Patterson Reunion Sunday
July 3
Great Dave and Lucie gave their annual state of the Pattersons address
in the morning. This was more poignant because Dave had a heart attack
last August. When he was told he was having a heart attack, he knew
that he had only a 50-50 chance of making it, and one of his regrets
was that he might not get to tell everyone what he wanted to tell
them. So he did Sunday morning.
He first told the Patterson men that the best gift a father could give
his children was to love and respect their mother. (This comment was
met with nodding approvals by all the Patterson women.) He then quoted
an Abraham Lincoln saying about not liking someone, so that just meant
he just needed to get to know him better, meaning that you should just
get along with everyone. His third point was the importance of
controlling your anger, and some random reason he made eye contact with
Grand Dave throughout this section of his remarks. His fourth point was
a story of a golfing friend who was made that his granddaughter had
"disfigured herself" because she tatooed a butterfly on her ankle.
Grand Dave pointed out that this was foolish as it was a minor
act, especially since this friend also had a tattoo on his arm that he
got while in the Navy. (Zackary was holding her breath waiting to hear
the end of this story.)
There were a few more examples, but his last was that he recently read
that when couples get mad, they should go to bed. Everyone else was
sure the advice was when you have a fight, to NOT to go to bed mad, so
we think he actually did get a chance to say all the important things
he needed to say, making it clear that his tank was empty.
Lucie Patterson then gave highlights of what every one of her family
had done in the past year. Paul lettered in varsity football. Brian
graduated from high school and was the valedictorian, and won
fellowships to defray the costs of going to University of Idaho in the
fall. Alissa and Melissa were doing very well at their colleges, and
both plan to go to graduate school. Lyle is composing music in college
and Laura is teaching and making beautiful clothing. Mike and Heather
bought a house in Albany, where they grew up, and Heather was hired as
an editor of a web site. Zackary taught improv at the local high school
and then organized two plays for children using her high school
improvisers, with Dave acting as stage manager. Sue is being pursued
for another job, while Don took a new job even further north in Idaho.
Linda and Lloyd have been selected to produce 12 one-hour specials on
boating in high-definition for a new Outdoor Cable Channel, and alas
were so busy working on them that they couldn’t attend. Grand Linda
finished her painting “Seal Rock Paradise,” which is now for sale as a
print and as a jewelry box in several Santa Cruz stores. Grand Dave won
a couple of awards, and is in his second year as president of a large
professional organization (ACM). The big news, however, is that John
proposed to his girlfriend Julie Winnike and they will be married March
18, a few months before both graduate from Texas A&M. Perhaps half
of the Patterson clan is planning on being in Texas for the wedding.
Just as Great Dave’s narrow escape made him worry that he wouldn’t be
able to tell us important things, we worried that we wouldn’t be able
to tell the Greats how important they were to us. And so we did.
Grand Dave thanked Great Lucie for her optimism. For example, as a
young couple with an infant she spent their savings on a fancy dinner
when her husband lost his job because this meant he was about to get a
better one. He then thanked his father for his storytelling, which led
to the book writing that paid for the beach home. Grand Linda recalled
her visit to their home when she was 16, and noted the respect that
everyone in the family received. She decided to raise her family the
same way. She also thanked them for providing a safety net, knowing
that they would always take her family in if anything went wrong.
She also said he was the best Dad she ever had. (He replied that he was
the only one that stuck around.)
Don thanked Great Dave for teaching him golf, as he was the only golf
instructor he ever had. Pat thanked them for being the people who
replaced her family, most of whom had passed on. Melissa mentioned that
she enjoyed their story telling so much that she decided to major in
history.
David recalled when as a teenager he was into heavy metal, and wondered
how his grandmother would take it. He was taken aback when she told him
she liked his new haircut (Grand Lucie admitted Sunday that she had
lied, but her acceptance of his attire helped their relationship.)
Years later Great Dave arrived with a baseball cap with a gray ponytail
down his back, and asked David how he liked it. He recalled the heavy
metal story, and told his grandfather that it looked great. Great Dave
then removed the cap and the ponytail, to David's relief, and we all
laughed. Mike and Heather then volunteered that they patterned their
married lives around Great Dave and Lucie.
The most emotional testimony came from Sue. With tears coming down her
face, she said that she could never had made it through her divorce
without their unconditional love, and she then pledged to her children
that she would be there for them no matter what bumps life would give
them.
Zackary concluded commenting how welcome that she felt. It appeared
that as long as Dave loved Zackary, that was good enough for the
Greats. She then showed them what Owyn had decided to show how they
felt about them. Owyn stretched her arms up, leaned back, and yelled
“Yeah!” Owyn expected everyone to join her, so she became the official
cheerleader, and we called this applause “doing an Owyn.”
After that moving morning, we went our various ways, with a large group
making pottery. Great Dave, Don, Brian, John, Melissa, and Paul went to
the driving range to gear up for golfing. Grand Dave and the Pinolies
riding bikes to the top of the UCSC campus, where Dave showed Zackary
his old stomping grounds. The 10-mile round trip gains about 800 feet
of elevation. Zackary made it to the top without stopping, despite
having the giant Owyn on her bike.
That evening we went to the beach for a barbeque, getting the second to
last fire ring at Seabright Beach just before 6 PM. The cousins played
football at the beach while waiting for everyone to arrive. Lyle and
Laura drove up and arrived before 8 PM. Everyone cooked their own beef
or tofu hot dogs over the fire, followed by S’mores. Given the Costco
limits of chocolate offerings, we tried several ways to melt thick
Hershey bars or Nestle’s Crunch. The successful technique involved
using a graham cracker as a frying pan with the chocolate wedged
between it and the fork, but it sacrificed the graham cracker. Next
year we’ll find thinner chocolate.
