Climbin' Up The Mountain: A salute to my Uncle David

On Jan. 31, 2012, I added the pictures in this post, which came from a stash of photos I inherited from my mother, Lorraine, who is David's older sister.

David played for Bingham High
School. I was young but remember
going to a couple of his games.

Today, Feb. 1, 2010, has been a shocking, sad day for my extended family on my Mom's side. Our Uncle David, brother to my mother, Lorraine, was found dead today after going missing following church Sunday. He was last seen by Elaine, his wife, when she decided to walk the two blocks home from church and Dave was to drive home in the car. Police found his car this morning after a missing person bulletin was posted overnight.
I'll miss Uncle David a lot! Some of the best memories were of playing basketball with David. He had a great hock shot, and he was a very good dribbler. When I was little, he loved teasing me by dribbling the basketball while I would try to get the ball. He would dribble it around his back, between his legs, over my head (I was really short) and I seldom could get the ball away from him. He played on the Bingham High School basketball team when the school was in Copperton. Bingham was a powerhouse in basketball back then. Vivian, David's older brother, was a senior when Dave was a sophomore, and I believe Clifford was a sophomore on the team when Dave was a senior. Everyone knew about the Butt basketball players. I remember mostly watching them play basketball in the driveway at their home in Copperton. I mostly watched because I was too little to play -- and they played a very aggressive game. Sometimes I would get to shoot around with them.

David, Elaine & Ronald lived down the street in Granger
for several years when I was a teenager.

When Merrill and I were young and living in Granger, Mom and Dad would take up to my Grandma and Grandpa Butts on Halloween. It was a great place to do trick or treating because the homes Copperton is very compact with the homes close together and the residence pretty well to-do -- at least back then. Most of them worked at Kennecott, and the mine was doing was doing quite well back then. Many times we would get regular-size candy bars. One of the highlights of Halloween at Grandmas was when Dave, Vivian and Clifford went all out and did a spook alley through their home. Guests would come in the front door and would be greeted by a Dave as a Monster, then Vivian would pop out of a florescent-painted coffin looking like a skeleton (Grandma used an old pair of flannel underwear and dyed them black and then painted the bones of the skeleton with florescent paint. Vivian did a mask over his head that was painted like a skull. Then Clifford came out of the hallway as Frankenstein and scared the visitors as they were looking at Vivian. Then they had to go through the kitchen and down the back stairs and out the back door. The whole living room, kitchen and back stairs were all decorated for the spook alley. This would have been back around 1958-1960. Probably just before Vivian went to college.

David's Missionary picture, 1961.

Dave went on a mission, setting the example for many of us younger guys in the extended family. Soon after he returned home, he was working at ZCMI. The workers used a freight elevator that had a light bulb that had gone out and hadn't been replaced yet. The workers got used to still using it. One day, Dave stepped into the elevator, but the elevator wasn't there. He fell to the bottom and landed on the top of the elevator, shattering his leg. I can't remember what else was broken, but I remember that the leg was what put Dave down in the hospital bed hooked up to a weight pulley on his leg for months and months. Elaine, his wife of more than 40 years, was one of the nurses that took care of him in the hospital. After he was released, he came to our hospital -- put was still in his hospital bed with the weight pulley for several more months. It was "fun" for us kids having him there, but I do remember needing to do a lot of fetching for him.
I remember a couple of teaching moments for us kids: Dave taught us the proper way to eat with a fork and a knife. "In your left hand, you take the fork and hold it with your index finger pressing against the back of the fork just at the bottom of the handle. Keep your elbow as low and you can and use the knife in your right hand, holding similarly. Then after making three small mouth-size cuts of the meat, you set the knife down and put the fork in your right hand and continue eating the different items on the plate until you need to slice more meat. Repeat as needed."

Front cover of David's
Mission Farewell.

I'm telling you, it made a good impression on the girls at school when they saw the proper way I ate. (Well, I thought so, anyway.)
Also, he taught Merrill and me an important lesson in the nuances of girl and boy relations: "When you pass the bath of a good-looking girl, don't make any weird comments or whistle at her or them. Just give them a smile and continue on -- and especially don't look back. That's a no-no. Even if they turn and look at you, still continue on. If by chance you might up with them again, they may show more interest." I know I tried to follow his advice, but I doubt it helped me any.
After being stuck in a hospital bed for months and months, several of those at our house, Dave finally was able to get out of bed and get around. What was one of the first things he did? I'm pretty sure it was dating Elaine.
He still lived with us for several weeks after he started getting around, but even when he moved home, he would often come by on the weekends after a late date and come into the boys room and crawl into bed.
One night, I was awaken by the squeaky floor boards in the hallway. I was sure it was a monster coming down the hall to get me. When I heard the bedroom door handle and the door squeaking, I was positive I was a goner. When I felt the breath of the "monster" on my neck -- I was shaking with dread! Then I heard the words: "Hey, Lee, where should I sleep tonight?"

Left two inside pages of David's Farewell program.

Oh, it's just David! I'm safe! No monster! Just David!
It didn't seem like too much longer after that that Dave and Elaine married.
Dave walked with a limp most of his live -- and had at least two knee replacements (or was it hip replacements?). He also battled diabetes for many years. Diabetes had claimed his sister, Idella, two brothers, Clayton and Sylvan, and was a factor in my mother's suffering, too, though she died of an aneurysm.
When I returned home from my mission and had to have my left leg amputated because of bone cancer, Dave served as an inspiration to me. He had suffered so much because of the elevator accident -- which changed his life forever. But he was happily married and had a great family. That became my goal: I would go on despite having just one leg, go to college, get a job and most importantly find a sweetheart like Dave had found, get married and have a family.

One of the highlights during my recovery was going to the movies with Dave, Elaine, Vivian, Doris and my Mom. Our favorite theater back then was the doomed Century Theater off State Street and 3300 South. I remember going to Towering Inferno with them. At that time, all of us lived in the same ward in Granger (now West Valley City).

In October of 1971, while I was still recovering from the amputation of my left leg, I decided that we should replicate the spook alley that Dave, Vivian and Clifford had done up in Copperton. Dave and Elaine lived just down the road from us at this time, and he, Merrill and I re-created the spook alley -- with a few twists. Merrill became the monster with a bloody machete, Dave was Frankenstein and I was a poor victim of a machete attack. We stuffed one of Mom's nylon stockings and placed it below my stump as I laid on a bench in the kitchen near the back door. I had painted the end of my leg stump like blood and bones -- very ghastly. Dad was outside and directed the visitors through the back door. He had piped load Halloween music outside from his stereo system in the living room. As they stepped into the kitchen, Merrill would step from the side of the fridge and swing the machete at my leg, the leg would fall off onto the ground, and I would shake my stump and scream like I had had my leg chopped off! It was pretty "bad." Then Dave would step out from the hallway in the living room and would complete the fright as the kids and parents left through the front door. It was pretty cool! Dad had to stop a lot of the little kids and give them candy out in the driveway because our spook alley was too scary for little kids -- and really too much for a lot of the older kids. They said the machete attack was too real! They wondered how we were able to make it look so real! Dave was the link between the first spook alley and our spook alley.

David outside home in Copperton.

Over the years, I had the chance to listen to Dave talk in church many times. I loved listening to his talks and enjoyed talking church with him.
After I went off to college, I didn't have as much to do with them as I would have liked, but while Mom was still alive, we always seemed to get together on holidays or near holidays, for Christmas. But after Mom passed away and I got tied up with Hunt Mysteries, we didn't get together near enough!

Elaine & David at "Godfather of the Bride."

Elaine, Vicki Voss as Carla Beckenstein and Dave at performance of "Godfather of the Bride" at Gray Cliff Lodge in Ogden Canyon.
Dave and Elaine came to several of our shows -- many of them were close to where they lived when they were living in Liberty in Ogden Valley.
The last time we got together with them was at the funeral for Margaret, Clifford's wife, who passed away just a few months ago after her battle with cancer.

I'll miss David, but he and Mom can now catch up on things up there. And maybe he'll find another mission.

Dave was 70 years old. I'll be 60 years old this month. He was only 10 years older! That's not a big difference when you get our age! My dad, Warren, just turned 86 years old. Dad was shocked and saddened, too, over the news. Dad always seemed to enjoy being around Dave. There was a lot of connections -- Dave's missionary years, the times he lived with us and the time when we all were in the same ward. Those were good times.
I'll miss Dave, but I'll be seeing him pretty soon I suppose. (Oh, Heather, my daughter, says I'm not supposed to say that last part! Sorry!)