A Tribute To Daryl

A Tribute To Daryl

First, it's a great honor to make a tribute to Daryl. This barely touches the remarkable life he lived.

I've been thinking about the time Daryl and I spent together. We played soccer, tennis, racquetball, pool, washers, horseshoes, frisbee golf - even regular golf together. Daryl was a competitor. I was top of my tennis class. Daryl was my toughest match. If I remember correctly, he got his swing from Mrs. Matthews. We were always fixing my cars which were always broken. Unlike me who ran his car on oil turned to tar balls, Daryl meticulously recorded each and every detail he did on his truck from regular 3000 mile oil changes to brake pad changes. Daryl and I spent countless hours sitting on the back porch talking about the day's events and dreams of the future. In the summer, he'd tell me about his days flagging on the highway. I got a new story each day. I loved them – especially the ones where people tried to get around Daryl while he was holding a flag to stop them. He got so fired up over that. We went to Austin Community College together. We shared the same teachers. We spent night after night in "the shed" doing homework. After homework, we played straight dominoes, chess, Stratego, rummy, lifted weights and hung upside down like bats from the ceiling with those boots with hooks on the end to do situps. That was Gerald's idea. Situps on the floor were for pansies. It was also Gerald's idea to have Daryl and I make him an arsenal of bullets - which we did. If there is an apocolypse, I don't know if I'd be more scared of the enemy or the bullets we assembled. We frequented a bar in Redrock to play pickup dominoes. I went camping with Daryl a lot. We went in Daryl's truck to New Mexico a couple times. I remember waking up in the camper, somewhere in the desert, to a cold, crisp morning after Daryl driving all night. We hiked Big Bend together. I remember going out with Daryl to the nightclubs. Daryl, in blue jeans, thin blonde mustache, so not cool, would do "the robot", to the wrong song, while everybody else danced normal. Daryl was keeping Austin weird. We fished lake Somerville a few times in Daryl's john boat. I caught stick after stick convinced each one was a big fish, “Daryl! I got one! It's a big one!” I can't tell you how many good times we had together. Daryl made my late teens to mid-twenties a great place, full of life. He was my right hand man while bursting into the world. I was shot gun. He was at the wheel. 

Daryl was as competitive as I was. We were always neck and neck in everything - from sports all the way to chess. We even had a competition memorizing pi. The number pi wrapped the math room. I had it memorized to 40 digits or so. Daryl had me beat.

We got to team up when we played 42. We were no longer competitors – we were a team. I loved playing with Daryl. The night before my wedding, I had a bachelor party playing 42. I wanted Daryl as my partner. I always wanted Daryl as my partner. I had the most fun and won the most with him. My bachelor party was head to head combat with Joel and Trae (or was it Benji!?!). Daryl and I never gave each other tells, but he knew that I was thinking what he was thinking what I was thinking what they were thinking what I was thinking what he was thinking – We did The Vulcan Mind Meld – so he'd throw the right domino. We could go that far. If we were on, we were invincible. We knew each other that well. If I threw a double six and the six four didn't show, I could almost guarantee I'd know whether or not Daryl had the 6/4. I hand made a set of wooden dominoes. When I made the set, I made one domino a day for a month. After making a domino, I'd dedicate it to somebody. Daryl was the 6/4 – he always had me covered by trump and/or by count.
There is so much more I could tell - dutch ovens, "oranch surprise", pushing that diesel Golf Volkswagon half the night to Plantersville, homemade ice cream, roasting chickens on the open pit, floating the San Marcos river, camping in Wimberly, eating Mexican food in east Austin, riding donkeys to Boquillas, playing pool, Spock-Scotty-McCoy-Captain Kirk impressions, President Nixon impressions, Holy Ghost filled preacher impressions, hot springs in the desert, singing the blues, dancing to live Rock-a-Billy music at the Black Cat, sombreros in Mexico, crunching through snow in the Gila Wilderness, working through Calculus I, II and III, changing oil, sitting by the woodstove.

We partied on.

I can't believe the person that I share so many great memories with is gone. It saddens me deeply. He was truly a great friend. When I heard somebody had passed away, I said, "... not Daryl."

What all this brings back is how wonderful it was. Daryl was the pilot. If so, I'd be Spock, who I will quote, "Each of us... at some time in our lives, turns to someone - a father, a brother, a God... and asks...'Why am I here? What was I meant to be?'" Those were the questions I wrestled with with Daryl on the back porch, in the kitchen, under stars, by camp fires, on road trips, in mountains, on lakes and along streams.

Daryl didn't stop to think when it came to helping somebody, that is just what he did. It is who he was - an honest-to-goodness, solid, sweet soul. I was very honored to have Daryl as the best man in my wedding and most honored to write this tribute to him. Daryl was always there for me, not just me, but anybody who needed help. It's such a tragedy to see him go. The world just lost a big heaping bowl of goodness.

Daryl and I went to church in North Austin together. One time a group of us went to Corpus Christi. I'm not sure if it was at that time that Daryl fell head over heels for Phyllis, but at some point I remember, distinctly, Daryl singing:

I love to sing-a
About the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a,
I love to sing-a,
About a sky so blue-a, or a tea for two-a,
Anything-a with a swing-a to an "I love you-a,"
I love to, I love to sing-a!

He sang it over and over. Each time he sang it, Phyllis would laugh so loud. Then Daryl would sing it again. Then Phyllis would laugh and he'd sing it again. If Daryl stopped, Phyllis would say, “Do it again!” Daryl was so happy in love with Phyllis - goofy, giddy completely in love. Once, Kim and I went on a double date with Daryl and Phyllis. We saw Mrs. Doubtfire. I didn't think the movie was funny. While I stared stoic at the screen, Daryl and Phyllis hee-haw and snort laughed together. They were a riot. Those were good times. I am deeply sorry for your loss, Phyllis.

On Monday I read this Spock quote, "One can begin to reshape the landscape with a single flower." I wanted to plant a bed of flowers in our garden in memory of Daryl. Tuesday morning a flower shaped into a star blossomed in our garden. As I reach for stars, stars like you reached back for me.

We are boldly going where no man has gone before. I pictured you with all my friends when we touch a foot on Mars. I tribute you as a giant part in the small part I'm playing in that from that first program on your Commodore 64 to the International Docking System today. Thanks for all the hours of study beside you where you made it fun.

Daryl, we boldly went where this man had not gone before. We did that on the cliffs of the Mariscal Mountains in Big Bend alongside the Peregrine Falcons. Thanks for being the pilot on those explorations. Thanks for the tent. Thanks for gear. Thanks for the dutch oven apple cobblers. Thanks for all the time listening to me. Thanks for all the meals. Thanks for the games. Thanks for the rides. Thanks for the helping hand. Thanks for all the adventure. Thanks for instilling in me that love for exploration.

How many times in my life did I call 247-5615 with the question, “Hey, is Daryl there?” with Lura hollering, “Hey Daryl, it's Keif the Deif!” With Daryl to say, “What's up...” And me to say, “Daryl, could you...” Or “Hey, you wanna go...”

I wonder where I'd be had it not been for Daryl's friendship. The better question is where I am because of that friendship. Benji pointed that out. I got a big heaping bowl of goodness over a heavily iced thick slice of dense sweet cake. His cakes, I hear, are producing black holes in a parallel universe. If anything is cool about Austin, it's Daryl making cakes. Hands down – winner. I'm surprised Willie Nelson didn't show up on Daryl's doorstep.

I've made new friends here in Houston. I would like to point to Daryl when it comes to things like helping my neighbor with his transmission, cycling 100 miles with another neighbor, bbq-ing with neighbors, baking my first apple pie for Thanksgiving, partying with my neighbors like it's 1999 on New Years, being so passionate with my work in exploring our solar system, helping a neighbor move, going to the latest live rock show. I don't know how many times I've said to my friends here, "That's what we used to do." That "we" always included Daryl. Thanks for being that part of me that wants to help others. Their thanks goes to you, my friend.

Daryl was a Trekkie. Leonard Nimoy wrote that he based the Vulcan greeting/farewell based on the priestly blessing performed at Jewish ceremonies. The hand forms the Hebrew letter Shin which has three upward strokes similar to the hand sign in the Vulcan salute. The letter Shin stands for El Shaddai meaning "Almighty God", as well as Shalom. 

The text of that Priestly Blessing, taken from Numbers 6:23-27, given by the descendants of Aaron the High Priest, the brother of Moses, is:

May the LORD bless you and guard you

May the LORD make His face shed light upon you and be gracious unto you

May the LORD lift up His face unto you and give you peace

Shalom is a Hebrew word that has many meanings. It can mean peace, completeness, prosperity and welfare and can be used as a hello or farewell. In its use in Scripture, shalom describes the actions that lead to a state of soundness, or better yet wholeness.

 

The last time I saw Daryl, I saw him so whole and at peace. He was even more gentle, kind and generous as he grew into manhood. I am so happy that he had a great life and was able to share that with us. Daryl is up there as one of the greatest people I have had the privilege of knowing. Thank you so much for being my friend.

 

I think Daryl would find it appropriate, at this point, to hold a hand in the Vulcan Salute and say:

May the LORD bless you and guard youMay the LORD make His face shed light upon you and be gracious unto you
May the LORD lift up His face unto you and give you peace

Live Long And Prosper

[If appropriate] And in the immortal words of Bill and Ted, Daryl would say, as he did when he gave the toast at my wedding,

“Party On!”