My father's ramblings and other
such histories.
A long time ago,
around the 1860's, my great grandfather, John Berry sailed across the Atlantic
with his family from Ireland . The moved about from place to place
until they settled down in Stone Co. Arkansas. John found a wife,
who's name was Faye, she was quite charming. Not much is remembered
of John, except that he was a skilled carpenter, with a short fuse on his
anger. On one cool morning, as he was warming his tea for breakfast,
John scalded his hand with the hot tea kettle and to ease the pain that
that hot kettle had caused, he crushed it by stomping on it, till it was
flat as a pancake. He was also very brave. In
1866, when he was just 13 year old, he protected his family from raiders,
who were trying to brake into the house.
In 1900, John
and his wife, Faye had a baby boy and gave him the name, Earl E. Berry.
This lad was raised in the hills of Stone Co. Arkansas, near the town of
Berrysville, not far from the city of Little Rock. He fished
with his brothers, Wes, James, and Willey in the streams of the valley.
Following in
his father's trade as a carpenter, handyman, and farmer, Earl soon made
a good name for himself in the community. In the late 1910's Earl
met Effie Staggs of Texas, who was also from Irish born parents.
They fell in love and were married in 1919. Leaving his three brothers
and one sister in Arkansas, Earl took his wife and what little they had
together to the state of Oklahoma. There they started a family on
a homestead. Within seven years Effie had given birth to four children,
while Earl tried to make the best of it by farming that homestead.
But by the 1930's, the farm was not making enough food or income to
feed the children, so they packed up and moved to the west coast.
Moving to the west coast took all of their resources and left them with
nothing, but the carpenter skills Earl had in his hands. Never finding
a permanent place to call their own, the Berrys moved from town to town,
working as handymen and farm workers. In the winter, they could
be found in the warm cities along the Californian Central Valley and in
the summer months they would work the apple farms in Oregon. By the
late 1940's, they still had not found a permanent place, yet they had eleven
children to house and feed. In 1948, Earl and Effie had their last
child and named him Lloyd Emmit Berry.
Lloyd grew up
living on the road. By the time that Lloyd was born, many of his
eldest bothers and sisters had already left the fold. These elder
siblings were Florene, Carl, Irene, and Edward. But his sisters
Linda, Joyce, Faye, and Margie and his brothers Floyd and Edgar were
still moving with the clan from work site to work site. Learning
everything that Lloyd knows not through books or other written manuscript
but through his older brothers and sisters, he soon became an excellent
carpenter, handyman, and farmer. During the 1970's, in their 70's,
Earl and Effie found the working and moving life too hard and died of old
age diseases. But before their deaths, they witnessed their youngest
son's wedding to Patricia Ann Lamb.
Moving from
place to place as his father before him did, Lloyd gained the finer skills
of "finish carpentry" and auto mechanics. But his new wife wanted
a more permanent place to raise their family, so Lloyd found a little hut
of a house on a farm, near the villages of New London and Delft Colony
in the Central Valley floor of California. There, Lloyd found
work at a local gas station and car shop. He worked there during
the daytime, and at night would go to the local pubs with his brothers
Edgar and Floyd and drink beer and laugh up a storm or two.
In 1969, Patricia became pregnant and Lloyd seemed to spend more time away
from home, then in it.
On March
31st, 1970, a wonderfully charming and well behaved baby boy was born.
Taken by his cute manners, they named him Daniel Lloyd Emmit Berry.
Daniel grew in that little hut of a house, to learn to love drawing and
nature. Never seeing his father, except on days when Lloyd was sick
and had to stay home from work or on days off, Daniel did not learn sports
like other kids. He enjoyed the simple pleasure of drawing what he
saw in nature on paper. What did he see? Cotton fields, grape
vineyards, green trees, rivers and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, that caused
the view from the house to be grand. Some memories which Daniel holds
on to till this day are the times that he was in his crib and looked at
the smiling faces of his parents, and the time when his mother carried
him to the rose garden by the house and held a rose in front of his noise
to smell. Daniel grew fast and soon was in everything in the
house. If he could reach it and hold it, he did. His
mother had to place everything on high shelves to deter this behavior,
but no matter how high the shelf, Daniel found a way to it.
Finally, the
day came when Daniel had to go to Kindergarten, which is like preschool.
This was his first time to play with other children and he did not like
it. He did not know anyone and the worst thing was he had to stay
inside the school house, a thing that he never did at home. Soon
Daniel found ways of sneaking outside to bask in the warm sunlight.
If the teachers caught him outside and brought him into the school house,
he would cry and scream until he was let out again. For this reasons
and maybe a handful of others he took kindergarten twice. Even with
two years of kindergarten training behind him, first grade seemed like
hell! The other children made fun of him because he talked like his
mother and father did at home. The first grade teacher, Miss Fry
of Grand View school, would always tell him, we speak ENGLISH here.
Daniel was confused. Why could he not use the language of his mother
and father? It took him a long time to realize that his teachers
did not speak the same language that his family did. But even after
this revelation, Daniel still was bulled around for years because of his
strong accent.
Not learning
anything in school, except that school meant hell, became all too common
for this wee lad. In 1980, his family moved to Reedley, California,
where a new school meant new hope. But by the sixth grade he was still
at the second grade level in reading, writing. In Math, music, art
and crafts, he was above average, but still anything dealing with the English
language seemed to be incomprehensible.
Things changed
in the seventh grade for our hero. During that time he was placed
in a special class where children were given the opportunity to learn at
their own pace. By this time English was becoming somewhat more known
by him, because his family lived in town, where he could talk to other
children after school. In this special class, Daniel
began picking up on the meanings of reading and writing. In less
than a year he had caught up to his same grade peers and was then placed
in mainstream education. He loved school now! Words that teachers
said and wrote on the chalk board were no longer unknown. The whole
would seemed to have become brighter!
During this
time, he knew a handful of girlfriends. In 1985, he met Dolly, from
the Philippines. They were best friends for awhile and the relationship
seemed to be promising, but then the immaturity of Daniel got into
the way of things and the two lost contact. Beatrice was his next
girlfriend, but this time too Daniel's immaturity got in the way.
Daniel then
turned his attention onto space and astronomy. The planet Mars captured
his imagination. Spending every night below the stars, he used a
telescope to keep track of the ever changing surface of Mars. In
1985, he wrote a small book called, "Mars, the Red Planet." This
little book looked at the planet Mars as a world with as much diversity
as the Earth. It was revised in 87, 89, 91 and 95, to include the
newest of findings from the scientific community.
In 1988, Daniel
left high school and attained his GED, so that he could continue his studies
in college. During '88 to '89, he attended Condie Jr. College.
This college focused on computer science and business. After finishing
his work there, Daniel wanted to find more in
life. With his savings from his jobs as a computer tech at a food
production plant and as a floor man at a fruit packing shed, he drives
his '73 Dodge to the east coast, where he stays for about a month. Upon
returning, he still feels empty inside so he turns towards religion.
He begins spending more time at his parish and one day feels that the Lord
is calling him to the brotherhood. So he drives to Oklahoma and Arkansas
and stays in the "Little Portion" Hermitage, a place that is part of
the Holy Catholic Church. While he was there he asked the Lord for
guidance and found an answer that he was not expecting. In
prayer, he heard the voice of the Lord tell him to go back to California.
Daniel did not wish to leave the Hermitage. The brothers there were
showing nothing but the grace of our Lord Jesus to Daniel. For the
first time in his life, he felt that he had a purpose in life. His
duties there were fulfilling and even the thought of leaving, brought about
distress. Finally the day came, when it seemed as if the Lord shouted
at him to return to California. On that very night, Daniel asked
The Lord that if He was going to send him to California that there would
be a helper there for him, who would be his wife. So the Lord asked
him to explain what he meant by "helper." Daniel spent most of his
prayers that night describing this helper. Since Daniel had worked
with Japanese students in high school and had picked up the Japanese language,
he wanted a humble and polite girl who was raised in Japan. She had
to be 2 years older than Daniel and very wise in the ways of the Lord.
Also, she had to have never gone out on a date or known another man, Daniel
thought to himself, "all right Lord, a girl such as the one I just described
can't exist on this planet in this day and age!" But the next day,
he was in California and the Lord said, " Go and volunteer at the Bible
store, next to St. Anthony's Perish and you will meet your helper."
he did go and he did find his helper. At about 12:30 in the afternoon,
Satomi walked in the store and asked him if there were any good gift books
in the place. Daniel showed her the books, then she bought them and
left the store. About 15 minutes later the Lord told Daniel to leave the
Bible store and walk down the street. He did and when he walked out
the door, the Lord said, turn right. Following the orders, Daniel
finds himself at a stop light, then he hears, "Turn left and walk."
After two blocks Daniel noticed one of the church parishioners waving at
him, then he noticed that Satomi was seated on a park bench, about 10 feet
behind the parishioner. Daniel rush over, past the parishioner and
sat right next to Satomi. She asked, "Did I forget something at the
Bible store?" "Yes" he replied, "You forgot me." She was taken
by his funny remark and they had lunch together that day.
In the following
weeks and months Satomi and Daniel grew closer together and he found out
that she was really the one who he prayed for that night. One year
later the two were married before the sight of God. Since that day,
the two have been building a relationship together with many setbacks.
He has gone back to college and attained a B.A. degree with a teaching
credential and Satomi is now working at a Japanese restaurant, near
their home. One day they wish to buy a house, instead of rent, as
they are doing now. The good Lord has not blessed them with a child
yet, but they are sure that as soon as Daniel finishes his degree, they
will be visited. The name that they have picked out for their first
child is Shalom Miyahara Berry.
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