Having declared our family "the nice family" in an earlier post, I have to mention my cousin, Rich Thacker. He was the oldest of George and Della's grandkids, or the "baby boomer" cousins if you wish.
Talk about leading by example! Though I never spent that much time with him, even when we were young, it was easy to know that Rich was exceptionally nice. As the oldest, the natural thing to do would seem to be to "rule the roost" or maybe to avoid all of us little rug rats. Especially with 4 little brothers to contend with every day and 11 males in the boomer generation at family get-togethers.
I think, and I've heard others say, that Rich was the member of our generation most like our grandfather. He certainly had the same shy laugh and smile. We was equally soft-spoken. And equally kind.
I believe Rich was the only member of our generation to serve in the armed forces. He was in the Air Force, and served in Vietnam servicing planes. His exposure to Agent Orange may have led to his death, although I'm not sure anyone will ever know.
He was the first of our generation to die. He was sick for a very long time, and had many setbacks along the way. He eventually had to give up his teaching career. I've had two teacher friends who had to quit teaching due to catastrophic illness, and I know that the decision to retire wasn't easy.
I probably had the least contact with Rich once we became adults. When Teri and I moved to Florida, we really missed most of the family events thereafter. Even though we came home every year for Christmas until the kids were in their late teens, we eventually stopped having the large Dixon gathering at Christmas as too many of us were out-of-state and trying to attend too many disparate family events. The last one I remember was held at an old building in Middleton. I also remember one of the latter gatherings was at an old reserve training center next to Shadyside Park on Broadway in Anderson. Those were always such great times. And one of the great things was being able to see Rich for a few moments.
I'll leave it to others to fill in some of the details of Rich's life and I'll pass the information along here and in the Wiki, once it is active.
Talk about leading by example! Though I never spent that much time with him, even when we were young, it was easy to know that Rich was exceptionally nice. As the oldest, the natural thing to do would seem to be to "rule the roost" or maybe to avoid all of us little rug rats. Especially with 4 little brothers to contend with every day and 11 males in the boomer generation at family get-togethers.
I think, and I've heard others say, that Rich was the member of our generation most like our grandfather. He certainly had the same shy laugh and smile. We was equally soft-spoken. And equally kind.
I believe Rich was the only member of our generation to serve in the armed forces. He was in the Air Force, and served in Vietnam servicing planes. His exposure to Agent Orange may have led to his death, although I'm not sure anyone will ever know.
He was the first of our generation to die. He was sick for a very long time, and had many setbacks along the way. He eventually had to give up his teaching career. I've had two teacher friends who had to quit teaching due to catastrophic illness, and I know that the decision to retire wasn't easy.
I probably had the least contact with Rich once we became adults. When Teri and I moved to Florida, we really missed most of the family events thereafter. Even though we came home every year for Christmas until the kids were in their late teens, we eventually stopped having the large Dixon gathering at Christmas as too many of us were out-of-state and trying to attend too many disparate family events. The last one I remember was held at an old building in Middleton. I also remember one of the latter gatherings was at an old reserve training center next to Shadyside Park on Broadway in Anderson. Those were always such great times. And one of the great things was being able to see Rich for a few moments.
I'll leave it to others to fill in some of the details of Rich's life and I'll pass the information along here and in the Wiki, once it is active.
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