Mamma was a strong believer in heredity, and she believed our family's
German heritage predisposed us to two things: hard work and
stubbornness. The gene for hard work lay pretty low in us kids while
we were growing up, but stubbornness kicked in fast.
So one might say that what happened one summer evening in the late
1940s was all our ancestors' doing.
Daddy was getting ready to go to a church board meeting. Four-year-old
Davie wanted to go to the board meeting too. (Right from the start,
Davie liked to go places, while Mamma, Daddy, and I liked to stay
places.) We explained that board meetings were for grownups only. He
still wanted to go. We explained that board meetings were for board
members only. He still wanted to go. We all stood around the bedroom,
while Daddy knotted his tie and combed his hair, and we took turns
explaining what a miserable time Davie would have at a board meeting.
By that time the conversation was getting heated and tears were
beginning to flow, but also by that time Daddy was ready to leave and
it was time to leave, so he left.
I watched the cloud of dust as the little black Chevy coupe sped up
the hill next to our Montana farmhouse. And then I noticed at the rear
of the dust cloud a tiny figure. Davie on his tricycle was bravely
pedaling after. Clearly he intended to tricycle the five miles to the
board meeting.
I watched him for several minutes. He got up some pretty good speed on
the slope down toward the creek. But then the hill began, and the
lower part of the hill was almost vertical. The tricycle wheels moved
slower and slower, but Davie's legs were still pushing. Davie wasn't
giving up.
About that time I thought to tell Mamma, and she realized what