MY LIFE – READER’S DIGEST VERSION

This is not an autobiographical account even though it comes from my point of view and contains many stories from my life.  I like to think of it more as a family biography from the point of view of one member, or a personal history of Denver beginning circa 1960.

In synopsis, my life begins in “The Projects,” moves to Park Hill, and then moves to Westminster where I lived until finishing college at the University of Colorado in 1979.  I have three sisters, one half sister and one step sister, even though I never did see much of the step sister or half sister who lived with my father, Jimmie E. Dyer in various other places.  I lived with my mother and three natural sisters until everyone started moving out in the early 1970’s.  Phyllis was the first to leave, followed by Jean, then Gladys and Wes moved to Nebraska, and, finally, Karlene moved to Texas.  I was the last to leave the house that we first moved into in 1968 and I probably never would have made it through college at CU without the cheap rent of living there and making the mortgage payment. 

I do not know much about my mother’s first marriage or how it failed, but I do remember her meeting Wesley Alan Smith sometime around 1967.  I do not know how they met, but I have to admire Wes for taking on a 35 year old woman with four kids either at or nearing the teen years.  They married in 1968, and remained married until Wes’ death in August of 2009 from pancreatic cancer.  Shortly after Wes and Mom were married, the whole family left the house in Denver for life in the suburbs of Westminster.  We lived in the same house in Westminster as each of us finished high school, and, in my case, college.  As I said before, I was the last to leave.  That was 1979.

In 1979, I moved in with my sister Jean into her new home at 634 Elati Street in Denver.   
I lived with her there shortly while working for King Soopers Warehouse until I moved in with a girlfriend in her apartment in Arvada.  Little did I know how much Arvada would become my new home.  That girlfriend didn’t work out, I rented a house for a short time, and then I moved into an apartment on Lamar where I stayed one year before buying the house on Dudley Court where I put down roots, and, at the time of the writing of this note, was still living in over 26 years later. 

That’s the Reader’s Digest version.  The next chapter begins the details.