Dad always took us to the best fireworks, put on by professionals. Oddly, as a very young man, perhaps 15 years old, he and his older brother, John Dittmer, had a business together removing tree stumps from farmers fields, with a Caterpillar bulldozer and Dynamite. Yes, Dynamite!!
Dad knew how dangerous dynamite was from 1st hand experience. He told me you could easily blow a stump with just a half a stick, but dynamite was cheap, so Dad and John would would load half a box under the stump for a Hollywood special effects explosion that would turn even the biggest stump into toothpicks. There was purpose in this madness. The deafening explosion would echo for miles and alert the farmers that the Dittmer brothers were in the area. You could say business was booming!!
I'm sure John was the boss and owner of the Caterpillar bulldozer, but both he and his much younger brother Bill were both expert dozer operators, explosive experts, and welding and cutting torch experts. I'm certain that John enlisted Dad because they were both excited about the work. As a boy my father had polio which withered one leg badly. He loathed being thought of as a cripple and was anxious to prove he could do any job as good as any man.
This partnership was broken up by the start of World War II. Uncle John enlisted in the Navy as a Frogman, the forerunner of today's Navy S.E.A.L.s. He had the necessary skill set as an expert in explosives, welding, and on a cutting torch. He went on to be a decorated war hero. He was on the beach of Normandy the day before D-day, and was miraculously protected when he was commanded to operate a bulldozer the next day when the previous drivers had been shot and killed by German snipers.
Dad was too young to enlist, and he wouldn't have qualified with his gimpy polio leg.
Now comes the part I'm fuzzy about. After Dad graduated from high school and Uncle John returned from the war, they moved to Springfield, Illinois and restarted the business. This is where both men met their future wives. I've heard Aunt Velma testify how John won over her stubborn father to approve their marriage.
My Dad met my future mother in a construction supply store that he frequented, probably on purpose. Carol had excelled at the business courses in high school and was the first of her 8 sisters to work in the professional world. She was a whiz at short hand and could type 120 to 140 words a minute.
Dad had a limp from his childhood polio, but he walked with such confidence it looked like a John Wayne swagger, according to Mom. He had a cherub face like Roy Rogers and a beautiful singing voice. The Springfield Church of the Nazarene put the couple to work singing duets for special music.
I think Uncle John was saved before or when he went into the service. My dad, however, had a wild streak.
The business partnership ended when the bulldozer caught fire and Dad couldn't put it out. Instead of getting in touch with his brother, my Dad went to a bar and started drinking. This greatly upset Uncle John, who went to the bar to chew Dad out. My Dad shrugged his shoulders and said, "There wasn't anything I could do about it."
Uncle John went on to study for the ministry under the G.I. bill for veterans. He went on to pastor successfully at several churches across the Illinois District.
Dad and Mom eventually bought a trailer, and moved to Hammond, then a small town in Manhattan,Illinois, then to Jimmy the Greeks Trailer court. Somebody told the ambitious church that Mom and Dad used to be Nazarenes, and the church invited them to attend. I remember that visit in our little trailer, I was the first one in the family to "hit the altar" and get saved, followed by Mom and Dad.
Our family sang trio for a while, and after we moved to a real house in Aetna, Dad bought an old piano, and payed for very expensive piano lessons with Clarence DeMass. I became the church pianist, and my friend Butch Moreno, who also took lessons from Clarence DeMass played the organ. Our family began singing as a group with me playing the piano and making the arrangements.
This is where Uncle John reenters the story. He encouraged our family to come down to his church and sing. The Dittmer brothers were a team again.
God loves it when His plan comes together, and He doesn't even smoke a cigar, (Hannibal from A-Team)
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