Sad Day

Today I took my Dad to town to visit a old family friend Dan “ONO” Harrington. Dan is currently in a memory care facility. This is extremely sad. Dan was a very good friend to our family. We have a lot of history. Lots of good times were spent with Dan over the years. It is extremely sad to watch such a dynamic guy deteriorating like he is. Dan’s family is a old friend of my family. It all started with my grand parents. My grandpa became friends with Dan’s Dad Dan Sr. His dad started a company called Harrington Surgical Supply. My grandpa used to buys supplies for my grandmother from him. They also had a cabin up here in Elk Park (which the family still has). Anyway over the years our family’s became good friends and we had some very interesting and mostly fun adventures over the years.

I could spend hours regaling you with stories about the Harrington family. But to cut it short they are salt of the earth type folks. Dan and Dixie employed me when Jennifer and I were in graduate school at Montana Tech and were so generous. I can never thank them enough for that. Their generosity made Jennifer’s and my life so much easier.

Dan’s dad was such a character, that I cannot put into words. He was the classic Irish/American guy. He never missed church, hell or high water, he was at mass. Over the years, he and I had several adventures together. He also had such a great sense of humor, and always was jerking peoples chains.

He always jerked my sister Colleen and my chains about stealing his worms. When I was about 8 years old he hade my grandpa and Dad put in a fence on their ranch property up here in Elk Park. My sister and I were with them while they were putting in this fence. While we were putting in the posts we came across a bunch of earth worms and Colleen and I were grabbing them to use as fishing bats. We made the mistake of thanking Dan Sr for these worms. He teased us about stealing those worms until the day he passed.

To be honest I am lucky to be alive. He was absolutely the worst driver that I have ever ridden with. Over the years we had some crazy rides. Some of these rides were when I was working with Harrington Surgical and some of them were just on some of the adventures that Dan Jr and my Dad cooked up over the years.

Dan Jr’s nickname of “ONO” is well placed. One of his old friends said everything that Dan did always turned to shit and to be honest he was not totally wrong. But I will tell you it was always fun, although at the time it may have not appeared that way.

Dan Jr took a interest in horses in probaly his late 20’s to early 30’s. When he started he knew jack shit about horses. However over the years he became quite a respected horseman. There were a lot of wrecks over the years and some hilarious stories. However, he accomplished many outstanding horse accomplishments. He rode the Continental Divide trail from start to finish. He and several of his friends have been in paintings and photographs including the Montana Centennial celebration.

Dan was a outstanding athlete all his life in multiple sports and he added horseman to that list. So it is extremely sad to see his current state. He has Louie Barr Parkinson’s and has dementia. We had a good visit today. He recognized my Dad when we arrived which was good for both my Dad and me. I don’t think he recognized me, but that was Ok. However he was struggling to put thoughts together and nodded off several times during our visit. I know it meant a lot to my Dad that we went down to see Dan. So that was good. We had some horrendous roads to travel to get there. Last night we had snow flurries but then it warmed up and we had rain, so the roads were a sheet of ice. Needless to say it was a white knuckle trip into town, but overall well worth the trip.

As I said, I could spend hours sharing stories about the Harrington’s and Sologub’s but today’s trip to town, brought back memories of a particular trip that Dan Sr and I had. My Dad, myself and a co-worker of my Dad and I had taken a hunting trip and Dad had arranged with Dan Jr to pick us up when we came out from this trip. This hunting trip has so many stories that it could be a book. However, all of that is for a different day.

Anyway we come out from the hunting camp it is my Dad, his co-worker and me and five horses. We are sitting on the side of Interstate 15 waiting for Dan Jr and his horse trailer to show up and pick us up. Now it needs to be stated that the roads are absolutely like a ice rink. The area of Interstate 15 we were on was still a two lane road. The four lane interstate had not yet been completed. So we are sitting there and it is just getting dark, so it was probably about around 4:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon. Anyway we see this truck and horse trailer coming down the road and it stops near us. We are expecting Dan Jr but are surprised to see it Dan Sr. Turns out Dan Jr is at the hospital with his youngest daughter who got hurt in a sleigh riding accident at their Elk Park ranch earlier in the day. So Dan Jr sent his Dad to pick us up.

Anyway we need to get the truck and trailer turned around so we are heading South back towards our place. So my Dad tells me to get in the truck with Dan Sr and go down the road and turn around so we can load the horses. I do that, and boy did I get a ride that I will never forget. We have to go about three miles down the road before there is a place to make a u-turn and go back to Dad, his coworker and the horses.

As I mentioned earlier the roads are like a skating rink and we are slipping and sliding down the road the horse trailer is whipping around behind us. Mr. Harrington does this U-turn and it is tight the horse trailer behind us goes down in the ditch and he just guns it. I am hanging on for my life and looking in the revere mirror and I see the trailer go off the road and down into the ditch and Mr. Harrington’s puts the petal to the floor and the trailer miraclously comes up out of the ditch still on its wheel although it is rocking like a ship on rough seas. We miraculously make it back to Dad and we get the hosres loaded into the trailer without incident,and we get in the truck to head home and all four wheels of the truck start spinning and we are going nowhere. So we end up having to find a couple of rocks and chock the trailer with the horses in it and we disconnect and Dad and Mr Harrington drive back to our place and find some chains that fit the truck and they come back and we get the trailer hooked back up and get moving back to the ranch.

We have relived that whole hunting trip over the it could be a book on its own. The road conditions today were much the same as that day.

Seeing Dan deteriorate is so sad, he certainly does not deserve the ending he is getting. We got home and we had company stop by. John and Terry came with a basket of Christmas Goodies. We had a nice visit and a couple of adult beverages. Terry is also struggling with memory issues and it breaks our hearts, she also does not deserve the ending she is getting either.

Well enough for this one.