STORY AND PHOTO BY LESLEY ANDRUS
David Page is a man who truly enjoys life. He brings an attitude to everything he does that makes his life look like a happy escapade.
David was adopted as an infant and never had siblings. He was raised in Kansas City where his father was a vice president of a wholesale chemical company. Not only did the company survive well through the depression, but it allowed his family to spend the first six weeks of each year in Ft. Lauderdale.
Those trips, however, stopped when Page was eight years old and the family moved to Reno -- then a town of 18,000 people. As a teenager during the summers he worked on a ranch – first as a “stacker” taking the chopped hay mixed with molasses off the conveyor belt and flattening it out. The second year he heaved the hay into the truck. And, finally, he graduated to driving the hay wagon.
He remembers, with a smile, being covered in green and drinking gallons of milk.
After high school, David majored in business and technology at Oregon State. Since he had participated in ROTC in high school, where he graduated in 1954, he went off to Fort Benning, Ga. in Georgia for infantry training. From there David was sent to Colorado Springs. Twenty-one months after he entered the service, the Korean War ended and he was discharged, staying in the reserves for five years although he was never called up for duty.
Before he headed off to Fort Benning, David married the love of his life—Pati--whom he had met one Christmas while at Oregon State. After his military service David, Pati and their firstborn son moved to Bellevue, Wash., where he worked for Boeing for a few years. There they added two more sons to their family. And David’s father mentored him as he owned and operated two self-service laundries, later adding professional cleaners to the business.
Knowing the value of lakeside property, the couple bought a lot on Lake Sammamish. Later they built a house and in 1979 moved there with their family, living there for the next 33 years. Pati got a degree in library science and taught school for more than 10 years, while David added school bus driver to his resume.
David is proud of his boys. While none of them went to college, they are all happy and successful. Jeff is a wake board artist, living here with his partner and raising two sons. Mack lives in Bellevue, Wash., with his wife, also raising two children. And Andy lives in Redman, Wash., with his wife, running a sporting goods store, raising three daughters, and selling his way to the title of No. 1 ski boots salesman in the United States.
During nearly 60 years of marriage, David and Pati made wonderful memories. They traveled to Hawaii frequently, and fell in love with Africa, making eight trips to enjoy the wild animals. They traveled around Indonesia for two weeks on a ship, making stops at Bali, Komodo (to see the famous dragons) and Banda Aceh (the spice island).
They were in Banda when son Jeff called to tell them a condo was for sale in Ketchum’s Warm Springs neighborhood and they should buy it. They did.
Then they promptly resumed their travels, spending two weeks in the outback of Australia among the aborigines and sailing through the ice pack off Norway where they watched a polar bear consuming a seal. They sailed through the Arctic Circle see the Belugas with an Inuit guide and twice to Antarctica, enjoying the multitudes of penguins on Elephant island. They also circumnavigated South George Island and the Falklands.
They also took cooking classes in Italy, walked the Cinque Terra and traveled through Turkey during Ramadan.
The key to this lengthy and loving marriage, says David, is loving to do the same things. If they ever had an argument, it never lasted more than 15 minutes.
“And I always apologized,” he added.
Sadly in 2011 the love of David’s life died.
Today David Page enjoys lunch at the Senior Center about four times a week. He has made many friends there, including Betty Grant, who has become a special travel buddy.
In musing on his life, David feels that he has lived in “a kinder time” – a time where you felt safer and freer and did not have to guard your speech so carefully. Nevertheless, he enjoys each day and always walks through it with a smile.