Things we love about Danny

He's hardworking, fiercely loyal, will drop everything to help you if you need it. These are just a few of the things we love about Dan.

This is the spot to add comments on what you love about Dan and why.

Things we love about Danny #27 He’s always been such a snappy dresser

Photographic evidence to be added soon.

Things we love about Danny #23 - He’s not that bad of a brother

Oh okay fine, if anybody tells him I said this I will DENY it but as it turns out Danny is a really good brother.

It’s no secret that Danny made my childhood…oh how to put this nicely… EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. When my oldest daughter shocked me by taking her first steps at 9 months old I called my mom to ask her if I was an early walker too. She said no, not really, but that it wasn’t my fault because every time I tried to stand up Danny knocked me down. If I had to explain my childhood on the front of a T-shirt I might use that very phrase. And no, it wasn’t really that bad, at least not all the time, but I’m the baby of the family and we’re known to be rather dramatic.

The thing is that now, today, if I needed help with anything at all I know that I could count on Danny. And he would expect nothing in return. Seriously, I think if I were halfway across the country and my car broke down in the middle of nowhere, Danny would show up about 15 minutes later… cuz he drives really, really fast… find a way to fix the car, act like it was no big deal and jump right back in his car and be on his way.

Truth be told, even when we were kids there were glimpses of the good guy that lurked inside. Every now and then after endless rounds of torture, Danny would say or do something so completely sweet and vulnerable that it would almost make me feel guilty that just moments before I’d been praying he’d get run over by a bus.

He burned the toes off of my Barbies, mercilessly hurled Hot Wheel tracks at me like they were swords until I was covered in bruises, sent me plunging off the handle bars of his bike into those horrible prickly juniper bushes repeatedly. But all of this makes the fact that he’s turned out to be such a good brother all the more poignant. It still surprises me on a somewhat regular basis because I just didn’t see it coming. But again, don’t go telling him that, because as far as he knows I’m still really ticked off about those burned Barbie toes.

Things we love about Danny #12 He made it really easy to look good

Things we love about Danny #38 He was such a clever kid

Do you remember?

Feel free to add your own memories here. I'll start you out, I'm addressing my memories directly to Danny...

Do you remember when, after a successful school fundraising campaign, we decided to raise funds for umm.... ourselves... and went door to door collecting for the "help replace my teddy bear" fund? You said we'd get more money if I could cry a little or at least look really sad. Some people actually fell for it!

Do you remember that summer you were on the Feingold diet and had to completely cut out sugar? The diet was supposed to make you less hyperactive. We stayed with Grandma & Grandpa Nelson for a week or so while Mom & Dad were on vacation. We would listen to them on the phone bragging about how proud of you they were because you were so careful about staying on the diet even though it didn't seem to be improving your behavior but you never complained at all about giving up sugar. Meanwhile they gave us money every day so we could walk to the store. Not a clue what they thought we were spending our money on. Comic books, maybe? But we bought and ate more candy during that vacation than we probably had in our entire lives...

Do you remember when Mom and Dad would send us to our rooms to separate us when we were fighting? We couldn't stand each other up til then but then suddenly we couldn't stand to be apart and we'd do some secret code knocking on the wall that separated us (I don't think we ever bothered to come up with an actual code, but we did a lot of knocking) and eventually we'd play board games or cards while laying in the doorways of our bedrooms?

Do you remember the time Dad grounded you and said you weren’t allowed to ride your bike under any circumstances and then as he was driving home from work the very next night he drove past you on your bike? He pulled the car over and jumped out and probably grabbed you by your collar and you started yelling, “Child abuse! CHILD ABUSE!!!” (this memory contributed by Mom)

Do you remember the time you called me pretty? As a bit of background, let’s just say that lavishing your little sister with compliments was not high up on your To-Do list. So one day when I was probably 14 or 15, I returned home from spending a day at Great America with my best friend. We had dressed alike and I was gushing about how much fun we’d had because everybody thought we were twins. You said, “No way. You guys don’t look like twins. You’re way prettier than she is!” My jaw probably dropped open from shock and I yelled, “MOM!!! Danny just called me pretty!” In an attempt to recover, you immediately responded, “No, what I meant to say is that she’s way uglier than you are!” But too late. The damage was done. And it shall go down in history that Danny called me pretty.

Do you remember the time when you were two or three and Mom was dreading a trip to the hardware store with you because you were such a little handful and a hardware store was just overflowing with trouble for you to get into? She had a little discussion with you beforehand and told you not to touch ANYTHING. You agreed enthusiastically and acted like she was silly for worrying. You reassured her several times, “I be good Mommy, I won’t touch.” She consoled herself thinking it would be a quick trip because she knew exactly where the items she needed were located and could grab them quickly and pay at the cash register next to the door on her way out. Well Mom was horrified to find that they had completely rearranged the store so she had to spend a long time searching for the items and they’d moved the cash registers to the back of the store meaning an extra trip through the store on your way out. Mom swears that you managed to touch each and every piece of merchandise in the store at least once during that visit and this probably explains why, even to this day, Mom breaks out in a cold sweat every time she drives past a hardware store. (this memory contributed by Mom)

Do you remember how I always tried to catch the green traffic light on Hilltop and Shane for a left turn on our way home every day from El Sobrante Christian School? I don't know why it was always important to get home quickly. . . maybe it was the "bickering" in the back seat of the car between you and Dione, or that nasty little kid named Bobby Woods. . . No that couldn't have been it. Anyway, every time we would go somewhere as a family, and Dad was driving home, he never seemed to make that green light and it didn't seem to be an issue to him. You on the other hand always had to remind Dad that, "Mom would have made the light!!" Thanks Dan! - Mom

Do you remember how much you loved lighting matches? One day our next door neighbor called me to say that she had seen you under the juniper bushes between our houses and you were lighting lots of matches. As the color all drained from my face. . . I asked myself "Where did he get the matches? We always kept them well hidden, or so we thought. I started searching for matches and the last place I thought of was on the very top shelf of a kitchen cupboard. My large "prize" collection of matchbook matches were ALL missing. . . gone. . . up in smoke. I thought those matches were completely out of your reach. All that's left to say is "Thank God that you didn't set the whole neighborhood on fire!!!!!!!! - Mom