Rick Neel: DTD at MC #14

Good Morining everyone!

Well it has been a while since I have written, time has really flown by this past weekend with my brackets being blown to smithereens!

Gosh have there been some upsets or what? But now I have a couple of days to do other things, like go to spring training baseball games (that's today!)

Well there is only a month to go for the golf outing, April 22nd. I'm starting to get excited to go home and see all of you.

I even got lucky, my airline tickets were only $187.00 round trip. I expected to pay more with all the talk about gas prices going up. So there is no excuse for the rest of you!

The price for the outing, in case you didn't know, is $50. And it will be at the Golf Club of WV, in Waverly. Right by the Jungle Drive In (which has been in operationsince 1952 - the owners told me that last summer when I went there).

I've been asking for you to send me short little stories as towhat you have been up to since college for your brothers.

I've gottensome, and passed them along. But nothing lately, so I'm going to tell a story about my Big Brother, Darrell Pritchard (forgive me Pritch).

Darrell and I met (we think) in first grade. Then fell out of touch until I pledged in '70. He was still a pledge also but from theprevious year. And he activated before I did (I think), so I chose him as my Big. We have stayed in touch through the years and live in the same town now.

So here is his story.

Darrell has taken the "other road" since he graduated. He wasn't happy in Marietta and really had no place that he needed to be, so he remembered a trip through the west he made while in high school, and how much he liked the Tucson area, so he loaded up his motorcycle and moved to Tucson.

When he got here, after working several management type jobs and not really liking any of them (he says that the best thing that came out of those years was Lori, his wife of over 20 years), he decided that the reason that he came to Tucson was the weather, so he was going to be outside and enjoy it.

So he decided that he would become a carpenter, which he did for several years until he became the father of 2 boys. So he and Lori swapped the "traditional" roles, she became the professional and worked the days while Darrell went to work atKmart as a night stocker and stayed home with the boys during the day. It was a role that he enjoyed immensely, going to the park ... all of that.

When the boys got old enough for school, he continued working nights but started his own contracting business during the day, and yet still allow him to be home when the boys got there.

When the boys got older and didn't need him to be home when they got home from school, Darrell quit the job at Kmart (nights get old after a while, and they were old for him!) and got a job with the school board in maintence which befit his experience in carpentry, and "got me a position that would help pay for my retirement". That'swhere he is now.

All through the years here in Tucson, Darrell has continue to run, something he did in college (cross country), he says that he MAY have been the Delts' first jock. He has always said that running is something that he does to relax himself, and he misses that he can'tdo it anymore, due to the cartilage in his knee just being worn out.

That's Darrell's story, from my mouth. Hope I didn't make him mad with it.

The rest of you, send me in something so I can share itwith the rest of us. And start to think about something to share forthe 40th anninversary of the chapter (2008), as I'm going to suggest to Shawn Selby that he consider a section like that on everyone of us (400 strong now).

See you at the golf outing next month. And in 2008, for the anniversary.

Rick Neel '73