Page 212 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

The doctor’s instructions were that we feed Brad a !6 ounce of milk or formula each and every 30
minutes, around the clock, and we faithfully did that. On these feeding, I took the night shift, and would
get up and see that he got his milk every 30 minutes all night long, and Julie would handle his feedings
during the day until 1 could get home the next day.

When Brad was not more than 2 or 3 weeks old, 1 could tell that he recognized when his daddy came in
to the room. When I would go in to feed him, quite often he would be crying and I would say something
like “well what are you raising so much sand about” and at the very sound of my voice he would stop
crying as if indeed he recognized who it was and he would be ok from then on. I think Brad and I had an
extra strong bonding because of that, and 1 feel that he and I still have that strong bonding even to this
day, when I am 83 and he is about to turn 43.

Needless to say he survived all that he went through at Hope Haven Children’s Hospital, and when he
graduated from high school he was 6’4”, and weighed in the neighborhood of 200 pounds. He turned out
to be a healthy specimen of manhood, and he is to this day apparently completely healthy, and in good
shape.

My dad’s birthday is October 4, 1888, and lo and behold, on October 4, 1970, Andy Dicks came along.
His full name is Andrew John Dicks, and when Andy was born he weighed almost 11 pounds. He was a
large healthy baby and grew to be a 6 foot tall man and both he and Brad work in the office with me
until this day. As a matter of fact 1 have almost completely turned the business over to them, as I only go
to the office anymore from about 10:00 am to about noon, just long enough to open the mail, credit
people’s accounts who send us checks, and see that the bank deposits are made. Of course all of that
can be done by Brad or Andy or our secretary Nanci Brinkley, but it gives me a schedule to go by, and
something to do, since otherwise I think I would be bored to death to wake up every morning with
nothing to do. I cannot imagine anything worse. After Andy was born, which gave us 3 kids in a little
th
less than 3 years, Julie and 1 mutually agreed to forego the 4 child.
Ih
Suzanne will turn 44 on October 5 , 2012, and like her father, she has been married 3 times. Her first
husband, Leon Mason, provided her with 2 sons, Brandon and Brent. Suzanne gave birth to Brandon
when she was not quite 17 years old, and despite the fact that she had a baby to care for, she finished
high school on schedule, and went to Nursing School at the local Community College, and passed her
State Exams to become a Registered Nurse by the time she was 19. Suzanne has worked as a nurse for
many years, but she took off about 4 years from nursing to work in the office with Brad, Andy and me,
and then she went back to nursing and is presently a Registered Nurse at Shands Hospital in Live Oak.
She commutes from Lake City, and lives in a house that I built for her just off the Lake Jeffery
Highway, and just outside the City Limits.

After she and Leon Mason divorced, she married Stanley Adams, and they had 3 children, namely
Ashley, who graduates from high school this year, and Shanna, and David. She and Stan Adams
eventually divorced, and I don’t know when she did the best days work, whether it was the day she got
rid of Leon, or the day she got rid of Stan. She then married Jay Davis, and for once I am convinced that
she got a good decent man, and a man whom 1 really like and admire. Jay does quite well with his rental
properties, and is well able to take care of Suzanne.

Brad married Susanna Daniels, from Waycross, Georgia (actually from Manor Georgia, just outside
Waycross), and they have been married now for many years. I’m not exactly sure how many.

After they had been married a couple of years, they decided they were ready to have children, but
Susanna had several miscarriages and apparently had a problem with conceiving. So they decided to try
to have a baby by the in-vitro method, and spent about $10,000.00 on that attempt, which failed to

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