I really enjoyed Barbara's story about Garfield and Dwight. Growing up at Albright church and at family functions, they were always around. I distinctly remember Garfield's sense of humor, and how he would get a twinkle in his eyes when he would tease me about something. I also liked talking to him because two of my passions, service in the Navy and photography, were also of great interest to him.
I also remember long conversations with Dwight about cars. He became a big fan of Toyota sedans, as I recall, and there was always a certain amount of banter about one car vs. another. And on those rare occasions when we went to Notre Dame events, we always parked at Dwight's house.
To everyone, please keep the stories coming. As Tom, Dale, and I work on the family genealogy, we have trouble collecting the best part - the stories behind the data. Names and dates are of little interest if the family history behind each person is not included. This blog is a great way to share and collect those stories.
As we lose our family members, we no longer have their company, but we can always remember them and their stories. Let's keep that alive.
Craig Walker
4 comments:
We talked to Dwight last week about his trips. He told us again his story about his 1952 road trip to California and I finished scanning the slides for that trip the night before he died. I told Dwight that day we met how he was a fixture at Walker events: He and Norma Jean were always there. My objective on this trip was to spend time with Dwight and try to record some of his stories. Now it is too late.
But it is not too late to help with his pictures. Last night I completed scanning his 1958 trip to California. These travel pictures also tell a story and they offer a treasure trove.
Dwight was doing road trips before the word was invented. He has told me numerous times about his trip to western Iowa to see his great-great Uncle Joe Moore. He went with his parents and grandparents by car. He tells about how our grandfather would not drink anything from a bottle.
I noticed that in the blog for the last couple of months we have lost 2 of our cousins and had 1 birth and 1 wedding over that same period of time. Such is the cycle of life.
Craig, I suspect that you or someone else knows this instance better than I, but my recollection is that Dwight and Garfield designed a system to computer control the heating in the Albright church by zone. As I remember the demonstration at one of the reunions, a personal computer (Commodore 64 or TRS 80 ??) was programmed to turn heat on or off based on the scheduled activity times.
How good is my memory?
Ray - They may have played a part in the conceptual idea, but I believe Bill Johnston was the one who put the computerized heating controls in.
Jack is right; it was Bill Johnston who designed the computer-controlled heating system (with a Commodore 64!) and my dad who etched all the circuit boards. And there were a lot of them! If I heard Bill correctly, they were still functioning when the church burned. But you should SEE the new heating system they will have after the construction is finished. Pastor Ingle took us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the new part of the church when we were there for Dad's services. Dad would have loved it...
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