was wrong, and it just got funnier and funnier the closer you got. HE WAS SUCH A HARD HEADED LITTLE VARMINT!! Lyle, who is just a little older than him, takes after Mom, he's quiet, mellow and easy going, but Dean got a lot of those Davis genes in him...but thankfully he got just enough of Mom in him to make him bearable. (tongue in cheek)


He said to make sure I told you congratulations and to give you his best tomorrow.

Can you guess which way he votes on the T-shirt poll?

As for the other poll, He said it was a close one, but decided Lili was the most innocent minded. She's always insisting that's the case, but none of us believe her. You have a new reason to love Boyd, Mom.

From Libbi

What I remember most is how loving they have always been my entire life and their beautiful smiles everytime you meet them with open arms. Also I used the get mixed up when I was little and I would slip out the Lean and Dili. Wow! silly kids, so glad not to be one anymore, in most ways that is :0) Oh, I just think it's the coolest thing that they are still together going 40 years strong. I'm so happy for them and all of you kids to be so blessed with your beautiful amazing family!!!
Much Love ~ Libbi